Does anyone know why King County was re-named after Martin Luther King Jr? (Seattle: crimes, day cares)

[eightbitguy]

Originally Posted by travis t

President Andrew Jackson called Buchanan and King "Miss Nancy and Miss Fancy."

It is pertinent. I do believe there may have been some homophobia at play in the name change. How could they have not have known that King was the only gay VP in US history?

One of the prominent leaders pushing for the name change was a minister at a large black church in Seattle. Granted, I'm painting with a broad-brush here, but in my experience ministers in African-American churches tend to be very intolerant of homosexuality. Take just one example--Rev. Al Sharpton's denigration of "Greek homos" in a diatribe on history.

Incidentally, IIRC the name change cost about $400,000 to change signage, logos painted on county vehicles, etc.

You are absolutely wrong about the homophobia. No one even thought Buchanan was gay until several historians started talking about it and digging into it in the early 2000s. So perhaps before that there were a few academics tossing around the idea, but certainly not enough to drum up homophobia in one of the more gay-friendly cities of the era, ESPECIALLY when the person in question is the less known of the two men discussed.

Even now if you walk up to people on the street 99% wouldn't name Buchanan as the first gay president. Hell, I bed only 25% of people with American history degrees would be able to.

And King was the lesser known one...

[travis t]

Originally Posted by eightbitguy

You are absolutely wrong about the homophobia. No one even thought Buchanan was gay until several historians started talking about it and digging into it in the early 2000s. So perhaps before that there were a few academics tossing around the idea, but certainly not enough to drum up homophobia in one of the more gay-friendly cities of the era, ESPECIALLY when the person in question is the less known of the two men discussed.

Even now if you walk up to people on the street 99% wouldn't name Buchanan as the first gay president. Hell, I bed only 25% of people with American history degrees would be able to.

And King was the lesser known one...

As I posted before, President Andrew Jackson called Buchanan and King "Miss Nancy and Miss Fancy." That would have been prior to early 2000s (he died in 1845).

In any case, the 'name change' did not actually take effect until 2005, because the state legislature had to act in order to allow the change under state law. So that would have been within your 'early 2000s' time frame.

Lastly, the homosexuality angle was known prior to the change.
https://historylink.org/File/11261

Perhaps the most surprising element of the debate, however, was raised by a Seattle lawyer, Jason Kelly. Kelly noted that William King was probably homosexual, which would have made him in all likelihood the first gay American vice president. If true, then as the county moved toward honoring an African American the concern was that it might be disrespecting the gay community.

Use care and caution before telling someone '[y]ou are absolutely wrong."

[travis t]

Originally Posted by eightbitguy

Even now if you walk up to people on the street 99% wouldn't name Buchanan as the first gay president. Hell, I bed only 25% of people with American history degrees would be able to.

And King was the lesser known one...

This is neither here nor there. I bet 99% would not have a clue who Franklin Pierce is. Does this mean we have to 'rename' Pierce county? (maybe we could change it to be in honor of actor Pierce Brosnan?)

[Thunderballs]

He was President Buchanan's boyfriend and vice president for 45 days then died. He was from Alabama and pro slavery. Those are the reasons they changed the name like it or not. It's not because they loved MLK.

[Thunderballs]

Feds in King county stalk and harass drug users even employing a "hearing voices" attack to drive people nuts hearing their voices all day and the Feds HATE trans people and will torment drug users who even tolerate trans. How progressive is that? Calling King after MLK is more cover up by fake progressives. They didn't want it named after "Aunt Fancy".

[rjshae]

Originally Posted by Thunderballs

Feds in King county stalk and harass drug users even employing a "hearing voices" attack to drive people nuts hearing their voices all day and the Feds HATE trans people and will torment drug users who even tolerate trans. How progressive is that? Calling King after MLK is more cover up by fake progressives. They didn't want it named after "Aunt Fancy".

Dude, never post while strung out on meth.

[Sockeye66]

Originally Posted by rjshae

Dude, never post while strung out on meth.

Always a good rule to follow.

And please Thunderballs, have the good courtesy to wipe down that keyboard when the Library asks you to leave .

[pnwguy2]

Is it possible the original name was “cool” though that term wasn’t used back then but I think most understand my point. What a great name for a county. I think this may be more simple than some believe it to be.

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

The county was originally named after William Rufus King who was Vice-President when the Washington Territory was created. In 1986, a motion was introduced to change the namesake to Martin Luther King, Jr. No public votes or hearings were taken on the change.

On February 24, 1986, the King County Council passed Council Motion 6461 five votes to four setting forth the historical basis for the renaming of King County in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Because only the state can charter counties, this change was not made official until April 19, 2005, when the Governor signed Senate Bill 5332 into law.

So the county is still named after William Rufus King, but it's namesake is Martin Luther King? That's such a weird concept, changing the namesake of something.

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

Martin Luther King Jr. visited King County for two days in November 1961.

lol

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

Another point worth mentioning is that in the 80's, it was a trend happening within almost every city in the US to rename a street MLK. You'll notice today that most cities have streets named MLK. So Seattle renamed a street MLK and went a step further to reframe the origin of the County's name.

Boston is where Martin Luther King was an assistant minister, received his PhD, met his wife, and lived in their first apartment together, but all that city has so far is a Martin Luther King Boulevard. Finally in 2020, a beautiful memorial will be completed for him in Boston Common.

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by kanhawk

I wonder if more or less than 90% of King County residents know it is named for Martin Luther King and Rufus King before him. Probably that many care even less. BTW, the state is named after a slave owner too.

Maybe the vast majority don't even take into account that it's named for a person at all. I mean, king is kind of a general sounding word.