Aldermen Propose Naming Balbo Drive After Ida B. Wells

CHICAGO, IL — Ald. Sophia King (4th) and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) have introduced an ordinance to rename Balbo Drive after renowned civil rights leader, educator and journalist Ida B. Wells. The proposal was introduced in Wednesday's Chicago City Council meeting. Balbo Drive is currently named after the Italian aviator in Mussolini's air force Italo Balbo.

The aviator led a squadron of planes on a transatlantic flight from Italy to Chicago for the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair. The city held a parade in honor of the flight and named a street after him. Decades later, many began calling the street name an "embarrassment" to Chicago.

Reilly and King plan to bring their proposal to a committee vote in June, before a full vote from the City Council. If the name change is accepted, it would mark the first official street name change in the city since South Park Way was renamed after Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

At least seven other aldermen and dozens of community groups support renaming Balbo Drive after Ida B. Wells.

Seven years ago, a petition was submitted to Ald. Bob Fioretti proposing to rename the street after Enrico Fermi, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who built the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago.

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