Confederate statues are being pulled down, one after another, spurred by Black Lives Matter protests across the country. The likenesses of other historic figures with problematic histories have been toppled, vandalized or removed, too, including those of the conquistador Juan de Onate in New Mexico, Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, George Washington in Portland, and Theodore Roosevelt, flanked by figures of subjected peoples in New York. In Seattle, a Confederate memorial in a historic cemetery on Capitol Hill has been vandalized.
There are other tributes closer to home that might be worth reconsidering, if not toppling. Few think about the men behind the names of some of Washington’s 39 counties. When you do, a disturbing pattern emerges. At least eight are named for slave owners, white supremacists, people who sought to extend slavery in the United States or who tried to ban Black people from the Pacific Northwest altogether.
Until 2005, that list was one name longer. King County was originally named for an Alabama slave owner, William Rufus De Vane King, who happened to be Franklin Pierce’s Democratic running mate in their victory in 1852. Pierce County was named after the president and neighboring King County was given his vice president’s moniker. Fortunately, a bipartisan effort to change the designation of King County to honor Martin Luther King was made, though not without a struggle. It took nearly two decades to make the change official after it was adopted.
King County no longer honors a virtually unknown slave plantation owner but rather a Black icon of civil rights. Even so, the name change was uncomplicated by the fact that the name of the county didn’t have to change, only who it was honoring.