Golden Gate Audubon Society drops name of racist namesake

The Audubon name is no longer for the birds.

Members of the Golden Gate Audubon Society voted to drop “Audubon” from the title to sever ties to namesake John James Audubon— a 19th-century naturalist and artist, who owned slaves and was a staunch anti-abolitionist.

The board of directors of the Berkeley, Calif.-based group voted unanimously Monday to make the change after waiting to see if the national group would do the same.

But the National Audubon Society’s board of directors announced last month they planned to stick to the name “after a lengthy process,” adding the organization plans to make a $25 million commitment toward diversity initiatives.

Glenn Phillips, executive director for the Golden Gate chapter, told The Post that part of the inspiration for the change was the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We are in a very progressive community, so I think everyone felt that we are already trying to do things for the sake of equality and diversity, and if the name was a barrier for many people, we needed to change,” Phillips said. “Black Lives Matter brought up these concerns for everyone and it was hard to ignore that there are signs and symbols of systemic racism in our own organization that needed to be taken down.”

According to the group, 63% of its members approved of the name change. A total of 89 members voted against it, according to the group’s March 30 blog post.

“I don’t believe in re-writing history, placing out values on people hundreds of years ago,” one member wrote.

Phillips said the nonprofit group will undergo a process to pick a new name, including conducting a survey with its 3,080 members. He said they’ve already lost a few members because of the name change — but also gained new ones.

Other chapters also made the same move, including those in New York, Chicago, and Portland. Other newly renamed groups include Birds Connect Washington, D.C. and Birds Connect Seattle.

John James Audubon — a revered 19th-century artist known for his avian paintings — also has a racist legacy that officials with the national chapter acknowledge. Not only did Audubon own slaves, but he also stole skulls from Native American graves, according to an Audubon’s Society Magazine article.

“After careful consideration, the Board elected to retain our name. The name has come to represent so much more than the work of one person, but a broader love of birds and nature, and a non-partisan approach to conservation,” Susan Bell, chair of the National Audubon Society’s board of directors, said in a statement. “We must reckon with the racist legacy of John James Audubon and embody our EDIB values in all that we do. In doing so, we will ensure that Audubon stands for an inclusive future in which we unite diverse coalitions to protect birds and the places they need.”   

Phillips said the Golden Gate group has been working for years on diversity issues and has various scholarships and educational programs for underserved communities in the Bay Area.

“We have a program designed to bring education and access to nature into urban schools, particularly serving communities of color in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, and other areas,” Phillips said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s about time that our name is aligned with the work that we’re doing.”

Phillips said a naming committee will get suggestions from the community, and a survey will go out. The plan is to have a list of possible names and a vote by Aug. 17.