The Red Sox have officially made a move to wipe former owner Tom Yawkey’s tainted name from their Boston presence.
The club filed a petition with the City of Boston Public Improvement Commission, it announced Wednesday, with the request to rename the famous street outside Fenway Park, which had been known as Yawkey Way since 1997, to Jersey Street.
Red Sox owner John Henry voiced his intention to remove the Yawkey name from the street sign near the end of last season because of the old owner’s ties to racism. The announcement came at a time when monuments and artifacts linked to the Confederacy were being protested as celebrations of the country’s racist past.
“Restoring the Jersey Street name is intended to reinforce that Fenway Park is inclusive and welcoming to all,” the team said in a statement.
Yawkey, who owned the Red Sox from 1933-76, oversaw a team that was the last to integrate. Boston welcomed the first black players on its roster in 1959, 12 years after Jackie Robinson, turned down by the Red Sox in a 1945 tryout, broke the color barrier by joining the Dodgers.
Though the Yawkey Foundation, founded by Tom and his wife, Jean, in 1977, has asked the commission to reject the team’s petition and rather consider “all the facts” of Yawkey’s life, the Red Sox have said they wish to make the family’s philanthropy a separate topic.
“It is important to separate the unfortunate and undeniable history of the Red Sox with regards to race and integration from the incredible charitable work the Yawkey Foundation has accomplished in this millennium and over the last 16 years,” the team added in its statement. “The positive impact they have had, and continue to have, in hospitals, on education programs, and with underserved communities throughout Boston and New England, is admirable and enduring. We have the utmost respect for their mission, leadership, and the institutions they support.”
In order for Henry to file the official petition, he needed consensus from all residents whose properties touch the street on the need for a change and what the new name should be.