City council considers renaming a stretch of road for MLK

Gastonia City Council members will hold a public hearing Feb. 17 on a proposal to rename a section of Marietta Street, from Franklin Boulevard. to Walnut Street, as “Martin Luther King Jr. Way.”

The new name would symbolize that a longtime barrier that divided the mostly African-American Highland community, which stretches north almost to Interstate 85 from downtown, and the white residential section to the south has been erased.

For almost a century, the Southern Railway tracks that bisected the city at the rear of Main Avenue stores had marked the dividing line.

Some 30 years ago, city and Norfolk-Southern officials collaborated on a project that sank the tracks into a trench below bridges at Chester, York, Marietta and Broad streets. The gulf the trench created, however, effectively remained as another barrier.

To connect the two sections of town, council members and Gaston County commissioners joined in a plan a decade ago that named the bridge spanning the tracks at Marietta Street in King’s honor and created the surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza.

When council members, on Feb. 3, considered holding a hearing on renaming the section of Marietta Street that extends to the north and south of the bridge, more than 20 members of the city’s black community attended to give the idea their blessing.

James Biggers , a local civil rights advocate and black community leader, told council members that renaming the section of street “would complete the cycle for me personally.”

“I met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963,” he said. ”I just had to speak in favor of this for us, for the whole city and for visitors to our community.” If the renaming is approved, he added with a smile, “I can then move on the next job I have.”

Edward Sadler, a retired superintendent of Gaston County Schools, recalled how Gastonia had the distinction of not having problems such other cities in the nation experienced when integrating schools, restaurants and other public facilities. “It was very peaceful,” he said.

He said he appreciated the leadership the current and former councils played in making that happen and thanked members for efforts “to honor King’s memory at this time.”

Angela Dreher told council members that she grew up in the Highland neighborhood and remembered accompanying her grandfather on Saturday shopping trips to downtown stores, where blacks had to use separate drinking fountains and bathrooms from those used by white customers. They also weren’t allowed to sit in whites-only eating establishments.

While attending Grier Junior High School after local schools were integrated, she made white friends and “brought a white girl home with me from school one day,” she said. “I remember my grandfather saying ‘You better get that white girl back across those tracks before we get in trouble.’ He didn’t yet understand that things had changed,” Dreher said.

“Renaming the street would be a sign that this city is no longer divided.”

When it came time to approve or turn down the public hearing, Ward 5 Council Member Porter McAteer , said an email he received from County Manager Earl Mathers had proposed another option to renaming Marietta Street where the Gaston County Courthouse, Department of Social Service, sheriff’s office and county jail are located.

McAteer said Mathers’ memo said the name change would put an extra financial burden on county government because letterhead stationery, envelopes and forms would have to be changed. Mathers suggested those costs wouldn’t arise if Long Street were renamed from Chester Street to Broad Street.

Mayor John Bridgeman and other council members seemed stunned by the suggestion, since Long Avenue parallels the railroad tracks that had served as a barrier.

After learning from City Manager Ed Munn that the county government has an in-house print shop, Bridgeman said he thought printing new stationery and forms would be only a small cost to the county – especially since employees could use up the current stock during the six months it would take to order and install new street signs that would make the change official.

“It will cost us something and the county something,” said Ward 3 Councilman James Gallagher. “But just look at what it cost Martin Luther King Jr.”

Ward 6 Councilwoman Brenda Craig said “stationery costs, printing costs – I’ve heard those excuses for years. If those things have to be changed, that’s a one-time expense. I can’t buy into using that as a reason not to name a part of Marietta Street as Martin Luther King Jr. Way.”

Craig’s motion to proceed with the Feb. 17 public hearing and limiting it to comments about Marietta Street only, got a quick second and unanimous approval.

This story was originally published February 14, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "City council considers renaming a stretch of road for MLK."