City Council approves renaming of OJ Thomas Park

n By Lindsey Vaculin

Publisher

The Cameron City Council approved renaming OJ Thomas Park in Cameron at the request of the OJ Thomas Community Resource Center during a meeting Sept. 21. 

No new name for the park was discussed and the city will likely hold some sort of meeting to gain public input on the park name in the coming months.

“We have submitted a letter to Mr. Parker regarding this request,” Elmorine Jones with the OJ Thomas Community Resource Center said. “We have had several meetings with our board and we have come to the conclusion that we would like to get the name changed. To our knowledge our group was not consulted when the park was named.” 

Jones said that there are a lot of negative things that have transpired in and around the park and those things are all associated with the park and our organization.

“We would like the name change simply because of that,” she said. “We are in the process of applying for grants for our resource center and being connected to that activity is not helpful.”

She said the resource center and after school program are currently serving the community and the group wants to be able to refurbish the former school building.

“We want to refurbish the building not only for the west side but for the whole community,” she said. “In order to do that we have to have grants and we can’t have our name associated with that park. We would like the city to consider removing the name of the park and changing and moving anything that is associated with OJ Thomas to the center.”

Councilmember and Resource Center Board Member Virgie Hardeman shared some of the history of OJ Thomas with the council.

“I would like to enlighten everybody about OJ Thomas,” she said. “In 1923 Mr. and Mrs. OJ Thomas came to Cameron. They were educators for the black community. They served the community from 1923 to 1938. Mr. Thomas was recognized for his efforts in providing education for the black community. During that period of time there were sub-standard buildings the black children were educated in. Through his efforts he was successful in getting buildings that were sufficient for students to get an education in.”

Hardeman went on to add that the Thomas’s name is being disrespected and that their legacy is being tarnished.

“Until recently there has been no effort,” she said.  “I would like to commend the young people who are taking initiative at this particular time to engage in activity over there. It appears to me in speaking to several individuals it was taken out of context why we were asking the name be changed. We ask it be changed for the legacy of the Thomases.”

“We want a positive event to happen, not negative,” Jones said. “We are in favor of the park being there, our concern is that the name is changed. There is always something going on and it has been destroyed. We have people that have put things there that have been destroyed.”

During public comments Isaiah Logan commented on the renaming of the park and requested that the public have input if the park is to be renamed.

“The big concern is removing the name from the park without the community input could cause some problems, especially since the name is a prominent figure and central to the community,” Logan said.

Councilmember Maurice Goza said the best way to move ahead with this is to let the community have an input on a new name for the park.

The council voted unanimously to remove the name of the park and leave it without a name until the community can have input on what the new name should be.