NYC Audubon Changing Name Over Birder's Slavery Legacy

NEW YORK CITY — New York City Audubon is changing its name over fears the society's namesake's racist legacy will hamper efforts to bring ever-more diverse birders under its wings.

A new name hasn't yet been chosen, but the group's leadership promised a "robust" process similar to the months-long discussion over whether John James Audubon's name should be attached to the society, according to an announcement released Wednesday.

In the end, the group acknowledged Audubon's contributions to art and ornithology, but "decided his views and actions toward Black people and Indigenous people were harmful and offensive," the announcement states. The name of Audubon, a slaveholder who dismissed abolition, created a potential "barrier to entry" for many people in New York City, they decided.

“A diversity of birds depends on a diversity of people,” said Christian Cooper, a vice president of the organization’s board of directors, in a statement.

“Instead of letting our name be a barrier to reaching more people, we’re seizing this opportunity to tell ever-wider audiences who we are and what we do: protect birds and their habitats, to the benefit of all New Yorkers.”

Cooper himself is a Black birdwatcher who faced racism. In 2020, a white woman threatened and called police on him in Central Park's Ramble.

The woman — Amy Cooper — became known as "Central Park Karen" after video from the run-in went viral. She faced criminal charges, but those were dropped after she completed a restorative justice program.