Cabbie Turned Activist Says St Louis Needs A Name Change

ST. LOUIS, MO — Umar Lee, a local activist who made news after he was fired in 2015 from Laclede Cab Co. for taking part in protests against police violence, has written a Riverfront Times editorial calling for a city name change.

"...We can all agree that this city isn't what it once was," he writes. "We'll never again host a world's Fair and Olympic Games as we did in 1904. Once we were the fourth-largest city in America. Today we're smaller than Lexington, Kentucky and Wichita, Kansas."

Lee believes the city needs a re-branding to restore its lost glory, and says its current namesake — Louis IX of France — isn't doing the city any favors. King Louis was a crusader who waged holy war against Muslims and Jews, Lee argues, pointing out that the Nazis took their idea of making Jewish citizens wear yellow patches from him.

"In 2017, St. Louis removed the statue in Forest Park honoring the Confederacy after local activists (myself included) put heavy pressure on Mayor Lyda Krewson," Lee writes. "The rationale was simple: we didn't want a monument eulogizing the defenders of slavery, racism and treason in our beautiful park. So, we come to this question. Do we want not only a monument to a Crusader to stand, but do we want our city named after a Christian Jihadi?"

(RELATED: Missouri Lawmakers Spar Over Confederate Monuments.)

Lee cites several historical examples of geographic name changes, including Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad, and before that Tsaritsyn), Ho Chi Minh City (called Saigon before it fell to North Vietnam in 1975), and Mumbai (formerly Bombay). And, he cites several possibilities for new names. Some are tongue in cheek — Provel — while others are more serious. Among Lee's suggestions are to name the city "BlockSanto," after its first Jewish residents; "Smithville," after Cardinals pitcher Lee Smith, as well as well Anthony Lamar Smith, who was shot by former police officer Jason Stockley; and "Obama," after the former president.

Many American cities are named after former presidents, Lee says, including Missouri's capital, Jefferson City, and St. Louis could be the first named after Barack Obama. He is asking the Board of Aldermen and St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson to consider his proposal, arguing that Obama is more in line with the city's values than a former king of France.

Read Lee's editorial here.

Photo: One of the city's most iconic symbols, "Apotheosis of St. Louis," a statue to King Louis IX of France, stands afront the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park. (J. Ryne Danielson/Patch)