KC parks department to hold community sessions on renaming of J.C. Nichols memorials
The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department will hold two community engagement sessions in June to discuss the possible renaming of J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain and J.C. Nichols Parkway, the department announced in a news release Friday.
The announcement comes as calls mount citywide to pull Nichols’ name from the fountain and parkway. It is part of a global movement calling on governments, cities and states to confront their histories with racism and follows weeks of protest at and around the iconic Kansas City fountain calling for an end to police brutality.
Nichols, who developed the Country Club Plaza and several Kansas City area neighborhoods, is also known for the covenants and deed restrictions he wrote into real estate deals that denied housing to Black residents of the city.
Last week, Chris Goode, a member of Kansas City’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, proposed renaming the J.C. Nichols fountain the Dream Fountain and naming the parkway in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he would fully support such an effort.
The first meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center. A virtual meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. June 24.
The KC Parks Board is expecting to hear the resolution for renaming the memorials at its June 30 hearing, the release said.
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
