A Norman City Council member called for the city to investigate a street named for a former OU professor and national KKK leader at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Councilmember Breea Clark announced her call for an investigation after strategic political communication senior Deon Osborne led a group of OU students and Norman residents in urging the council for action on renaming DeBarr Avenue.
OU senior Deon Osborne is starting off the public comment period with a call to rename DeBarr Avenue. pic.twitter.com/KH0INQ3xh2
— Dana Branham (@danabranham) September 27, 2017
Four of Norman’s City Council members and Mayor Lynne Miller expressed support for changing the name of DeBarr Avenue after eight people took to the podium during the meeting’s public comment section to push for the name change.
Osborne called on the council to do three things: designate “DeBarr Avenue” as an inappropriate street name, hold an official public meeting so everyone who has a stake in the issue can share their thoughts and preserve the street signs in a museum.
Osborne called out “excuses” for not changing the name, such as the change being expensive. It would cost $322.50 for an application fee and two new street signs, Clark previously told The Daily.
“Some of my white brothers and sisters have a knack for making excuses when it comes to racism,” Osborne said.
Student Government Association President J.D. Baker and Undergraduate Student Congress representative Dan Williams presented a resolution passed through OU student government urging the city to rename DeBarr Avenue. Generally, the resolutions are mailed to the council, but Baker and Williams delivered it in person.
“I stand before you today, asking you to do the right thing and send DeBarr back into the history books,” Williams, who authored the resolution, said.
The street — which is named for Edwin DeBarr, who was a national chaplain of the KKK and one of OU’s first four professors — has been in the spotlight after Clark started a petition in March calling for the street’s renaming.
Clark’s petition and the OU student government resolution both call for the street to be renamed Henderson Street after professor emeritus George Henderson.
Miller, who lived on DeBarr Avenue in the 1980's and was unaware of its namesake then, said while she supported the change, she was unsure whether the council’s ability to determine a public facility’s name as “inappropriate” extended to street names.
Director of Public Works Shawn O’Leary previously told The Daily he believed a street would be defined as a public facility, so the council would have purview over deeming its name inappropriate.
Clark said she would be able to provide more information later about what investigating the street name could look like.
Here’s how each of the council members and the mayor sided on the street name issue:
Mayor Lynne Miller: Supports name change
Councilmember Breea Clark: Supports name change
Councilmember Kyle Allison: Absent
Councilmember Stephen Holman: Supports name change
Councilmember Aleisha Karjala: Thanked organizers and speakers, but did not explicitly address
Councilmember Kate Bierman: Supports name change
Councilmember Sereta Wilson: Supports name change
Councilmember Robert Castleberry: Did not speak after public comment
Councilmember Bill Hickman: Did not address when he spoke after public comment
