CHICAGO (AP) – A sprawling park on Chicago’s West Side will now bear the name of 19th-century abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray-Douglass and not that of former Illinois senator and slaveowner Stephen Douglas. The Chicago Park District voted Wednesday to officially rename the 173-acre park created in 1869 after years of efforts by a group of students. The students had gone as far as to paint an extra “S” on signs in the park with its original name, “Douglas Park.” Students at Village Leadership Academy pushed for the name change since 2016. After their original renaming choice honoring a victim in a police shooting was rejected, the students settle on Frederick Douglass and his wife, who helped him escape slavery.
