When the City expanded the road that runs from Main Street to Cherry Avenue years ago, it didn’t anticipate it would remain with the cumbersome name “9th-10th Street Connector.” But at long last it has a new name: Roosevelt Brown Boulevard, as approved by City Council at their September 18 meeting. The biggest advocate for that change has been John Gaines, a resident of the 10th and Page neighborhood and former NAACP president, who has been petitioning the City since 1999 to name the road for Brown, an acclaimed football player.
“It was a little discouraging at times, but I don’t give up easy,” says Gaines. He presented Council with roughly 150 signatures of those who support his cause.
Why Roosevelt Brown? “Why not?” replies Gaines. “To me, it was fitting, because he’s the only Charlottesville native in the National Football League Hall of Fame. He came along during the days of segregation and he excelled.”
Brown was an offensive tackle for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965, and is reputedly one of the best linemen ever to play the game. He died in 2004 at age 71.
Gaines says that, though imposing, Brown was small compared to the players today, relying on his foot speed to make up for size. When he was in high school, Gaines says he used to watch Brown train at Washington Park, when Brown was playing college ball at Morgan State, in Baltimore. “We didn’t have ACAC then—matter of fact, we didn’t have the planes and buses that carry players around. Roosevelt rode to the games in a truck.”
Before Council finalized Roosevelt Brown Boulevard, they heard a request from Fifeville resident Herb Porter to name the street for Sally Hemings. “It’s not that she was the mistress of the third president,” said Porter, explaining that she was an American ambassador while with Jefferson in Paris. Porter observed that only one other city street, West Street, is named for an African American.
City officials say new signs have been ordered and will be put in place during a small ceremony in the coming month.