Street in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood no longer named after white supremacist
A street in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood will no longer be named after a former North Carolina governor and white supremacist.
The City Council voted to change Aycock Street to Roanoke Park Drive after neighbors petitioned the city for the change. The vote to rename the street, which runs from Glenwood Avenue to Reaves Drive, was unanimous Tuesday night.
“After George Floyd’s murder we started working on this initiative of renaming Aycock Street with our neighbors,” said Anna Bickley, who lives on the Street. “Removing a naming honor is a start to larger more significant racial equity changes.”
There are more substantial racial equity efforts in Raleigh that need to occur, but those efforts do not have to occur in a vacuum, she said.
“As we have talked to neighbors, no one thinks Charles Aycock should have a street name after him,” Bickley said, “though there are different viewpoints on the administrative hassle of an address name or the impact this change will have on our overall goal of making our community more inclusive.”
Wilmington Massacre
Residents say Aycock Street is named after Gov. Charles Aycock, one of the perpetrators of the Wilmington Massacre in 1898. White people rioted in Wilmington at the urging of Aycock and others, including former News & Observer publisher Josephus Daniels. The mob murdered at least 60 Black residents, burned a Black-owned newspaper and forced thousands of other Black residents out of their homes.
The city doesn’t keep records of street name origins.
“While a street change is not the top priority for those desiring greater racial equity, nor should it be, it is, however, one step of many steps we would like to see Raleigh take to continue the dialogue to move toward a more equitable future,” said Steve Mangano, who also lives on the street.
Harold Bunn, another resident of the street, asked the council to delay a decision until all residents could vote on it and the city could review all street names with the same lens as the Aycock Street request.
“More of these requests are coming,” said Council member David Knight, who represents the Five Points area. “I think we need to look at street name changes for historical, racial and social justice reasons in a comprehensive manner through the appropriate racial and social justice lens.”
In the aftermath of Floyd’s death, several institutions began changing names associated with white supremacists. The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees removed Aycock and Daniels monikers from its residence halls.
The last time Raleigh residents asked the city to change a street name was in 2014.
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 12:31 PM.
