A Denver Public Schools board member who has helped direct some of the recent police protests said Saturday that Stapleton is a likely next target for demonstrations if the neighborhood doesn’t change its name.
Tay Anderson announced his intention in a tweet Saturday morning: “The neighbors of Stapleton have ONE WEEK to change their name … if they do NOT we will march through their neighborhood to show them #BlackLivesMatter.”
Stapleton is named after former Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton, who was associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The neighborhood was built on the site of a former airport that bore the same name. Last July, more than 65% of property owners who participated in a referendum rejected a proposal to change the name.
Anderson is hoping to jump-start the debate again, after weeks of protests across the country set off by the May 25 death of George Floyd while a Minneapolis police officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck.
But Anderson isn’t the only one to raise the issue. Renewed national attention to racial equity has sparked new debate within Stapleton, and in a post to its website Friday, neighborhood group Stapleton United Neighbors said it was exploring a name change for its own organization — if not the neighborhood at large.
“SUN will engage the community to synthesize suggestions, vet options, and recommend solutions for a community-identified name for Stapleton United Neighbors,” says the statement by the group’s board of directors. “A candidate name that emerges from this process will then be voted on by the community.”
The neighbors of Stapleton have ONE WEEK to change their name … if they do NOT we will march through their neighborhood to show them #BlackLivesMatter
— Tay Anderson (@TayAndersonCO) June 13, 2020
But the legal name of the neighborhood is controlled by the Stapleton Master Community Association, which operates Stapleton’s special districts. The Stapleton MCA was responsible for last summer’s referendum.
Attempts to reach leaders of the MCA were not immediately successful Saturday.
Debate about a possible name change has roiled the northeast Denver neighborhood for several years. Stapleton, who served five nonconsecutive terms as mayor in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, was a KKK member when first elected and even appointed the Klan’s pick for police chief. According to historians, he later tried to dissociate himself from the KKK, but his legacy was cemented.
Anderson, elected to the DPS board last year, was part of a successful recent push to end a contract with the Denver Police Department that provided school resource officers in district schools.
Asked on Twitter if his ultimatum to Stapleton neighborhood leaders was a threat, Anderson responded Saturday afternoon: “No threat — it’s a promise that we will peacefully march though their neighborhood to show #BlackLivesMatter and we will NOT honor racists.”