photograph by: Lisa Grossman
Kelly Barth, the president of the Lawrence Bird Alliance board, is pictured to the left throughout a birdwatching area journey at Burcham Park. Formerly generally known as the Jayhawk Audubon Society, the group voted to rename itself earlier this yr.
A rebrand is usually seen as a possibility to vary an identification for the higher, and that a lot was true for the Jayhawk Audubon Society when its board voted earlier this summer season to rename the group the Lawrence Bird Alliance.
But the explanation behind that change was a lot larger than a easy picture refresh — it was to push again towards an affiliation with a namesake that has been revealed as a racist, an anti-abolitionist and a slave proprietor.
The Lawrence Bird Alliance has been round for greater than 5 many years, after being based in 1970. It’s one in every of greater than 450 native chapters of the National Audubon Society situated nationwide, that are devoted to advancing grassroots conservation efforts.
Lawrence’s chapter, just like the nationwide organization, was beforehand named after John James Audubon, a Nineteenth-century artist, naturalist and ornithologist recognized for his work to doc and illustrate American birds. The National Audubon Society’s web site says it’s honest to explain him as “a genius, a pioneer, a fabulist and a man whose actions reflected a dominant white view of the pursuit of scientific knowledge,” who made huge contributions to ornithology, artwork and tradition.
It additionally describes Audubon as a “complex and troubling character who did despicable things even by the standards of his day.” On prime of atrocities like enslaving Black folks, writing critically about emancipation and stealing Native American human stays to assist a colleague scientifically assert that white folks had been superior to different races, he additionally seemingly dedicated educational fraud and plagiarism.
But even these revelations weren’t sufficient to unseat John James Audubon because the nationwide organization’s namesake. Instead, native chapters just like the Lawrence Bird Alliance are those bucking the nationwide organization’s lead solely, within the aftermath of a March 2023 vote when the National Audubon Society Board of Directors elected to retain the title after a yearlong analysis course of.
The nationwide organization did, nevertheless, inform its native chapters that they had been free to vary their names whereas remaining a part of the nationwide community. Lawrence’s group did simply that inside months.
“It really was not a difficult or fraught decision at all,” Kelly Barth, the president of the Lawrence Bird Alliance board, advised the Journal-World earlier this month. “… There wasn’t a single board member who felt that we should not do this, that we should not move forward and change the name. That proved to me that we were definitely doing the right thing.”
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Earlier this yr, the National Audubon Society posted an FAQ web page explaining its resolution to maintain the Audubon title, which once more acknowledges Audubon’s “complex legacy.” Despite that, the nationwide group cited a want to as an alternative deal with the crucial threats going through birds and different wildlife because of local weather change. Susan Bell, the chair of the National Audubon Society’s Board of Directors, additionally stated on the time that the title has “come to represent so much more than the work of one person, but a broader love of birds and nature.”
Barth, like the opposite of us concerned with National Audubon Society chapters, sees the nationwide organization’s targets as vital not simply to chicken species however to the surroundings as an entire. She stated native chapters, by their work, can assist to “remind people what a beautiful planet we live on” and generate an appreciation and love of nature.
But on the identical time, Barth stated members of the Lawrence Bird Alliance felt disillusioned that pleas to the nationwide organization from Black ornithologists like Corina Newsome appeared to have fallen on deaf ears earlier this yr. Newsome in 2020 co-organized Black Birders Week within the wake of the homicide of Ahmaud Arbery and the racism confronted by Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in New York City, and he or she has collaborated instantly with the National Audubon Society.
“There was a lot of disappointment,” Barth stated. “A lot of this was led by people of color, some BIPOC people, people of Indigenous (descent) — often employees of the organization. … (Newsome) and several other people started this movement and wanted to urge Audubon to get the name change going.”
But that didn’t occur. Barth stated there’s a “sting” to having Audubon’s title related to an organization that units out to be inclusive to all. That’s particularly pronounced in terms of Lawrence, Barth stated — it was “unacceptable” for the group to justify holding the Audubon title in a metropolis that was based by abolitionists and is right now home to Haskell Indian Nations University.
The National Audubon Society did announce a brand new step in its fairness work earlier this yr: At the identical time that the board of administrators introduced the title would keep the identical, it additionally introduced a $25 million dedication to “fund the expansion of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging specific work in both internal and conservation initiatives over the next five years.”
Nevertheless, leaders with the Lawrence Bird Alliance like Barth and board vp Lynn Byczynski felt that the group wanted to at the least make an try at altering its title, each because of their private emotions and to ensure everybody locally felt welcome to take part within the group’s occasions.
“Lynn even said — and I agreed with her — that if we hadn’t changed the name, both of us would’ve felt the need to leave the organization,” Barth stated.
Others all through the nation have wrestled with these identical conversations. The society’s chapters in Detroit, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin, all have modified to “Bird Alliance” organizations, and Seattle’s chapter now goes by “Birds Connect Seattle.” Chapters in New York City and Portland have each additionally introduced their intent to drop Audubon from their names, however are nonetheless within the strategy of deciding on alternate options. San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., are nonetheless extra chapters that determined to drop Audubon from their names.
It turns into a much less controversial resolution with every chapter that strikes ahead with a reputation change, Barth stated, and there’s undoubtedly momentum for others to get on board, too.
“Our hope is that other chapters will get on the bandwagon, but we can’t guarantee that and for various reasons, we have to respect that people don’t want to change it,” Barth stated. “We just knew that for us, this was really important.”
There’s nonetheless some transitioning left to do for the Lawrence Bird Alliance, although. The group’s supplies nonetheless embrace the previous title, and its net deal with continues to be jayhawkaudubon.org. In half, Barth stated that’s as a result of the group didn’t wish to lose individuals who acknowledge the Audubon title.
From right here, Barth stated the Lawrence Bird Alliance will transfer ahead with its gradual rebrand and can proceed to try to be an inclusive organization for all.
“That was our intent, was to just make sure that our organization’s name reflects its membership’s feelings and associations with not only birds but the other people who love them,” Barth stated.
