By Melissa Skopelja
Asst. News Editor
An uproar of controversy has exploded in Muncie since it was proposed last week that Broadway Avenue be changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
City council will vote on the name change at tonight's meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Auditorium.
"I encourage anyone to come and express their opinion in a rational manner," Mayor Dan Canan said.
Canan said people said a lot of "hurtful things" about the issue at the last meeting by people who have strong beliefs about whether the street name should change or be left alone.
"So much emotion has gotten in that has crowded the issue," Canan said.
Strong emotion was found by one man who has been a native to Muncie since 1927.
"I've been fighting for change all my life in this community," resident Hurley Goodall said.
Goodall was the first African American to serve on the Muncie Fire Department, Muncie Community School Board and the first elected to the Indiana Legislature from Delaware County.
"Muncie is in a lot of denial about racial issues," he said. "There is a history of legacy that they deny exists. I thought we were over those humps."
Goodall said Muncie was the home of KKK members in the 1920s did not have an African-American teacher until the 1950s.
Tomorrow's decision will need to be passed with five of the nine council members in agreement. Canan said that some of the members are "playing politics out of (the vote)."
The city will not compensate businesses that may incur extra expenses because of a street name change, Canan said.
Goodall said someone who was at the meeting said that "the blacks should pay for it."
He said he remembered his parents paying property taxes when they were not even allowed in a public pool.
Goodall said a person at last week's meeting who spoke out against the change was an owner of one of the businesses that would be affected by the change.
"She kept saying 'I' and 'me' so many times," Goodall said. "She left out the 'we' which is the whole community."
Canan said the street should be treated as a memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said there needs to be "communication amongst these barriers."
Canan said the issue could be revisited after the community's emotions settle.
"There are groups that talk about race and racial tensions (in Muncie)," Canan said.
Goodall however, didn't feel so positive about the issue that will be decided at Monday night's meeting.
"I think the damage has been done; I'm really ashamed of my city," Goodall said. "No one is leading as far as I can see."
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