Seattle Audubon changes name, severing tie to slave owner
Seattle Audubon is changing its name to Birds Connect Seattle to move away from a name with a racist legacy.
The Seattle chapter said Tuesday the name change is one step toward creating a more inclusive and anti-racist organization, The Seattle Times reported. The organization said the concept of “connection” came up throughout the renaming process and that birds connect across families, hemispheres and habitats.
Birds Connect Seattle announced last year that it would change its name because of its connection to John James Audubon, a naturalist known for his watercolor paintings of birds and for whom many Audubon societies are named. Audubon also owned, sold and bought enslaved African Americans through his general store in Kentucky and was a staunch opponent of abolition.
“Rather than a barrier, this new name represents an open door for communities to join us in our mission to advocate and organize for cities where people and birds thrive,” Executive Director Claire Catania said in a statement Tuesday.
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