Some Tempe Streets Named For KKK Members: City Looks To Rename

TEMPE, AZ — The names of Ku Klux Klan members are on street signs, schools and parks across Tempe. The city is looking to change that.

During a Thursday work session, the City Council aimed to take a look at the offending names and to talk through renaming options.

On the potential chopping block are:

• West Laird Street
• East Lair Street
• Hudson Lane
• Hudson Drive
• Hudson Park
• Harelson Park
• Redden Park

The city is working with school officials to consider the renaming of:

• Laird School
• Hudson Elementary School
• Gililland Middle School

City staff recommended that the council focus on landmarks when considering new names for the streets, parks and schools.

Kiana Sears, president of East Valley NAACP, is glad to see Tempe show “a willingness to be on the right side of history and Civil Rights.”

But Sears would like to see at least some of the streets and parks renamed after Civil Rights heroes, like the Freedom Riders.

The Freedom Riders were student activists who rode buses from Washington D.C. to Mississippi to protest segregation in 1961. Riders experienced violent opposition in the Deep South, many times as local law enforcement stood by or even encouraged the violence.

“Those people worked diligently and even lost their lives for equality and integration," Sears said.

Replacing the names of members of an organization founded on intolerance with the names of those who fought for Civil Rights would be a step in the right direction, in Sears' opinion. She added that Tempe has transformed into a progressive, inclusive and diverse city since its unsavory past as a Sundown Town. Sundown Towns were places where it was unofficially but widely known that Black people were not welcome after dark.

The city is looking at reimbursing residents for costs associated with the name changes. Tempe will take renaming recommendations from an online portal where locals can submit suggestions.

According to city documents, during the KKK's resurgence in the 1920s, many prominent members of the Tempe community were members, including mayors, city council members, school board members and bank executives.

During this time, Tempe's elementary schools and the Tempe Beach Park pool were segregated.

The following men whose names are written on signs across Tempe were determined to be members of the local Butte Klan of the KKK through records in the Arizona Historical Society Tempe's collection.

• Hugh E. Laird: Tempe mayor for 14 years, member of the state legislature and owner of the Laird and Dines Pharmacy in downtown Tempe.
• William Laird: Hugh's brother, Tempe District 3 School Board member and defender of the school district's segregation policy.
• Clyde Harlan Gilliland: Member of the Tempe City Council for 30 years with one year as mayor, president of the Tempe Elementary School District 3 Board.
• Estmer W. Hudson: Developer of Pima Cotton who ran a large cotton farm, major landowner who worked in real estate later in life.
• Harvey Samuel Harelson: Tempe City Council member in the 1920s, longtime member of the Tempe Union High School board, founder of Harelson Insurance.
• Byron A. Redden: Worked for the Tempe Canal Company and was a member of the Tempe Union High School District Board.

Sears hopes that the renaming effort shows young activists in the community that they are not alone in their fight for social justice: That older generations do care and are willing to correct past wrongs.

“It also brings to light a history that they may not be aware of," Sears said.