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After more than a year of deliberation and gathering feedback from both members and outsiders, the 27-member board of directors of the National Audubon Society decided to keep its current name at its Zoom meeting on Monday. Board Chair Susan Bell declined to provide a breakdown of the final vote.
In a telephone interview, Bell said, “The name has come to represent a broader love of birds and nature, rather than a single person.” We must consider the legacy of the ideologue.”
Activists inside and outside the organization have called on the group — an influential player in the nation’s climate and environmental policy — to drop the Audubon name. After months of hearings and surveying people on both sides, the board of the national organization decided that the nickname was now almost synonymous with the bird conservation movement and should not be abandoned. bottom.
“I certainly have been on a learning journey like everyone else,” Bell said. “This process was a healthy one.”
The announcement highlights the challenge of condemning a racist past while preserving the history that made “Audubon” a household name associated with bird conservation. The internal debate at Audubon reflects a broader reassessment of the American environmental movement over race.
Before making a decision, the board commissioned a survey to gauge public opinion. Bell said the results provided a “pretty broad perspective.” “And there was no overwhelming majority in either direction. This only adds to the complexity of the decision.”
Still, some local chapter leaders called for the name change, saying their relationship with Audubon made it harder to hire quality staff and ultimately to protect the birds. I was looking for it.
“It is unethical for us to bear the name of John James Audubon,” Chicago chapter president Judy Pollock wrote last month in a letter to the All-American Group. “Audubon is not a proper flag bearer for our organization.”
Audubon, man and brand
The group’s namesake has a large presence in the bird world. In the early 19th century, Audubon traveled through the wilderness of North America to document feathered life on the continent.
His vivid paintings of ivory woodpeckers, American flamingos, and hundreds of other species culminated in his influential Birds of America, printed between 1827 and 1838. .
He was a world-renowned wildlife artist and ornithologist in 1851. Even his critics credit him as the “father of American birdwatching.”
Nearly half a century after his death, two Massachusetts women battled the fashion trend of adorning hats with feathers and even whole dead birds, naming an avian conservation organization after Audubon. By attaching it, we took advantage of the artist’s legacy.
Founded in 1905, this national organization has played a key role in managing wildlife sanctuaries, calling attention to the pesticide DDT and calling for the creation of an Environmental Protection Agency. This advocacy helped solidify the link between birds and the Audubon brand.
But through both his words and actions, the man Audubon was an unrepentant slaver and opponent of the abolitionist movement. This is the aspect of his legacy that is under scrutiny today.
In the early 1800s, nine slaves worked at his Kentucky home. When money was tight, he sold them. In 1834, Audubon accused the British government of acting “rashly and too radically” in liberating enslaved peoples in the Caribbean.
Historian and biographer Gregory Nobles wrote in a 2020 essay after protests against the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police: “If you can train your binoculars on history, now is the time to do so.”
Already, chapters across the country, including Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Madison, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C., in addition to the Chicago chapter, have heeded the call and pledged to drop Audubon from their names. As an independent non-profit organization, local chapters will continue to be allowed to change their name if desired.
The Long and Ugly History of Racism in US Environmentalism
As with many other parts of American life, efforts to conserve nature have historically been dominated by white men. were forced to vacate the park and returned control of the park to the tribes. Many mountains and other natural features across the country still carry the ethnic slurs used on indigenous women.
Even the birds themselves are relentless. Many people suffer from racist honorifics. Wallace’s owlet is named after the naturalist who frequently used his n-word in his writings. McCown’s Longspur honored a Confederate general who until recently campaigned against the Native Americans.
Considered the oldest conservation organization in the country, the Sierra Club has distanced itself from its founder John Muir, the “Father of National Parks,” whose writings denigrated African Americans and Native Americans.
At the Audubon Network, Pollock, head of the Chicago chapter, said Audubon’s baggage made it difficult to hire a new executive director. It’s just one sign of strong support within our community for that,” she wrote.
Elizabeth Gray, Chief Executive Officer of the National Audubon Society, advocates for bird conservation in the fight against climate change, habitat loss, and myriad other threats to birds, while redressing historic inequalities in the conservation movement. We want to keep the community united.
“Some chapters have already announced their intention to change,” Gray said. “What is really important for me to emphasize here and let them know is that we will continue to work with all chapter leaders as a unified community. I am on a mission.”
To that end, the National Audubon Society announced Wednesday that it will spend $25 million to expand its efforts on equity and diversity. This includes funding urban conservation centers and chapters of historically black colleges and universities.
Today, just over a quarter of the Group’s staff are people of color, up from 18% in 2017. Of his 27 directors who voted, he has eight of them of color. The Group has also hired a Chief Executive with a focus on diversity and equity.
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