Boston is struggling to decide what to do about Yawkey Way. The stretch of road was once part of Jersey Street but was rechristened in 1977 after former Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey passed away. Current Sox owner John Henry has asked the city to restore the old name—Jersey Street—as he continues to reckon with Yawkey’s legacy with the team, which several historians and observers called racist.
But Yawkey Way has its defenders, including the powerful Yawkey Foundation and several Boston power players, including advertising titan Jack Connors, premier developer John Fish, and Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Defenders argue that Yawkey’s legacy was a reflection of the times, and that the work the foundation has done since his and wife Jean Yawkey’s death has been a positive force in the city.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has deferred to the public process to consider the name change, which put the matter to the Boston Public Improvement Commission. That body was expected to make its decision on Thursday, but pushed the vote back to April 12.
Daily Item News Editor Cheryl Charles sat down with four prominent African Americans who grew up in Lynn, and who have achieved tremendous success as professionals, and asked them their feelings about Henry’s proposal to change the name of Yawkey Way back to Jersey Street. The full conversation can be seen in the video above. You can also read excerpts from the speakers below.
Buzzy Barton: English class of 1972; Lynn City Council vice president
I know Ed spoke about when he was a kid everybody rooted for the Red Sox. Not everybody rooted for the Red Sox. I was not a Red Sox fan at a young age. As I grew older I was because times have changed.
I am deadset against (renaming Yawkey Way). My mother and David’s father were big in the civil rights movement. I don’t think they would have wanted to see it changed.
I want it to stay. You can talk to young kids about it. I coached boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, and I was always educating kids on things. If you do away with all these things, how do you tell them what went on…
I got on the fire department in 1976 and one of the guys said to me that “when I was president of this union we made sure people like you couldn’t take the exam.” I worked my tail off and became president of the union. It motivated me.
Emerson Foster: Lynn Classical class of 1986; Vice President of Human Resources, Sodexo
I am an unabashed Red Sox fan and I’ve always been. I grew up in the Lynn area and loved the Red Sox. You loved watching baseball and the team on the field. But you were conflicted by the history — the Jackie Robinson thing. For some, it’s a conflicted history.
The issue of naming the street after someone or giving someone an honorarium — it should be for good works that were done. They owned the team for 40-plus years — they never won anything, by the way — and I’m somewhat perplexed about why we would be honoring this ownership…
I’m a firm supporter of changing the name, just from the standpoint of honoring the family. I don’t think the family has evolved. I don’t think Jean Yawkey evolved. When you understood what happened with Tommy Harper in Winter Haven (Fla.). They didn’t stand up. They didn’t back him. It impacted his career. There was no evolution.
You talk about the uncomfortability of going to the park and watching the game. Scores of black and brown folks could have had a good living supporting their families working there. We all know about the income inequality within the city. The Red Sox are a big engine in the state, and they didn’t provide a lot of opportunities for people who look like us.
I’m not a fan of supporting any of that. The history shouldn’t be wiped away. Let’s find a way to tell the story in a different context outside of my son walking down the street honoring a man who didn’t support him.
David McCoy: English class of 1972; Supervisor, Essex County Sheriff’s Department (retired)
The new owner has come in and has tried to put his stamp on the situation. I think he’s really gone out and tried to add value to his brand. The Red Sox do represent brand. Should he be allowed to turn around and remove a bad memory, a bad thought?
Things that people our age share our kids don’t share. Effort has been made for change. Has change come as quickly as we’d like it to? No. And it never seems to.
We’ve all grown up here. We see the changes that have gone through. Buzzy and I went to high school. Miss Wilson was our only minority teacher. Look at Buzzy. How many years was he on the fire department where he had very, very limited access.
And now we have a gentleman who is looking to expand that openness, that access to Fenway Park. You’re looking at hockey being played, football being played there, concerts. He’s trying to create his own brand. Do we turn around and say he can’t make some economic headway?
When we were growing up, you didn’t feel as if you were welcome at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox. That’s a little bit of my thoughts.
Ed Thurman: Classical class of 1976; President, Marion Edward & Associates
I enjoyed watching the Red Sox. I knew Tom Yawkey had some issues with racism, and that the team was the last to diversify and you want to know what really happened. I have to talk about the challenges that were placed on African Americans and the denials.
I look at the organization had the opportunity to acquire Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, and did not not act on that. Other organizations had that opportunity too.
I am not for renaming Yawkey Way. There’s history, and the history itself should be told. But if they want to maintain it, there needs to be something where they can give it the full light of this particular issue—that talks about the fact that Tom Yawkey did X and people walking down the street and down this particular byway can look from the beginning to where the Red Sox ownership was and where they are today that acts as an evolution. It will speak to the fact that baseball was not even fair.
Even today (there is the) Rooney Rule (for African-American coaching prospects in the NFL). There are the same roadblocks hitting different issues. People would be able to hear it. What did the Red Sox do? They denied certain players …Transactions with Philadelphia and St. Louis fell through.
I mean, who am I to say? They say they tried and were denied. Then finally they got Pumpsie Green in 1959. (The other thing is that) we’ve all had family members and friends who have been racist. You don’t throw away the family. You don’t throw away the friends.
