KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For nearly one year, the fountain at the eastern entrance of the Country Club Plaza – near Mill Creek Parkway – has not had a name associated with it.
The move was fueled by protest, but talks began with the click of a button.
It's what Chico Sierra aimed to do with his petition in November 2019, calling for the renaming of what was then J.C. Nichols Parkway.
"Especially with the internet," Sierra said. "Start a conversation, it gets bigger and bigger."
Nichols, who designed the Country Club Plaza and surrounding neighborhoods, is now notorious for his deed restrictions that excluded certain groups of people from living or working in certain areas of the city.
RELATED: Push to rename J.C. Nichols Fountain, Parkway gains traction
"I think his contribution, if you want to call it that, was redlining," Sierra said, "and that's the soul, like that's his historical legacy."
Six months later, protesters demanding social justice after the murder of George Floyd gathered around the fountain that bore the developer's name.
The irony moved some to take action.
"It's more or less about doing what's right, doing what's representative of our people and not just one particular body," Chris Goode, a commissioner on the Kansas City, Missouri, Parks and Recreation board, told 41 Action News in June 2020.
Goode first proposed removing Nichols' name from the fountain and parkway.
It followed a series of meetings of community input.
RELATED: Kansas City civic groups support renaming J.C. Nichols Fountain, Parkway
"It gave them not only a chance to voice their opinion, but to see some change, in effect, which we felt like that needed to happen, right," Roosevelt Lyons, deputy director of operations at KCMO Parks and Recreation, said. "People needed to have that kind of catharsis and see something happen."
The Nichols family wrote in a statement they supported the renaming "as an act of public unity and equality for people in our community. We have a strong belief in our community as a place positive change can take place now and in the future."
The renaming has made the parks department consider its naming conventions.
"Do you continue to name things after people? People are, you know, they're flawed. They have everybody has their faults. And is it the idea that's more important than the actual individual?"
The department also is continuing the conversation among staff. On Tuesday, they plan to hold a listening session revolving around equity diversity and inclusion.
