FAYETTEVILLE -- Responses from the business and property owners along Archibald Yell Boulevard about the street's proposed renaming have been mixed, members of the city's Black Heritage Preservation Commission heard Thursday.

The resident-led advisory panel to the City Council received an update on the status of the street's proposed renaming. The City Council on Tuesday will hear for a second time a proposal to rename Archibald Yell Boulevard to Nelson Hackett Boulevard.

The council held off on a decision during its Sept. 6 meeting to seek input from affected business and property owners along the street. Council Member Mark Kinion said at the time he had heard from business owners who said they felt left out of the discussion.

Eighteen properties touch the street, although only eight show up in city records as having an address on Archibald Yell Boulevard.

Britin Bostick, the city's long-range planner, said she has reached out to business and property owners with letters, phone calls, email and in person. She said the proposal had gotten some support, with a few people ambivalent on the matter. A handful had varying concerns, with some expressing strong opposition, she said.

"They definitely noted the opposition was primarily focused on their concerns about the financial impacts of the name change," Bostick said.

Financial impacts included having to change advertising such as business cards and signs. Additionally, some business owners said the name recognition of the street helps people know where the business is in the city, Bostick said. They asked if the city would heavily promote the name change for awareness, she said.

The letter Bostick sent to business and property owners explained what happens when the city changes a street name and the entities it notifies, such as the U.S. Postal Service, Washington County offices, mapping and utility companies and emergency services. It also briefly explained the reason for the name change from Archibald Yell to Nelson Hackett Boulevard.

Hackett was an enslaved man who fled Fayetteville in 1841 seeking freedom, making his way to Canada, according to Michael Pierce, associate history professor at the University of Arkansas. The man who claimed to own Hackett demanded extradition.

Yell, who served as Arkansas governor at the time, wrote a letter to the colonial governor of Canada requesting Hackett be returned. The request was granted.

Hackett was brought back to Fayetteville in summer 1842. He was publicly whipped several times, tortured and sold back into slavery in Texas, according to Pierce's research. He escaped again, and his fate remains unknown.

Abolitionists worried slave owners could have used accusations of theft or other offenses to extradite enslaved people. The British government subsequently made laws preventing such extradition, according to Pierce's research.

The city is in the middle of a project to repave Archibald Yell Boulevard, overhaul the intersection with Rock Street and College Avenue and reduce traffic to three lanes. Crews also will install a traffic signal at South Street and add pedestrian crossings. Work is scheduled to wrap in February.

Council Member D'Andre Jones sponsored the measure and also sits on the Black Heritage Preservation Commission. He asked the commission how members felt about potentially giving the street an honorary designation as Nelson Hackett Boulevard for a certain amount of time if the proposal meets resistance from the council.

The same was done more than a decade ago for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard while it was still named Sixth Street. Commissioners agreed that would be acceptable as long as the street eventually got an official name change.

Print Headline: Reactions mixed to giving street new name, panel told

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