Orlando’s Stonewall Jackson Road’s days may be numbered.
City officials signaled Monday that the road’s name would change to Roberto Clemente Road — after a middle school on the road was also renamed from the Confederate General to the Puerto Rican baseball legend.
Commissioners Monday unanimously approved meeting minutes from its Municipal Planning Board meeting from March, which OK’d the name change, setting up the drafting of an ordinance to change the name.
Ordinances need to be approved at two city commission meetings, meaning it will be at least a month until the change is final, though an exact date of those votes wasn’t immediately known.
“I want to congratulate the community more than anybody else because this was a community effort,” said Commissioner Tony Ortiz, whose district includes the road off Semoran Boulevard south of the East-West Expressway.
Community activists like Father José Rodríguez, vicar of the nearby Iglesia Episcopal Jesús de Nazaret, the progressive Alianza for Progress, as well as Ortiz and School Board Member Johanna López, who also works for the advocacy group spearheaded the name change.
They lobbied for the campus to be named after a figure representing the area’s community, a mostly Hispanic neighborhood with more than 70% Latino student population, according to data from the Alianza for Progress.
Earl Lugo, who advocated for a mural at the school said Clemente, also a humanitarian, was a great example for young people.
“We went from having him in a little league park to having him in a school and now naming a street after him,” he said. “This is a great victory and shows that we are moving in a good direction for sure.”
López highlighted that “with this name change we see how our community has come together beyond political parties and nationalities to support the name of a Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean man with a humanitarian soul and heroic spirit named Roberto Clemente.”
In September 2020, Orange County Public Schools renamed Stonewall Jackson Middle School to Roberto Clemente Middle School.
The street is only about a mile long and has few property owners, including an apartment complex, two OCPS schools and a vacant lot.
Earlier this year, Ortiz and the city sought approval from the landowners to change the name of the road, who agreed, Ortiz said Monday.
“They said that, yes, they were ready to have that name changed and they made it a lot easier for our staff to start that process,” he said.
The school opened 55 years ago for only white students, the Orlando Sentinel reported in January, and now 75% of students are Hispanic and 14% are black.
Roberto Clemente Middle School is now the county’s only school named after someone of Hispanic descent.