New name likely set for Fort Worth park honoring Confederate leader

Jefferson Davis Park in south Fort Worth will likely be renamed Parque Unidad/Unity Park.

A month after deciding the park named after the president of the Confederacy should be renamed, Fort Worth Park Board members will vote Wednesday on the name Parque Unidad/Unity Park, according to a board agenda posted Friday on the city’s website.

The name is only a recommendation to the council, which has the final say on the matter. The council will vote in December.

At its September meeting, Park Board Commissioner Daniel Villegas recommended Parque Unidad/Unity Park, which was suggested in an online petition to the city. As of Friday, the petition had nearly 5,900 names.

The petition started in August during the height of nationwide outcry to remove statues of and rename schools that carry the namesakes of Confederate officers.

One petition comment read, “I grew up across the street from Jeff Davis Park, on Townsend Drive. I never even gave the name any thought in those days. However, now that I am a conscientious and aware adult, I believe that whole mind-set of paying tribute to racial injustice to be fundamentally wrong.”

The 8.6-acre park, at 4001 Townsend Drive, is in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood. It was named in 1923.

Other suggestions were made to the Park Board in September, including naming the park after Dallas police officer Patrick Zamarripa, who was killed in July 2016 in the line of duty and who once lived near Jefferson Park. His mother, Valerie Zamarippa attended that meeting and said the family would be honored if the park was named for her son.

Parks Director Richard Zavala said at that time that none of the suggested names, including Zamarippa’s, met the city’s park and facility naming policy, which requires the person to have made significant contributions to the park itself or the overall park system.

Since its September meeting, the Park Department has received 10 comments from neighborhood residents, most of whom said the park shouldn’t be renamed, Zavala said Friday.

One suggested Parque de los Niños/Children’s Park, he said.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 7:57 PM with the headline "New name likely set for Fort Worth park honoring Confederate leader."