According to CBS Chicago, Alderman Lamont J. Robinson wants to rename Columbus Drive to Barack Obama Drive. "We need to honor more Black men, and this is one small way we can do that," Robinson wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Chicago's children deserve to see that they too can become Black history and cement a new tourist destination to increase Chicago tourism highlighting where Black history was made.” 

Does Alderman Robinson actually believe a street sign bearing Obama’s name is going to change the futures of Chicago’s Black kids, when Obama as president for eight years did not? And does he really believe changing a street sign is going to bring more tourists to Chicago than stopping the senseless crime that plagues the very area the street runs through? 

This sounds like just more empty virtue signaling. Easy work that makes some people feel better rather than committing to the hard work that would actually make kids do better. Because changing street names has been done before. Results?

In 2021 the city council renamed Lake Shore Drive to Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive to honor the famous explorer who founded Chicago. In the Sun Times, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the $500,000 was, “worth it” to honor a man who was, “forgotten in the annals” of Chicago history.

But what about DuSable High School which opened in 1935? Wasn’t that a great way to honor the legacy of Chicago’s founder? Famous DuSable grads include Don Cornelius, creator of “Soul Train.” John H. Johnson, founder of Johnson Publishing, which published the two most influential Black magazines of the 20th century: Ebony and Jet. Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, who was known as a voracious reader and supreme orator with an impressive vocabulary.

In 2018 the city council renamed Congress Parkway to Ida B. Wells Drive, after the well-known writer, journalist, and abolitionist. Apparently, the 1941 Ida B. Wells public housing project in Bronzeville hadn’t inspired the greatness they were hoping for. Like all public housing projects named after influential people, it was a breeding ground for gangs, drugs, and criminal activity.  It was demolished 2002-2011.

How many Chicago school kids know anything about DuSable the explorer, or Ida B. Wells, Don Cornelius, John H. Johnson, and Harold Washington?

Now Alderman Robinson wants to repeat the same virtue-signaling name change for a man who rose to power purely on his oratory skills, not by any legislative or leadership record. And there are many Chicagoans, Black and White, who view Obama as a divider, who brought more racial grievance than healing. He campaigned on “hope and change” and the importance of fathers. It’s 2024. How much hope is there on the south side? What changed on the west side? And where are the fathers? 

Alderman Robinson, if you really want to help Black children achieve history making heights, lead a movement to end the epidemic of Black fatherless homes. Because decades of research with reams of data prove what yet another 2023 report from the Institute for Family Studies proves, “Neighborhoods are safer when two parent households are predominant”. Obama talked about it. He gave a Father’s Day speech (June 2008, Apostolic Church of God. Chicago) about the importance of fathers. He quoted scripture from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, then as president, did precisely nothing. 

Fix education? Obama talked about it. He threw a lot of money at it. Results? “In 2023, there were 67 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 32 where no student tested proficient in reading. Yet officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students. Those numbers are straight from the Illinois State Board of Education's 2023 Illinois Report Card.”  

Take control away from the CTU and give it to educators who will teach kids how to speak, read, write, and the importance of presenting themselves with class and dignity. Pull the pants up. Put an end to the “woke” social justice platform responsible for destroying every standard of merit and achievement: speaking English clearly and correctly, showing up to school on time, well behaved, and prepared. Stop tolerating crime. 

Chicago’s Black kids need real leadership, Alderman Robinson. A street sign only tells them where they are. A leader leads them in the right direction. 

Image: Aaron Volkening