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City Council says the Roxbury Branch of BPL should be renamed after Nubian Square

After Dudley Square's change to Nubian, the MBTA followed suit, but the library did not. In 2020, BPL renamed Dudley Library to Roxbury Library.

A Nubian Square sign hangs on Washington Street in Roxbury. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

February 21, 2024

2 minutes to read

Boston City Council voiced their support last week for renaming the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library to align the library with the former Dudley Square’s 2019 name change to Nubian Square.

District 7 City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson refiled the resolution, which was unanimously approved by the council on Feb. 14. All Boston Public Library branches are named after the square where they are location, the resolution said, with the exception of the Roxbury Library.

In 2019, Dudley Square was renamed after the ancient African civilization of Nubia — a historic change for the majority-Black Roxbury neighborhood. The move was driven by the fact that former Gov. Thomas Dudley, the square’s former namesake, allowed laws that allowed slavery.

The MBTA followed suit, but the library, however, did not. In 2020, BPL renamed the Dudley Branch of the Boston Public Library to the Roxbury Branch.

The councilors referenced a 2023 hearing where community members, including activists from the Nubian Square Coalition, spoke passionately about renaming the library to align with the Nubian Square name. The schism between the renamed square and renamed library “has been a point of contention,” the resolution said.

At the time, BPL President David Leonard said they wanted the branch to include all of Roxbury’s residents.

“The name Roxbury allows the branch, again the largest in the system, to be reflective of the entire population of a neighborhood that it serves while still celebrating its significance to the Black community,” Leonard testified last year.

The adopted resolution said that Leonard acknowledged that residents have “a strong sentiment” for the Nubian Library name.

Sadiki Kambon, a community activist involved with the Nubian Square Coalition and the Black Community Information Center, said he was involved with the renaming of New Dudley Street to Malcolm X Boulevard, and Washington Park to Malcolm X Park in the neighborhood.

“We feel like we’re, in fact, being disrespected, because it’s clear what the community wants, and for whatever reason, we’ve been getting this resistance if you will,” Kambon said in 2023. “The community is thrilled with (Nubian), and it’s more than just a symbolic act.”

Apart from an anonymous business owner, there was no other opposition to the name change, the resolution said.

“It’s important that we use research in order to atone for the harms that this city, that this country, has done to the African American people, that we create a specifically intentional Afrocentric culture district, Afrocentric identity, preserve Afrocentric history, for identity sake, for cultural sake,” Fernandes Anderson said in 2023.