Park Board Votes To Rename Mitchell Park

DEERFIELD, IL — Following outcry from a group of concerned citizens on social media, the Deerfield Park District Board voted 4-1 Thursday to rename James C. Mitchell Park. Members of a Facebook group called Rename Mitchell Park have been actively calling on local leaders to consider a name change due to the park's connection to a failed integrated housing development project planned on the site in 1959. The park has been referred to as "Deerfield's Confederate Statue."

"Tonight, we took another step forward in our march towards a more welcoming and anti-racist community in Deerfield," members of Rename Mitchell Park said in a Facebook post Thursday night. "The Park District agreed to charge an advisory board of community leaders with going through the process to identify a new name for Mitchell Park. We could have not gotten to this point without incredible activism from many members of our community, and are incredibly appreciative of everybody’s effort and work to write and call in to express your desire to rename Mitchell Park."

According to Rename Mitchell Park, a proposed development at Wilmot Road and Hazel Avenue in 1959 set aside 20 percent of housing for African Americans, but an uproar from residents at the time led to the project being thwarted following a vote.

The Board denied a similar request to rename the park in 2015. The park's namesake, James G. Mitchell, was a past president of the Deerfield Park District Board.

"To reiterate, we should not remove James C. Mitchell’s name from Mitchell Park with any intent of personal disrespect towards James Mitchell or his family," members of Rename Mitchell Park said in the Facebook post. "Mr. Mitchell’s name is simply a symbol that honors a misguided part of Deerfield’s history, on a property that was intended to be integrated housing. It is that segregationist history that we do not believe should be honored."

• Deerfield's 'Confederate Statue': Group Seeks To Rename Park

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