At their meeting last week, Carrboro’s Town Council continued to address two hot topics in the community: changing the namesake of the town and painting a Black Lives Matter mural on town property.
First on the agenda, the town council once again discussed changing Carrboro’s namesake – and moving away from all affiliation with Julian Carr – to effectively sever ties with its history of white supremacy and racism.
Carrboro was named in 1913 after Julian Shakespeare Carr, the owner of the local textile mill, agreed to provide electricity to the community in exchange for naming the town after himself. Although the town still bears Carr’s namesake to this day, according to the town’s website, “the values and actions of Carr do not represent Carrboro today.”
Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle said there has been ample discussion regarding whether Carrboro should simply be named after another person with the last name Carr.
“I didn’t sense any type of huge resistance to renaming Carrboro after another Carr, it was more of the thoughtfulness behind what does that really achieve – what does that really do,” Lavelle said. “Is it more symbolic or is it really part of our overall continuing work to eradicate racism?”
Lavelle said that the town council had a petition presented to them at their last meeting with a new name idea, but not all the signatures were from Carrboro residents. Lavelle said she wants to make sure community voices are heard before taking action.
“It seems like a very wonderful idea, but we also wanted to hear from members of our community and members of our Black community,” Lavelle said. “Does it mean anything to those folks? Does it mean anything to our long-standing residents?”
According to Lavelle, there is still no interest in changing the town’s actual name due to financial costs and the physical strain it would create for residents and town staff to change signs, archives and legal documents – so the discussion continues.
“Is there another way to stay with the name we have and either change the namesake or do we do what we have done – say ‘we’re Carrboro, we’re proud of it, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and we think that Julian Carr would not see the same Carrboro he saw back in 1913,’” Lavelle said.
As the discussion around racism and efforts to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment continue, the Town of Carrboro is also trying to implement its own Black Lives Matter mural.
At a meeting in late August, Carrboro’s Town Council moved to paint a mural reading “End Racism Now” on the parking lot between Town Hall and Town Commons. This unanimous decision came after the council first began its mission to paint a Black Lives Matter mural back in June.
Yet, over two months later after initial conversations, the council still doesn’t have a clear path.
“We talk a lot,” Lavelle said. “We’ve gone back and forth about whether we have it on a parking lot or have it on a mural up on a town building or another visible location – where we already have lots and lots of cool murals throughout our whole community.”
After local artists and volunteers in Washington, D.C., painted “Black Lives Matter” in massive yellow letters on a street leading to the White House on June 5, Carrboro was eager to follow suit – but Lavelle said the process is more complicated than it looks.
Despite the complications and delays, Lavelle said the town is eager to accomplish their goal as soon as possible.
“The mural is a symbolic gesture,” Lavelle said. “One that means a lot to the community that passes it every day, walks by it every day and looks up at it every day. It doesn’t get at our affordable housing issues, our financial issues, our unemployment or living wage or all these other systemic issues, but it is a source of ‘hey this matters to all of us to be able to see this visually and think about it every day.”
For more information on what was discussed at Carrboro’s town council meeting, click here.
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