Downtown Los Angeles' Pershing Square, which includes one of the city's oldest parks, would get a new name to honor former slave and early founder of the city Bridget 'Biddy' Mason under a plan announced by Councilman Kevin de León.
Downtown Los Angeles' Pershing Square, which includes one of the city's oldest parks, would get a new name to honor former slave and early founder of the city Bridget "Biddy" Mason under a plan announced by Councilman Kevin de León.
"Biddy Mason's story reminds us that history is not just a collection of dates and events, but a tapestry of lives lived, struggles endured, and triumphs achieved," de León said in a statement. "This is more than a renaming. This is a reclamation of a legacy long overdue. I want to make sure that her legacy is never forgotten, but enshrined into our city permanently."
According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, Mason bought a nearly one- acre site in 1866, between what is now Broadway and Spring streets and Third and Fourth streets, the site of a mini-park in her honor named Biddy Mason Memorial Park. According to de León's office, the councilman's proposal has been at least some years in the making. In 2022, a leaked audio tape featured de León and two former City Council members and another official participating in a conversation in which racial and ethnic insults were uttered.
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