Minneapolis is on the verge of making history once again. City officials are advancing a proposal to rename Edmund Boulevard in honor of Lena Smith, Minnesota’s first Black woman lawyer and a trailblazer in the fight for racial justice and housing equality.
The Minneapolis City Planning Commission approved the recommendation on August 4, 2025, moving the proposal to the City Council for a final vote expected next month.
If approved, the 14-block stretch currently known as Edmund Boulevard would be renamed Lena Smith Boulevard, paying tribute to a civil rights icon who once legally battled housing discrimination in the very neighborhoods that sought to exclude people of color.
A Street Name Rooted in Exclusion
Edmund Boulevard is currently named after Edmund Walton, a prominent real estate developer in the early 1900s. Walton is widely known for implementing racially restrictive covenants—legal tools used to bar nonwhite individuals from purchasing property in designated areas. His developments, including the one bearing his name, were explicitly created for white residents only…