A coalition of community groups is asking the city to change the name of a playground in San Francisco named after a politician with a history of anti-Chinese rhetoric, reports the SF Examiner.
The Julius Kahn Playground is named after a congressional representative from San Francisco who introduced the bill to make the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 permanent.
“It is my deliberate opinion that the Chinese are morally the most debased people on the face of the earth,” Kahn said at the time. “Forms of vice which in other countries are barely named are in China so common they excite no comment among the natives … depths of depravity so shocking and horrible that their character cannot even be hinted.”
The effort is being lead by the Chinese Historical Society with the backing of Supervisors Sandra Fewer and Norman Yee.
The Jewish Community Relations Council is also supporting the efforts, according to J Weekly.
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“It’s time to right a wrong, and to ensure that our civic institutions and public spaces celebrate our contemporary values. We share an understanding that immigrants have and will continue to be an integral part of this city,” the group said in a statement.
A descendant of Kahn opposes the name change, but, at least for now, will not fight it.
“I figured they were going to do something like that,” said 86-year-old Julius Kahn III to J-Weekly. “If they want to raise that issue, there’s not a hell of a lot I can do about it. It’s the height of stupidity. I think it’s a damn crime to hang something on him for one instance in a career that I know he regretted doing but went along with the party at that time.”
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