HARTFORD — Some institutions outside the South are reconsidering whether to still honor historical figures with ties to slavery and the Confederacy.
Connecticut’s Democratic Party will soon decide whether to strip the names of two presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, from the moniker of a 67-year-old dinner. Both were former slave owners.
Party Chairman Nick Balletto says the killing of nine black worshippers in South Carolina led him to realize how the party has changed and how it should “reflect what our community is.” The Charleston suspect embraced Confederate symbols before the attack.
Others elsewhere are considering similar steps.
There’s an online petition to change the name of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. The lake is named after John C. Calhoun, a white supremacist. There’s also a push to strip his name from a building at Yale University.
