In a 6-4 vote on Wednesday, the Worcester City Council rejected the effort by UMass Chan Medical School to rename the Plantation streets, due to the name’s connection to slavery.
UMass Chan has requested the City change the names of Plantation Street, Plantation Parkway, and Plantation Terrace, all of which are near the Worcester medical school. The request said the word plantation connotes oppression in America and serves as a reminder of the painful history of slavery.
“These legacies appear today in both blatant and subtle ways, and are structural, systemic and persistent. They are obstacles to equity: in education, economic opportunity, health care, housing, criminal justice and more, and threaten the lives and livelihoods of people in Worcester,” UMass Chan wrote in a prepared statement.
During the City Council meeting on Wednesday, the matter elicited heated public discussion and among the councilors. Those who voted against the measure said, among other reasons, they didn’t want the residents and businesses who live and operate along the Plantation streets to have to go through the expense of changing their addresses.
