Detroit birders grapple with John Audubon’s racist past
Several local chapters across the U.S. have abandoned the name and urged the parent group to do the same.
The name Audubon is synonymous with birdwatching.
The National Audubon Society is one of the largest and oldest bird conservation groups. It’s named for John James Audubon, a 19th-century naturalist and painter. He studied birds and published his own illustrations of them in “The Birds of America.”
Audubon’s other interests reveal a troubling past. Planet Detroit journalist Nina Ignaczak says he enslaved people and promoted race-based pseudoscience.
“He dabbled in eugenics and actually stole skulls from graves and shared them with a colleague who was studying cranial capacity,” Ignaczak shares. “It was a racist scientific endeavor trying to show that there were differences between the races.”
The latest battle in the “culture war”
Several local chapters across the U.S. have abandoned the name and urged the parent group to do the same.
“The question is whether you can make these efforts to diversify while at the same time retaining the name and the branding and affiliation with somebody who was known to be quite racist.” says Ignaczak.
The National Audubon Society acknowledges its namesake’s racist past but is keeping his name. Ignaczak says the group’s leaders made the decision behind closed doors, so it’s unclear whether it was unanimous.
“But it stands to reason that there’s some division within the organization about this issue,” Ignaczak speculates.
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Ignaczak found such division among local Audubon members and conservationists. She interviewed several people with Detroit Audubon, including Jim Bull, whose parents met at a society meeting in the 1950s.
“His parents named him after John James Audubon but he thinks that name [needs] to go.”
Another man, Leonard Weber, described himself as an “exiting” member of the club.
“Weber has led field trips for Audubon for years and has decided this year to stop leading those field trips unless the Detroit chapter decides to change his name,” says Ignaczak.
Gretchen Abrams, Detroit Audubon’s executive director, agrees with Weber. But her predecessor, Jack Smiley, says changing the name is politically thorny.
“His [Smiley] concern is that it will make the organization divisive and incite consternation from conservative interests,” explains Ignaczak.
Local chapters have options
Local NAS chapters can change their names and still maintain their affiliations with the parent organization. And while the National Audubon Society is keeping the name, Ignaczak says it’s spending $2.5 million to promote diversity in the birding community.
“The question is whether you can make these efforts to diversify while at the same time retaining the name and the branding and affiliation with somebody who was known to be quite racist.”
