Robbinsdale might rename a park with racial covenant ties

Robbinsdale is considering renaming a beloved park named after a family that tainted the city with racial covenants.

The City Council will hold a public hearing to potentially rename Sanborn Park on Tuesday evening.

The park was named after the Sanborn family, which owned much of the land throughout Robbinsdale in the early 1900s. They placed racial covenants on their real estate, prohibiting “any person or persons of Chinese, Japanese, Moorish, Turkish, Negro, Mongolian or African blood or descent” from leasing or mortgaging their properties, according to Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota database of racial covenants in the Twin Cities metro.

Racial covenants were used to segregate the metro during the early- to mid-1900s, the effects of which are still present. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial covenants unconstitutional, and Minnesota outlawed them in 1953. Thus, the covenants hold no legal power but remain on deeds to scattered properties around the Twin Cities.

The Robbinsdale City Council, with the assistance of the city’s Human Rights Commission, established naming and renaming policy for parks and facilities in the spring that places emphasis on names with “equity/inclusiveness, service to the community, and/or observe local history.”

The council will hear public comments on two Sanborn Park name-change proposals Tuesday.

The Human Rights Commission is proposing the name Castile Park, in honor of Philando Castile, a Black man killed by police during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in 2016.

Some Robbinsdale residents said they did not want the park to be renamed after Castile.

“I don’t want the name [Castile.] ... That doesn’t even apply,” Robbinsdale resident Diane Jorde said. “Not another person’s name because then something will happen with that.”

Robbinsdale Mayor Bill Blonigan and four other Robbinsdale residents proposed the name Shoreline Park because of its location on Shoreline Drive.

Blonigan and his daughter, an attorney who helps people remove racial covenants from their property deeds in Golden Valley, first discussed renaming the park over a year ago. Blonigan said he wants to see the park renamed before he leaves office after this term.

“It’s a signal to people that racially restrictive covenants were an abomination,” Blonigan said. “It’s a first in a continuing generational process of healing the divisions between races in the United States.”

Janice Brun has lived next to Sanborn Park for 42 years. She said she is not opposed to a new name, but thinks renaming the park seems like an attempt to forget the past.

“It’s a horrible piece of history, but it is history,” Brun said. “It just seems like, where does it end? When do you stop renaming everything and its history?”

Jorde said her main concern is maintaining the peaceful community in Robbinsdale, and she does not want a name change to cause any disruption to the neighborhood.

The City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall.

After the hearing, the council could vote to change the name to either proposal, or it could take no action.

Grace Henrie is a University of Minnesota student on assignment with the Star Tribune.