TEMPE, Arizona – Arizona’s city council plans to vote next month to replace the names of parks and roads with more than 100-year ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Members of the Tempe Council will consider alternative names at their March 2nd meeting. The new name was proposed by members of the community and vetted by council-appointed volunteers who met on several occasions.

The renaming effort will begin in 2021 after historical research revealed that several parks and streets were named after former community leaders who were members of local Klan chapters in the 1920s. rice field. Resident Drew Sullivan helped start the initiative, and staff from the Arizona Historical Society and Tempe Historical Museum participated in the research, which also used records from the Phoenix Public Library.

According to documents released by the city, a branch of the clan called Butte Clan No. 3 included many prominent Tempe residents, including mayors, councilors, bankers and other influential people. At the time, the city’s elementary schools were quarantined, as was the pool at Tempe Beach Park.

The Tempe Elementary School District has renamed three schools that already have several related names.

Tempe city officials compiled a list of proposed alternative names in February. This includes civil rights activists, first African-American landowners in what is now Tempe, and married pioneers Adolfo Romo and Joaquina Jones. You can go to school with white children. His 1925 lawsuit of them helped pave the way for desegregation in the United States.

“This is really moving because there was someone[in my family]who died hanging in the Ku Klux Klan, so I understand what this means emotionally,” Burdetta Hodge said. She is the first black woman to sit on the city council told the Arizona Republic.

Due to pending action by the city council, the actual name change may not take place until the summer.

The city is still working out how to reimburse residents who have to update their addresses. Residents may file claims for one year after the property is officially renamed.