Names of Nevada landmarks should represent values that make us proud
With the renaming of Mccarran International Airport in honor of Harry Reid, Las Vegas is taking a significant step forward symbolically. Our gateway to the world will be named for a man who played a key role in making our state the richly diverse place it has become.
Now, we should continue recognizing individuals who have displayed our community’s belief in the strength of inclusion and equality.
Las Vegas history is rich with great leaders of all ethnicities who forged progress on social justice — Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, white, you name it. Those individuals, often acting amid intense racist opposition, helped create a community that is literally ahead of our time in terms of diversity: Studies show that Las Vegas is what the nation as a whole will look like 30 years from now, if current demographic trends continue.
Getting to this point of inclusion wasn’t easy, as Las Vegas was deeply segregated through much of its history and continues to contend with forms of institutionalized racism.
Honoring the individuals who effected social change in our community is an important step to maintaining progress. These leaders are role models for our children, who can learn the value of equality from their legacy. And recognizing those leaders also sends a message to outsiders that we welcome and embrace individuals from across cultures.
Las Vegas has already made strides in this regard, with several public buildings named for influential members of our communities of color, women leaders, etc. One inspiring recent example came when the Clark County School District renamed Kit Carson Elementary School in honor of Helen Anderson Toland, the first Black woman principal in the district. Toland served for seven years as principal of the school, which opened in the mid-1950s during an era when local schools were segregated.
Toland is exactly the type of person whose name should be on public buildings in Las Vegas. Unlike Carson, whose legacy includes atrocities committed against Native Americans, Toland is someone we can hold up as a true community hero who worked to provide equal educational opportunities for minority students.
We encourage local governments to identify and honor more individuals like Toland, and to re-examine their processes for naming buildings with an eye toward identifying advocates of social justice and welcoming voices from all ethnic communities in the decision-making process.
Also, we should recognize that buildings often are named for people for the amount of power they wielded and not for the genuine contributions they made to a better society in quieter ways. By focusing on honoring people for contributions outside of politics and public policy, we can open the door to naming more schools for venerated local educators, public buildings for people who have volunteered or led nonprofit organizations, public areas for environmentalists, and so on. In many cases, people who are not powerful in their position can make powerful changes in the culture. In taking a meritocratic approach to namings, we can ensure these people get the recognition they deserve.
Nevada lawmakers have an opportunity to make progress on this front through an Assembly bill that would add a Nevada Indian Commission member to the board that selects names for mountains and other geographical sites. The board already includes a representative from the Inter-tribal Council of Nevada, but it’s perfectly appropriate to obtain more input from Native Americans. Many of the sites overseen by the board were renamed for white settlers after originally being named by Indigenous people — a culturally inappropriate practice from a dark chapter of our state’s past that needs to be addressed.
The bill is a step in the right direction, and it should serve as a model for other bodies whose responsibilities include naming buildings and sites. More inclusion is better.
The naming of Harry Reid International Airport can and should set the tone. Reid’s legacy includes protecting and uplifting families regardless of their skin color, faith or income level through actions like his instrumental role in securing the passage of the Affordable Care Act or his mentorship of women and minority political candidates who have made Nevada a national model of inclusive leadership. The Clark County Commission deserves a bravo for voting last month to make the name switch.
Let’s keep moving in this same direction with other namings of public buildings and sites.
When our children or out-oftown visitors point to a sign on a building and ask, “Who’s that?”, we could all be proud to answer that the person was a champion of diversity and equality.