Confederate statues are being pulled down, one after another, spurred by Black Lives Matter protests across the country. The likenesses of other historic figures with problematic histories have been toppled, vandalized or removed, too, including those of the conquistador Juan de Onate in New Mexico, Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, George Washington in Portland, and Theodore Roosevelt, flanked by figures of subjected peoples in New York. In Seattle, a Confederate memorial in a historic cemetery on Capitol Hill has been vandalized.
There are other tributes closer to home that might be worth reconsidering, if not toppling. Few think about the men behind the names of some of Washington’s 39 counties. When you do, a disturbing pattern emerges. At least eight are named for slave owners, white supremacists, people who sought to extend slavery in the United States or who tried to ban Black people from the Pacific Northwest altogether.
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