More than a year after the Muncie City Council voted against renaming Broadway Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a mediation group has reached what it calls a compromise to a heated debate.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Mediation group will send a proposed ordinance to the city council asking that a portion of Broadway Avenue be memorialized for two years and then permanently renamed.
"The purpose is to honor all those who have struggled with civil rights," Thomas Perchlick, chairman of the mediation group, said at a press conference Thursday.
Black leaders in Muncie have fought to rename Broadway Avenue since January 2003. The city council voted 7-2 against the proposal last summer, though, because council members said businesses would lose money from the address change. The vote caused so much tension that the city brought in a federal mediator to help both sides reach an agreement.
Perchlick said despite ideas suggested as alternatives to renaming Broadway Avenue, the group decided renaming would be the best symbol of moving race relations in Muncie forward.
"It's just a symbol, but an important one," Perchlick said. "The street would be tangible, visible."
The current Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which black leaders say is small, out of the way and unkempt, would be renamed at a later date.
Muncie has long suffered problems with race relations, Aamir Shabazz, president of the Islamic Center of Muncie, said.
Shabazz blames economic problems on the poor quality of race relations because employers want a healthy community, he said.
"This situation in Muncie is so critical that everyone has to give up something," Shabazz said. "All of our children, all of our grandchildren are out of here because there's nothing for them."
Perchlick said the mediation group compromised by asking that only a section of Broadway Avenue, from the railroad tracks near the White River to McGalliard Road, be renamed. The original proposal called for the entire avenue to be renamed.
The mediation conducted an informal survey and found that people were in favor of renaming a section of Broadway Avenue but not the whole street, Pat Fields, president of the Muncie Chapter of the NAACP, said.
Shabazz said he wanted businesses to compromise by accepting the address change to help improve race relations in Muncie.
However, David Taylor, city council member, said he would only vote for memoralization because renaming the avenue would be an inconvenience for businesses. His vote has nothing to do with feelings on race, he said.
"If they wanted to rename McGalliard Road to Ronald Reagan Road, I'd vote no," Taylor said.
Council members Monte Murphy, Alison Quirk and Bill Shroyer said they supported the proposal, along with Mayor Dan Canan.
However, Canan will only sign the ordinance if the city council passes it, he said.
The city council will vote on the ordinance at its August meeting.
The mediation group will continue to push for renaming if the council votes against the ordinance, Murphy said.
"If it doesn't pass, this issue will not go away," Murphy said.
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