By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Chiefland city staff on Tuesday morning erected street signs on both ends of Park Avenue that bore the words “aka Martin Luther King Road.”
The words mean Park Avenue is the official name of the street, but the street is also known as Martin Luther King Road.
The signs had been legally placed on Park Avenue a couple of weeks earlier by county staff without the knowledge of the Chiefland City Commission.
City staff removed them because the city commission had voted two days earlier to name SW 2nd Street after the civil rights leader. City Manager Laura Cain said having two streets named for King might be confusing.
The city commission acknowledged by consensus Monday that Park Avenue is a county road and the county had the right to post the signs honoring King. The city really had no voice in the matter.
The board’s decision without a formal vote allowed Cain to re-post the county signs honoring King at the intersections of U.S. 27A and Park Avenue and County Road 341 and Park Avenue.
Mayor Chris Jones instructed Cain to work with City Attorney Norm Fugate on contacting the Florida Department of Transportation about attaching Martin Luther King Road signs to the traffic light bars at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Park Avenue.
Two weeks ago, the board cancelled its decision to name SW 2nd Street in honor of King at the request of black residents. The board also passed a motion directing residents in the audience to circulate a new survey ballot asking for nominations.
Nominating Park Avenue as MLK Road
When the group returned Monday night with 94 ballots in favor of naming Park Avenue after King, the city commission initially balked at accepting those ballots as legitimate.
Mayor Chris Jones said he thought the second round of ballots had been advertised in a local newspaper, but when he learned the advertising never happened, it cast doubt in his mind about the legitimacy of the survey.
He said all 3,300 people in the city should have voted, although that requirement wasn’t part of the motion passed at the city commission meeting two weeks earlier that directed residents to simply go out and circulate a new set of survey ballots. Actually, Chiefland has 2,351 residents as of 2022.
Resident Alice Monyei said critics of the second round of ballots were suggesting that only African Americans had cast ballots this go around. She said that wasn’t true. She said her group established a table 150 feet away from the entrance to the voting precinct at Chiefland City Hall on Election Day and offered the survey ballot to anyone that wanted to participate regardless of their race. She estimated 70 percent of those participating weren’t black.
Kicking Can Down Road
The city commission has argued about whether to post Martin Luther King -street signs in the city for the past 40 years, as Monyei reminded the board, but the commission always kicked the can down the road and never took action.
Commissioners discussed the issue as far back as 1982 when this reporter first came to Chiefland and took over as news editor of the Chiefland Citizen. The newspaper no longer exists.
Rosewood Massacre 100th Anniversary
The decision to allow the posting of the “aka Martin Luther King Road” signs coincidentally comes a few months ahead of the 100th anniversary of a racially charged incident known as the Rosewood Massacre.
The Rosewood Massacre occurred in the unincorporated black community of Rosewood, about 15 miles south of Chiefland, in the first week of January 1923. The anniversary is coming up next year.
This past April was the 54th anniversary of the assassination of King on the balcony of a Memphis, Tenn. motel.
When commissioners agreed by consensus to allow the “aka Martin Luther King Road” signs to be posted on Park Ave, Monyei quietly gave thanks.
“Thank you guys…40 years,” she said in a barely audible voice.
Chiefland Pastor Michael Dockery, a contractor and permit inspector for the Florida Department of Transportation was the person who initially contacted the county administrator’s office about the possibility of posting Martin Luther King signs on Park Avenue.
Never Dreamed It Could Happen
He said he was informed that in most counties the procedure was to post “also known as” signs recognizing prominent figures. The “also known as” signs on Park Ave. won’t change the 911 addresses of residents or businesses and won’t cost the city anything. Park Avenue remains Park Avenue for 911 street addresses.
Dockery said a stigma has always surrounded SW 2nd Street and that’s why black residents in his group didn’t want it. He said some people avoid SW 2nd street. Dockery said he and many other residents didn’t feel it was an appropriate place for a sign honoring the late civil rights leader. He said most of the elderly black residents he contacted didn’t know they could nominate Park Avenue in memory of King when the first survey ballots were circulated.
He said no one of African American heritage can deny that naming a major thoroughfare like Park Avenue for King is a major accomplishment in the history of Chiefland’s black community.
“Some of those people who suffered at Rosewood would never dream this would happen,” he said. “I talked to a whole lot of people. The older set never dreamed this would happen. They had no idea something like this was even possible,” said Dockery.
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting September 12, 2022; Posted September 14, 2022
