PARIS, Texas — A city park in Paris that was named after Martin Luther King Jr. has been renamed to honor a local educator, following a vote from the city council Monday evening.
Mrs. Joan Mathis is a longtime educator at Paris Junior College and community leader. Some community members wanted to rename the park after her to honor her life's work. There was a community meeting earlier in June to discuss the change.
Some community members argued that renaming the park after a teacher like Mathis is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for, while others said it would dishonor him and his legacy.
The move was approved 4-3 during the city council meeting.
The park was named Johnson Park until it was renamed in 1989 to Martin Luther King Jr. Park, a city memo said.
"This information was relatively unknown by many in the community and those present at the May 24 city council meeting," the memo said.
Councilmember Renae Stone requested an agenda item to consider the request. She had Mathis as her teacher at the college.
On Tuesday, Stone voted against the move because she said most of the people who were at the community meeting decided they wanted to leave the park named after King. They suggested honoring her another way in the city and at the college.
Councilmember Gary Savage said Monday that the biggest issue was dishonoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but not many people knew the park was already named after him.
"We were not honoring Dr. King in the first place," Savage said at the meeting. "Dr. King did not fight and die for a name. He did not leave his kids and wife at home to fight for the Civil Rights movement for a name. He was fighting for justice and equality."
During the citizens' forum at the start of the meeting, a person mentioned the racial tension and history in Paris.
"She [Mathis] is the epitome of what Dr. King stood for," Savage said. "We cannot dishonor Dr. King, but you can honor him by honoring people who he fought and died for."
Mayor Pro Tem Reginald Hughes said that he spoke to Mathis and she told him that she would be honored whether they named the park after her or not.
"She didn’t tell me to not do it. She had a Dr. King T-shirt on," Hughes said at the meeting. "So, in order to right this wrong of the disrespect, most of the people I talked to want the park changed."
Discussions were prompted at the city level after a man asked that the city council on May 24 consider renaming the park after Mathis, according to a city memo. Mathis, who was the first Black student enrolled at the school, has been a distinguished alumna and has volunteered and served the community.
A community meeting was held on June 20 at a church to discuss the decision. About 30 to 40 people attended, the city memo said, many of whom "voiced their thoughts and ideas regarding a wide range of opportunities to honor both Martin Luther King Jr., as well as Joan Mathis."
"I feel that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did a lot of work, and his work was so that a person like Mrs. Joan Mathis [could] be able to do what she did here in the city of Paris," one person said at the council meeting Monday.
One woman, who had Mathis as her English teacher, called "Miss Mathis" a "beautiful, kind-hearted woman," the woman said.
"She should be honored, but it should not be done by removing Dr. Martin Luther King's name from the park," she said.
She added that Mathis could be honored in many other kinds of ways.
"This issue has caused unnecessary drama through Facebook. This is not the look the city of Paris should want for themselves," she said.
She said people are for removing King's name, while there is a Confederate statue on the square "with a determination that it will never be relocated."
Another woman supported renaming the park after Mathis.
A speaker suggested renaming streets and partnering with the college to name a building or writing lab after her.
"I feel like, as of now, it will look very bad for the city of Paris to do this. There are a lot of different places we can look at," another woman said.
