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NJ Town Cheers Decision Not To Name Rec Center After Obama

Rachel Stoltzfoos Staff Reporter
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Hundreds of New Jersey residents applauded a decision not to rename a local community center after President Barack Obama.

The Willingboro Township Council voted unanimously Tuesday to reverse an earlier decision to rename the John F. Kennedy Center as the Barack Obama Center, reported The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We have to listen to the people,” Mayor Eddie Campbell told the Inquirer. “The people have spoken, and we believe in government by the people.” The middle-class black community has voted for Obama twice, but many residents saw the decision to remove Kennedy’s name as disrespectful. “He died for this country,” one resident told the Inquirer.

The Center was named after Kennedy when it opened in 1966, just three years after he was assassinated.

The Councilman who gathered the initial support for the change, Nathaniel Anderson, apologized at the meeting, saying he failed to “think it through,” and didn’t know about the building’s history.

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