A Los Angeles City Council committee advanced a proposal Tuesday to rename downtown\u2019s Pershing Square in honor of Bridget \u201cBiddy\u201d Mason, a formerly enslaved woman who became a prominent Los Angeles landowner, entrepreneur and philanthropist.<\/p>\n
In a unanimous vote, the three-member Arts, Parks, Libraries and Community Enrichment Committee approved the proposal re-introduced by Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, chair of the committee. It now moves to the full City Council for consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cItem five is a motion I put forth to recognize Biddy Mason\u2019s contributions not just to CD14 but to the city writ large,\u201d Jurado said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cShe\u2019s even buried in Evergreen Cemetery, which is in CD14 as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a beginning of making sure that our history is inclusive of everybody, especially here in the city of Los Angeles,\u201d Jurado added.<\/p>\n
The proposal was introduced two years ago by Jurado\u2019s predecessor, former Councilman Kevin de Le\u00c3\u00b3n, who also sought to install associated ceremonial street signs.<\/p>\n
Before losing his re-election bid to Jurado in 2024, de Le\u00c3\u00b3n secured City Council approval to designate a stretch of Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles as the Biddy Mason Legacy Corridor.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s consideration comes shortly after a three-day celebration honoring Mason\u2019s life and legacy that began Aug. 14. The \u201cI Am Biddy\u201d celebration, organized by First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, featured programs commemorating Mason\u2019s journey from enslavement to becoming one of the city\u2019s earliest Black landowners, entrepreneurs and civic leaders.<\/p>\n
City officials have described the proposed renaming of Pershing Square as a symbolic recognition of Mason\u2019s contributions to Los Angeles. Mason was born into slavery and forced to walk from Georgia to California with her enslavers. She later successfully petitioned a Los Angeles court for her freedom.<\/p>\n
She became a nurse, midwife and one of the first Black women to own property in Los Angeles, eventually accumulating substantial wealth through real estate investments. Mason was also known for her philanthropy and support of the city\u2019s Black community.<\/p>\n
De Le\u00c3\u00b3n began efforts to honor Mason in 2022 following a wreath-laying ceremony. At a tribute wall in downtown Los Angeles, he met sisters Cheryl and Robynn Cox, Mason\u2019s fourth-great-granddaughters, who urged him to pursue additional recognition of their ancestor.<\/p>\n
The city already has a memorial to Mason at Biddy Mason Memorial Park between Broadway and Spring streets. Her family has said the site can be difficult to find because of its location next to a parking lot.<\/p>\n
According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, Mason purchased a nearly 1-acre property in 1866 between what are now Broadway and Spring Street and Third and Fourth streets, where the mini-park is located.<\/p>\n
Pershing Square was originally dedicated in 1866 by then-Mayor Crist\u00c3\u00b3bal Aguilar as La Plaza Abaja. It was renamed in 1918 in honor of Gen. John J. Pershing, who commanded U.S. forces in Europe during World War I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Los Angeles City Council committee advanced a proposal Tuesday to rename downtown\u2019s Pershing Square in honor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[175650,17289,48,52,51,47,50,49,95916,141403,106376,74895],"class_list":["post-443257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-biddy","tag-committee","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mason","tag-pershing","tag-renaming","tag-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}