Well, we aren't as in your face about our history as some towns. This find was dumb luck on my part-- I stumbled across it, sort of tucked away on a quiet, unassuming side street, and we don't exactly advertise it's there, either. As much as I disagree with
selling/renaming a park bearing his name and the removal of his statue from it, I must concede naming a place after a guy with such an...
interesting reputation--
in a
heavily African-American city, no less--is fairly asking for a swift drubbing.
Also, it's rather ironic that one of the streets it's on is crossed by "
Lee". But we also have a
Grant Street, so, yay, equal time.
My dear Raine, I refuse to believe you have nothing of historical interest where you live. I mean, maybe you don't come from in a town with... well, let's just say such a
rich racial past as mine, sure, but you don't exactly live in a void, either. Do a simple Google Map search of landmarks about your city, or talk to the older members of your community about its history. That's why I like life in a small town so much; while there's not as much history as in your bigger cities like, say, New York or Boston, it's not as spread out, either. Literally, just walk a mile or two from your own doorstep and you're liable to stumble across some. Cemeteries are another one of my favorite places to explore; some of those stones can go back for decades, and you'll find at least one name you recognize from a local street or on a storefront, if it's old enough. Believe it or not, there's even a lion buried in our local park-- during the course of my research, I found out there used to be a zoo on that spot, back in the sixties. With ample apologies to
Tex Avery, I present
a little story I wrote about it.