Indiana University trustees change name of Jordan Avenue to Eagleson Avenue
KOKOMO, Ind. (WISH) — The Indiana University Board of Trustees on Friday approved renaming the university-owned portion of Jordan Avenue to Eagleson Avenue.
In 2020, IU stripped former school president David Starr Jordan’s name from campus over his promotion of the eugenics theory. He was the IU president from 1885 to 1891.
“The renaming of Jordan Ave. to Eagleson Avenue has more than symbolic value. I think this is a phenomenal way to shift forward,” said Trustee Jeremy A. Morris according to a Friday morning tweet from the university.
The trustees made the change during its second day of meetings at Indiana University Kokomo.
In October, the former Jordan Hall at IU was renamed the Biology Building, the Jordan River was renamed the Campus River, and the Jordan parking garage was renamed the East Park in Garage.
A task force spent months reviewing hundreds of names and proposed Eagleson Avenue for the section of road between 17th and Davis streets, according to a July news release from Yaël Ksander, the city’s communications director.
The stretch from Fee Lane to 17th would be called Fuller Lane or Mattie Fuller Lane.
Both names honor people who were born into slavery and went on to make significant contributions to the city or university.
The release in July said the Eagleson family in Bloomington for four generations made significant contributions to the city, university, state, and nation, starting with Halson Vashon Eagleson (1851-1921), who was born into slavery and came to Bloomington in the 1880s.
Mattie Jacobs Fuller (1856-1940) was born into slavery in Kentucky and at age 4 became a resident of Bloomington. She was a local businesswoman and suffragist, and made a donation that founded Bethel AME Church, the city release said.