INDIANAPOLIS — Like many cities across the country, Indianapolis has a street named to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but the road to honor Dr. King here was long, complicated, and to some, still incomplete.
Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut and City-County Councilor Stanley Strader unveiled the city’s first Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street sign during a dedication ceremony on June 25, 1985.
Strader was a longtime supporter of the effort to honor Dr. King with a street. As was fellow council member Glenn Howard, who first introduced a measure to honor the slain civil rights leader in 1979. But Howard protested the dedication for what he saw as an unjust compromise.
“It only goes from 38th and Northwestern to Indiana Avenue,” Howard told WRTV reporter Derrik Thomas. “Dr. King was for everyone and it stops there, and to me, that's an insult to the Afro-American community, and it should be an insult to white folks in this community because Dr. King did a whole lot for everybody in the whole United States of America.”
Howard wanted a major thoroughfare to honor Dr. King: A roadway that would span all of Marion County. However, in the end, the compromise would leave Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street just a fraction of what Howard envisioned. The roadway would be located only in a primarily Black neighborhood.
The road to honor Dr. King is paved with political potholes
City-County Council members Glenn Howard, Michael Vollmer, and Lula Journey introduced a proposal to rename a portion of Northwestern Avenue in honor of Dr. King in the summer of 1979. Councilor Howard spoke in favor of the proposal during a hearing in front of the Metropolitan Development Committee later that year.
“Young Blacks today have to have some type of image and we just don't have it,” Howard said. “That was the reason that I want to change Northwestern Avenue to Martin Luther King.”
Opponents of the name change cited signage costs and the impact the change would have on business owners along Northwestern Avenue.
“I think Glenn is saying something in terms of giving the young Black community a positive image in this community to look upward to, but the businessman who have some rights too,” said one committee member.
The measure failed. It was the first of many setbacks to honor the slain civil rights leader. But Howard was unwilling to give up the fight.
Councilor Howard saw Northwestern Avenue as an opportunity to bridge Black and White communities. The roadway was originally part of Indiana’s earliest thoroughfare, Michigan Road.
Dating back to the 1830s, Michigan Road ran from the Ohio River to Lake Michigan. Sections running through Indianapolis were eventually renamed Northwestern and Southeastern avenues.
By 1985, the Indianapolis City-County Council landed on a compromise proposal to honor Dr. King.
It called for West Street from I-70 to North Street to be named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Way, and Northwestern Avenue from West Street to 38th Street to be named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. The roadway north of 38th Street would retain the Michigan Road name.
“We will not accept that,” Howard said during a committee meeting. “That is below us and we will not accept that recommendation. We will not accept second-class citizenship in this city.”
Howard didn’t mince words when speaking to WRTV’s Derrik Thomas.
“Every time we attempted to do this, we have this racist mentality that comes out in a lot of people,” Howard said. “If you can do it in all major cities in the United States, then what is wrong with the mentality in the city? Now that's telling me and other people, there's something wrong with the mentality of some people in this city.”
Politics and unfinished business
The makeup of the Indianapolis City-County Council was different back then according to former council president, Monroe Gray. WRTV spoke with Gray in 2025 about what it was like.
“At that time, the makeup of the city of Indianapolis, the political side, was dominated by Republicans,” Gray said. “And Republicans weren't very sensitive to Black issues.”
By the mid-2000s, Gray helped lead the effort to fulfill what Howard and others started decades earlier: taking Dr. King’s name all the way to 96th Street.
“Glenn's point was that Dr. King didn't just advocate for poor and Black people,” Gray said. “He advocated for everybody, so it would be fitting that it went all the way to the county line.”
As president of the City-County Council, Gray too ran into opposition.
“I just don't think that some of those business people were ready to have a street named after a Black person,” Gray said.
But like Howard, Gray isn’t satisfied with where things stand today.
“I would like to see someone take up the effort and try to continue it all the way to the county line,” Gray said. “I think that as you get farther north on Michigan Road, it's a pretty active community. It's a vital community and I think that Martin Luther King Jr. deserves to be recognized in those areas just as well.”
