The Nine States That Don’t Have a Street Named After Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. #Dr.MartinLutherKingJr.
As the U.S. celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with a national holiday many Americans are marking the occasion at home on streets that bear his name, although some states have none.
Almost 1,000 streets across the country have been named after the legendary civil rights activist, according to Derek H. Alderman, professor of geography at the University of Tennessee. His research has revealed that 955 streets have been named after King in 41 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
A map of the U.S. marked with streets named after King was published by Bloomberg back in 2015. It showed the vast majority of them, around 80 percent, were located across the south-eastern states. Georgia, King’s home state, contained the highest number of streets named for him.
However, nine states do not have any streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., namely Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island and South Dakota.
It’s not just streets that memorialize King. Libraries, schools, parks, monuments and scholarships also bear his name.
So states without roads named for King, may honor his name in other ways. For example, Rhode Island has a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport, and a Martin Luther King Elementary School in Providence.
Alderman noted there is occasionally local opposition to re-naming a street after King by those who fear the name will “stigmatize their neighborhood” or create racial tensions. But he added that supporters of name changes argue that they “communicate the legitimacy of King’s message…[and] help educate a wider white public of the relevance and resonance of civil rights and Black historical contributions.”
They believe, he added, that such streets “can be avenues—literally and figuratively—to continuing the civil rights leader’s work of battling racial and economic inequality and the creation of a Black sense of belonging and place in the U.S.”
Newsweek has reached out to Alderman for comment.
King’s name is honored not just in the U.S. but around the world. For example, a street in the town of Huntingdon in England is called Martin Luther King Close.
An article on the U.S. government platform Share America revealed thousands of streets named in honor of King globally, in countries ranging from Argentina to Austria and Panama to Peru.
The life of the civil rights activist—who inspired the world with his peaceful campaign against racial segregation and discrimination until his assassination in 1968—has been marked with a federal day of remembrance in the U.S. since 1986.
King’s legacy and his famous “I have a dream” speech continue to inspire the current generation of activists and in 1994 the goal of the annual holiday held in his honor was expanded to become a day of community service.
The day is often marked with parades and civil rights events, although many of these were scrapped over the past couple of years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But most events are back this year, with parades planned across the U.S.
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