Lesson for the future or reminder of the past? Residents mull Division Avenue name change

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tim Adams remembers that many decades ago, Division Avenue in Orlando was a line you did not cross in fear of very real consequences.

The 74-year-old resident told Channel 9 there was a time he didn’t dare cross certain parts of the road.

“By police and my parents (I was told) don’t go over there after dark,” Adams said. “There were police officers who called me ‘boy’ from their cars and said, ‘You know where you belong, get on the other side.’”

Division Avenue separates downtown Orlando from historically black neighborhoods on the west side and a group of faith leaders are working to get its name changed to something less divisive.

George Cope with Vision Orlando said the name change would “make a simple statement that we don’t want division in our city or division among the races in our city.”

Orlando World Outreach Center’s Tim Johnson said renaming Division Avenue could be a tangible sign of a city working to come together.

“We live in persistent tension, not just in Orlando, but all over,” he said. “And that tension, when a crisis hits, creates a polarization.”

Adams, though, wasn’t convinced that changing the name of Division Avenue is what the city needs.

“Why erase a memory like the Holocaust?” he asked. “Why not fight to make sure it doesn’t happen again to my grandchildren?”

Cox Media Group