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The park at 2300 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue

On Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously passed a proposal by Councilmember Dee Andrews to consider renaming a 6th District park after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), making the first park in the United States to bear the organization’s name.

The decision on whether to rename the park was turned over to the Housing and Neighbors Committee and the Parks and Recreation Commission, which will jointly return to the council with a recommendation. The currently nameless park, located at 2300 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, would be known as NAACP Freedom Park.

Members of the NAACP’s Long Beach chapter — which was formed in 1940 — showed up at Tuesday night’s council meeting to speak in support of the measure. These included Naomi Rainey, President of Long Beach’s NAACP chapter, and Jesse Johnson, Vice President of the chapter.

“One of the objectives of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of all people, and I think it’s appropriate that here in the city of Long Beach, that is too our mission, and that we have a park with that mission in mind and that namesake,” Councilwoman Suzie Price said.

A specified timeline for the final decision on the naming has not yet been laid out.