Corinne Reid-Owens naming commission is more about politics than honoring
by Kenneth Lumpkin, Publisher
Last week Pastor Buddy Vinson and I visited Mrs. Corrine Reid Owens after she requested that she wanted to see me.Our visit quickly reveals that she is no longer the vibrant warrior she has been for the past five decades. “I aint no way tired yet,” she would always say when recognized by any of the many groups who have acknowledged her work over the years.
Now in a nursing home, her voice weakened to a whisper, tells us that our beloved Mrs. Owens is now tired. So now I ask, what is our rush to name something after her in a hasty manner.
I have been accused of being devised for speaking out on issues that concern me deeply.
This is one issue that I feel personally touched by. Over the years I have become a close friend of Mrs. Owens and is proud of her commitment to the NAACP and her church.
Her dedication to Racine’s civil rights have been etched into the history of this city and has opened doors for many that go on daily not understanding that because of Owens their lives are better. Whether it was fighting for open housing or demanding more minority police officers be hired, her fight was fierce and never-ending.
So it troubles me when a make-shift commission is pieced together by Mayor John Dickert to honor her. A commission set up for what is political expediency, rather than for the right reason, for what she has given to this community.
Let me explain. The Reid-Owens controversy arose when Brent Oglesby, had sought to build, what would be an $8.6 million project very close to the location where some hope the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail train will make future stops. An area that has been neglected by the city for many years. State Street, where the project would have been located, is blighted, and a formal plan in the past was dropped when thoughts of Spring Street were scratched as a gateway to downtown Racine.
A commission being formed to find something to name after Owens is no more than a smokescreen to hide the fact that the City fathers feel it would be hard to attract future developers to a location named after an African American.
5th District Alderman David Macck, who suggested the plan to Mayor John Dickert, says his request is that Corinne Owens’ name be removed from any development project proposed for the State Street corridor and that any proposed project stand on its own merits. “Perhaps this will take some of the emotion out of the equation and allow for all involved to evaluate the proposals based on sound business projections,” he explained.
What is puzzling is that a year earlier Damon Dorsey, a Milwaukee developer, was granted approval for the project with Owens' name. Upon completion it would have been called the Corinne Reid-Owens Square. Now that a local developer has requested to develope the same project, he is being told no.
To avoid any claims of racism, the mayor has appointed three Blacks, two being preachers, three elected officials, and two Hispanics. What they are supposed to be doing is not clear.
Will they reach out to the community for suggestion? I hope so.
One way to honor her is for the City of Racine to support Mrs. Owens wish to have her name as a part of the project to be built on State Street that she approved of and felt was an example of what she fought for during the 60’s—Fair Housing.
“Let it stand on its own merits.” The name of the Corinne Reid-Owens Square is part of the merits of the project, as well as its developer. It gives the people of that area the feeling that Racine cares about them and the improvement of an area that once was the worst in Racine. Once a haven for crime and drugs, with the addition of Owens’ project, the city could be well on its way to making a needed investment in the area for change.
But let's look at the forming of the commission in more simple terms.
Why, once Al Gardner and others tried to move the project forward, has the city made a rush to name something after her?
