Eyes widen, and sometimes jaws drop when South Florida resident Dharyl Auguste mentions his city’s name: Plantation. In fact, the name bothers him. To Auguste, the name conjures images of slavery and a terrible period in America’s past. So, Auguste wants to change the name. He has started a petition on change.org, which has netted more than 10,000 signatures and many supportive comments.
“The attention is there, the support is there, and the desire is there,” says Auguste, who has lived in Plantation since 2011. “We’re living through some revolutionary times, and I think we need to get on the right side of history.”
These days, Auguste is hardly alone in his desire to see change. African-American George Floyd’s murder in May by a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked peaceful and violent protests across the country and other parts of the world. That includes Broward County, where at least one person wants to change the county’s name. The county was named for former Florida governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, a segregationist whose statue was removed from the county courthouse in 2017.
In addition, activists have become vocal about their desire to change the names of places and to remove statues which, for them, conjure a painful past. In fact, some changes have already happened.
Auguste, for one, said he’s attracted supporters as well as people who strongly disagree with him. Folks “keep saying
I’m trying to erase history,” Auguste says, adding he hears people reminiscing about fond memories from earlier times in Plantation.
“Changing a name of a city will not change any of those wonderful memories,” he says. “It won’t change relationships they’ve formed here.”
A name change for the city will “spark a renewed faith in our city council and give way for a new history to be told that separates itself from a shameful past,” Auguste wrote on his petition, which he uploaded to change.org. The website bills itself as “the world’s platform for change,” with 369,383,944 “people taking action.”
“We as a country are going through radical changes and I would like to see our beloved town follow suit to other places that are condemning and removing Confederate monuments,” Auguste wrote in his petition. “Plantation and the areas surrounding it are a diverse melting pot that shouldn’t have to carry a reminder of oppression in its namesake. The new name should be voted upon by the people and submitted by the people.”
However, Auguste learned at a recent city council meeting that his petition on change.org is not the legally correct way to bring the issue to voters. Rather, he must obtain signatures from 10 percent of Plantation’s registered voters. City councilman Nick Sortal said that about 65,000 registered voters live in the city, whose population is nearly 100,000. To bring the issue before voters, Auguste would need to obtain 6,500 signatures, according to Sortal, who said he’s not taking a stance on the issue.
“I am very confident that I am going to be able to do that,” Auguste says. But at the moment, he says he’s not comfortable with knocking on people’s doors in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, Auguste learned from the city officials that, at the earliest, the city would include his cause on a ballot in 2022.
Auguste, who was born in Haiti, says that watching protests and racist monuments coming down across the world spurred him to start an effort to change Plantation’s name.
“The word just conjures up images of slavery and a terrible period in our nation’s past,” he says. “The city could have a new, beautiful name that really represents our community. [Plantation] is a beautiful place to live, and the name no longer serves us.”
Holly Morgan agrees. She also uploaded a petition to change.org in an effort to change Plantation’s name.
“The name Plantation is synonymous with slavery and all the atrocities that come with it,” she wrote.
Further, the name Plantation “is very offensive and insensitive to people of color whose ancestors endured unspeakable acts on ‘plantations.’ The time has come for the city to change its name to a more welcoming name to embrace the diversity represented within the city.”
Yuval Shott, who commented on Auguste’s petition, was blunter.
“This name [Plantation] is wrong and is a stain on Broward County. About time it’s changed,” Shott wrote. The “History” section on the city’s website does not explain how Plantation got its name. According to an article in Wikipedia, the city’s name stems from the previous part-owner of the land, the Everglades Plantation Company, and their efforts to establish a rice plantation in the area.
How ever the city got its name, some people are apparently OK with the status quo.
“The word ‘Plantation’ means vast with trees and greenery, which is what our city is,” a commenter wrote. “It’s only negative if you let it be. It doesn’t HAVE to be a negative thing.”
The Parklander could not reach Plantation Mayor Lynn Stoner in time for this article.
On a larger scale, some people want the name for Broward County changed. In his petition on change.org, Kyle Hill wrote that the county’s namesake is former Florida Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, which information on the county’s website confirms.
“He’s best remembered for draining and developing parts of the Everglades,” Hill wrote. Broward was Florida’s 19th governor, serving from Jan. 3, 1905 to Jan. 5, 1909. He was a “noted racist, segregationist, and an arms smuggler,” Hill wrote. “In 2017, his statue was removed from the Broward County Courthouse because of his reprehensible views on race. Let’s finish the job and erase his name from the county altogether. Broward County is a minority-majority county with many of its residents either hailing from or having roots in Latin America, the Caribbean, and various diverse regions.”
An Oct. 10, 2017 article in the “Sun Sentinel” carried the headline “‘Racist’ statue of Broward County’s namesake to be removed from courthouse.” Barbara Sharief, who was county mayor at the time, told the newspaper that changing the county’s name was out of the question.
“I don’t even want to go down that road,” she said.
In his petition, which had netted more than 3,600 signatures at press time, Hill wrote that “if many of the residents of Broward County knew the true history of its namesake, I’m sure that they would
be horrified and ashamed. Hoping for change, praying for change, and marching for change are all good things, but at some point, we must be willing to take action.”
Current county officials did not return a call requesting comment. However, on a local T.V. channel in June, Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said that officials, for marketing purposes, have considered changing Broward County’s name to Ft. Lauderdale County.
“Maybe we can benefit in two ways, harmony and healing, and to benefit the brand of Ft. Lauderdale,” Holness said.
Elsewhere in Florida, “J.B.,” started a petition on change.org to change the name of Lee County in Southwest Florida. At press time, 5,681 people signed it.
“One of Southwest Florida’s most prominent counties, Lee County, is named for Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee,” J.B. wrote. “It is also home to
the city of Ft. Myers (named after Col. Abraham Myers, quartermaster general of the Confederate States Army).
“It’s time to stop idolizing these Confederate soldiers. Ending racism includes the removal of racist figures, statues, and idols across the south.”
An official with the Daughters of the Confederacy declined to comment.
In his petition, J.B. suggested changing Lee County’s name to Calusa County, honoring the indigenous Calusa tribe of Southwest Florida. In fact, there is a website dedicated to the cause: calusapetition.com. The website represents “the beginnings of a local movement,” according to the wording on the site. It notes that more than 3,000 people have signed a petition to the Florida state government to change the name of Lee County to Calusa County, “in honor of the Native American tribe that lived here for hundreds of years before European settlers arrived.
“The name ‘Lee’ honors a man who led armies into battle in an effort to preserve slavery and racial injustice,” the petition says. “Honoring Robert E. Lee’s legacy is no longer appropriate as we fight for justice and equality for black Americans facing oppression in counties all across the United States.”
Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann agreed during an interview with NBC-2.
“We can take down the pictures, we can have a burning ceremony of the pictures, and we are still Robert E. Lee County,” Mann said during the interview.
Alan Fields, who commented on J.B.’s petition, wrote, “Long overdue. Lee didn’t even visit this area.”
“I say defund all those who want to change history for his or her political gains,” he wrote. “I just can’t believe what’s happening.”
People have called for the removal of Confederate tributes and other statues in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Hollywood officials in late 2017 re-named three Hollywood streets originally named for Confederate commanders. Specifically, the streets previously named for John Bell Hood, Robert E. Lee, and Nathan Bedford Forrest became Hope, Liberty, and Freedom streets.
By Aaron Krause