Baltimore Renames Park That Once Housed a Confederate Statue After Harriet Tubman

Last summer, as the country was embroiled in a national debate over Confederate monuments in the wake of the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, the city of Baltimore removed its several Confederate monuments in the dead of night. This past weekend, the city officially renamed a section of a park where one of the monuments once stood, dubbing it “Harriet Tubman Grove.”

Last month, the City Council voted to rename a portion of Wyman Park Dell in the Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood—specifically, the portion that was home to statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson for nearly 70 years—for the Maryland native. And on Saturday, per local CBS affiliate WJZ, Baltimore residents gathered in the park to celebrate its dedication, as well as to commemorate the 105th anniversary of Tubman’s death.

“It helps bring the community values to important places and help to weave together the community. This place is really interesting. Since the statues were removed, it has become a gathering place,” City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke told WJZ.

The Jackson and Lee Monument was dedicated to Baltimore—a city long beset by segregation, police brutality, and racial wealth divides—in 1948, and was one of the city’s four Confederate monuments. The other three—odes to Confederate soldiers and sailors, Confederate women, and Supreme Court justice Roger Taney—were all removed last August 16, though the city had been considering getting rid of at least a few of them for at least a year prior. It’s not clear where the removed statues are now, or if they’ve been destroyed.

In addition to renaming a section of the park, the Friends of Wyman Park Dell group has established a Harriet Tubman Grove Tree Fund to care for and maintain the park’s trees. Tubman, meanwhile, is still waiting for her $20 bill.