ABSTRACT
Commemorative street naming is an important vehicle for bringing the past into the present, helping weave history into the geographic fabric of everyday life. Named streets, like any place of memory, can become embroiled in the politics of dening what (or who) is historically signicant or worthy of public remembrance. I am interested in street names as “memorial arenas,” public spaces for actively interpreting the legacies of historical gures and, in many instances, debating the meaning and relative importance of memorializing these gures. Specically, my work focuses on one of America’s most widespread yet under-analyzed commemorative practices-the naming of streets after slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. As of 2003, at least 730 cities in the United States had attached King’s name to streets and of the 50 states, only 11 (or 22 per cent) had no streets named after him (Alderman 2006). Although a nationwide movement, street naming for King is proposed by local activists-usually African American-and decided by city and county leaders as they face the task of selecting a road that is most t or appropriate for remembering him (Tilove 2003; Dwyer and Alderman 2008). As Roger Stump (1988, 215) observed in a seminal article, roads named for Martin Luther King Jr are “public symbols of community values, attitudes, and beliefs, revealing the character of both the gure commemorated and the community that has honored him.”
