Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Could Have Been Better
On Tuesday March 8, the city of Fitchburg voted to rename its council chambers after Frances Huntley-Cooper who became the first African American elected mayor in Wisconsin’s history in 1991 and is still the only one elected in the state’s history, although that might change on April 4 as Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee’s interim mayor, is running against an opponent who didn’t live within the city as of primary night.
While I understand that the naming of the chamber after Huntley-Cooper is a compromise between the group who pushed the renaming of the city hall after Huntley-Cooper and a faction on the Common Council opposed to the naming of the city hall after an individual, I personally am disappointed with the result.
I have lived in the city of Fitchburg for 12 years and actually wrote a letter of support in favor of the renaming of city hall after Huntley-Cooper and testified for the proposal at a city council meeting, one of two Fitchburg residents to testify in person.
As a journalist, listening to people is a way of life for me. And I listened to the people who said the citadel of local democracy, city hall, shouldn’t be named after an individual, symbolically placing the individual above the majority. I researched the names of a lot of city halls around the country and I think there was only one that I could find in an obscure municipality. But all over the country, they are called Milwaukee City Hall, Atlanta City Hall, etc.
And so my support fort renaming the city hall after Huntley-Cooper softened. I couldn’t ever imagine myself walking into a city hall named after Donald Trump.
But renaming the council chambers isn’t enough because the renaming of the city hall after Huntley-Cooper was about much more than her personally. I have to disclose that I have known Huntley-Cooper for over 40 years and she is a partner in this newspaper, The Capital City Hues. But that is not why I write this column
As I said in my letter to the mayor and the city council:
“Frances has been and can continue to be an excellent role model for all Fitchburg residents, but most importantly for citizens who live in the Black and Brown belt where I live in Northern Fitchburg and areas like King James Court. The citizens who live in these areas need to be positively engaged in civic life as Fitchburg’s demographics continue to evolve and the city continues to grow, in part due to the attachment of areas from the Town of Madison that is set to occur later this year. Naming the city hall after Frances can be a symbol based on reality that all Fitchburg citizens can actively engage in making Fitchburg a great city to work, live and play. Fitchburg needs to project its inclusivity in a big way and I can think of no better way than naming the city hall after Frances.”
When I went to the Fitchburg City Hall and testified in the council chambers, it was the second time in 12 years that I had been in that room, which is down a long corridor from the main entrance to city hall. The other time was when the Boys & Girls Club was fighting to preserve the funding for its Allied Drive center, which serves Fitchburg and Madison residents. Who knows if I will ever have a reason to enter the chambers again after it is renamed after Huntley-Cooper. I just learned that a room in the city hall was named after former Mayor Jeanne Seiling. Who knew? Whoever uses that room besides elected officials and city staff?
My point is that this honor to the first African American mayor in the state of Wisconsin is obscure and more than likely, will be forgotten by everyone besides those who enter the chamber. And it does nothing to raise up the visibility of African Americans and other people of color in Fitchburg, signifying that the city of Fitchburg is a place for all.
When I drive down Fish Hatchery Road every day, there is no signage or symbolism that reflects people of color save for the Latino businesses in the Fitchburg Ridge Shopping Center. Yet one knows that people of color live and work there merely by entering a store.
However in the totality of signage and symbolism in Fitchburg — except in some obscure, out-of-the-way places, it doesn’t welcome reflect the diversity of Fitchburg. It still reflects the Fitchburg of the 1980s, not the Fitchburg of 2022.
It is my understanding that the city of Fitchburg is going to heavily invest in a park on the north part of Fish Hatchery Road. I suspect that it will include the golf course and other green areas off of Fish Hatchery Road and south of Traceway Drive. This park will serve the many families and children of color who live in the apartment complexes nearby, a source of recreation that will give them more alternatives than Leopold Park in the city of Madison north of Post Road.
Wouldn’t it have been inspiring if the park was named Frances Huntley-Cooper Park for those children and families?
And wouldn’t the park signage on Fish Hatchery Road serve as reminder to the occupants of the hundreds of cars who pass by every day that African Americans and other people of color have had an impact on Fitchburg’s past, present and future?
I can understand why the compromise to rename the council chambers after Huntley-Cooper was made. And it is an important personal tribute to Huntley-Cooper as Wisconsin’s — and Fitchburg’s — first African American mayor. But the long-term impact falls way short of what it could have had on Fitchburg’s communities of color. It could have been better.