New Orleans City Council

March 18, 2021 New Orleans City Council 1300 Perdido St., Second Floor West New Orleans, LA 70112 Dear Council Members: The American Historical Association (AHA)—the largest professional association of historians in the world—enthusiastically supports the work of the New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission. [...] The ordinance that established the Renaming Commission specified criteria for street and place name removal that pointed first and foremost to the relationship between treason and the defense of slavery. [...] Commission members then consulted with historians who have a “demonstrable record of scholarship, formal or informal, regarding the history and geography of the City of New Orleans, especially in relation to traditionally underrepresented communities.” These scholars, including many members of the AHA, conducted research in order to identify streets and places that fit the ordinance’s criteria for. [...] In addition to identifying streets and places that fit the ordinance criteria for removal, the historians put forward a wide array of possibilities for official New Orleans place names—women and men deeply connected to the city’s history, and reflecting the relationship between history, place naming, and community values. [...] For many years, historians have explored the roles and contributions of ordinary people in the history of the city of New Orleans.