What changed in 2020 because of Black Lives Matter: Flags, statues, and sports teams faced a racial reckoning
Brands, bands, and states reassessed the names, titles, and symbols that defined them in the soul searching that followed George Floyd’s killing.
Delino DeShields of the Cleveland Indians is greeted by teammate Jose Ramirez during a game against the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio on September 30, 2020. Photo: Joe Sargent/MLB Photos via Getty Images
By Naina Bhardwaj and Sophia Ankel
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The Cleveland Indians are set to have their name changed for the first time in 105 years following months of internal discussions and meetings with indigenous groups, who called for the team to stop using the term ‘Indians, ‘ which many considered racist.
The team’s owner, Paul Dolan, told the Associated Press that “the name is no longer acceptable in our world,” but added that the team would not using a temporary name while choosing a new one.
It was the latest example of changes made this year after 2020 became the year of racial reckoning following the George Floyd murder in May and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.
From Boston to Berkley, scroll down to see the rapidly growing list of brands, bands, and buildings that have changed names, statues that have been removed, and flags that changed, in the last 12 months.
A statue of Former President Abraham Lincoln holding his hand over a kneeling slave in Boston has been dismantled.
The Abraham Lincoln statue by Thomas Ball in Park Square in Boston. Photo: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The Black man kneeling at Lincoln’s feet was modeled on Archer Alexander, a heroic slave who aided the Union during the Civil War.
The statue stood in Boston’s Park Square since 1879.
“The decision for removal acknowledged the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s freedoms,” a statement from the city’s mayor’s office read, according to NPR.
Source: NPR
Mississippi removes the Confederate emblem on its flag.
A man protests against the Mississippi State Flag’s changing outside the State Capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 28, 2020. Photo: Alan Chin/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
Mississippi was the last state to still have a Confederate emblem on its flag, dating back to 1894.
In June, the governor signed a bill to have it replaced, and a new flag design was voted for last month.
New York also banned the sale or display of Confederate flags, swastikas, and other state property symbols despite concerns that it might violate freedom of speech and be unconstitutional.
According to CBS News, Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “This country faces a pervasive, growing attitude of intolerance and hate — what I have referred to in the body politic as an American cancer.
“This bill will help safeguard New Yorkers from the fear-instilling effects of these abhorrent symbols,” he added in his memo.
he State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations will be shortened to the State of Rhode Island.
he State of Rhode Island’s seal decorates a podium as Governor Gina Raimondo looks on during a news conference in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 22, 2020. Photo: David Goldman/AP
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is set to have its name shortened following a referendum last month.
It followed an online petition that received over 10,000 signatures, and Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order calling for the state constitution to rename Rhode Island in June.
She tweeted: “Our work to dismantle systemic racism in Rhode Island did not start today and it will not end today, but we can rise together and make meaningful progress toward racial equity now.
The state’s full name dates back to the 17th century when Puritan Minister, Roger Williams, founded plantations on the Providence River, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations before we came to know it as today.
The name shortening was voted for by 52.9% of residents despite only 22% of voters supporting the cause in a 2010 referendum.
Source: NBC News
The Dixie Chicks renamed themselves The Chicks.
The Chicks, Emily Robison, Natalie Maines and Martie Maguire arrive for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 11, 2007. Photo: Matt Sayles/AP
Country band, The Dixie Chicks renamed themselves The Chicks in June during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. It came alongside the release of their new song, March March, and its music video, which features the names of Black victims of police brutality.
They have previously come under fire for making a statement that criticized former President George W. Bush and his decision to invade Iraq, causing their popularity among mostly right-wing country music fans to decline, with some even burning their CDs quickly.
‘Dixie’ was a term used to refer to southern US states during slavery because of the Mason-Dixon Line, which separated those free and those enslaved at the time and was also the name of a blackface minstrel character dating back to the 1850s. Then in the 1940s, it was adopted by the Dixiecrats or The States’ Rights Democratic, a right-wing segregationist party primarily active in the south.
Dixie was also the name of a song sung by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The same song was part of the 1915 Birth of a Nation’s score, which helped revive the KKK. In the 1950s, it was sung by white women protesting against integration in schools.
In Utah, Dixie State University will also have its name changed following a unanimous vote by the Utah Board of Higher Education. The college has previously removed a statue called ‘The Rebels’ featuring a Confederate soldier holding a Confederate flag on a horse. It also replaced the university’s mascot, Rebel to Red Storm and then to Trailblazers, named after Samuel Brooks, the college’s first student who slept on the steps outside waiting for it
Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, and Dave Haywood of Lady A perform onstage during the 2019 CMT Artist of the Year at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 16, 2019. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for CMT/Viacom
In a Twitter statement published in June, the band said: “We are regretful and embarrassed to say that we did not take into the account the associations that weight down this word referencing to the period of history before the Civil War, which includes slavery. We are deeply sorry for the hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen, or undervalued.”
They have since been engaged in a feud with 61-year-old blues singer Lady A, who has been using the name professionally for 20 years. The band filed a lawsuit against Anita White at District Court in Tennessee to allow them to use the name, saying that they hold the federal trademarks while the singer doesn’t.
White pointed out the irony in the band changing their name to highlight racial inequality and taking from a Black woman.
She told Rolling Stone: “It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it. It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them.”
