Apparently, it’s not just statues that are a sign some of this country’s darker history.
Turns out signs are signs of it too.
Like the street sign on the road outside Fenway Park that reads Yawkey Way, which Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry now wants to be changed.
The street is named in honor of the former team owner Tom Yawkey who, well sometimes wasn’t so honorable. Yawkey's long time General Manager of 15 seasons, Hall of Famer Eddie Collins, instituted an unofficial policy of not signing black players. Collins also showed open prejudice to Jews and Catholics.
In fact, Yawkey resisted integrating his club more than a decade after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 and his Red Sox were the final major league team to add a black player , Pumpsie Green, in 1959.
Henry tells the “Boston Herald” that he's “haunted” by the street’s name and would be in favor of changing it to Big Papi Way as a tribute to former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. But any change would have to be approved by Boston city officials.
“The Red Sox don’t control the naming or renaming of streets,” Henry said in an email. “But for me, personally, the street name has always been a consistent reminder that it is our job to ensure the Red Sox are not just multi-cultural, but stand for as many of the right things in our community as we can – particularly in our African-American community and in the Dominican community that has embraced us so fully. The Red Sox Foundation and other organizations the Sox created such as Home Base have accomplished a lot over the last 15 years, but I am still haunted by what went on here a long time before we arrived.”