Lake Shore Drive Renamed To Honor Chicago Founder DuSable

CHICAGO - The Chicago City Council has passed an ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive, and it will now be known as the Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

The Drive's new title honors Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the first non-Native American resident of the area, who is widely considered the founder of Chicago.

The ordinance by the City Council comes just days after a council meeting was adjourned due to a routine assembly ending in a shouting match between Council members and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The vote on the Drive's name, which was to take place that same day, was delayed until Friday.

A 33 to 15 vote in favor of the name change comes two years after city aldermen first introduced the ordinance, and even though many people were in favor of the change, the idea has been controversial among residents of the city.

Reaction on social media was mixed, and while some applauded the move, others compared it to the Willis Tower, which most Chicagoans still refer to as the Sears Tower despite the name officially changing in 2009.

Mayor Lightfoot was even against the idea at first, considering Lake Shore Drive as too much of a staple in the city to have its name changed. Her original proposal would've involved naming a portion of the Chicago Riverwalk after DuSable.

However, a large percentage of alderman saw the move as welcome given the multi-year fight to honor the city's founder.

"I think it's emotional because there's a struggle over a street named after the founder of our city who happens to be Black," Ald. Sophia King, 4th Ward, told ABC 7.

According to WTTW, DuSable was likely born in Haiti around 1745, and set up a large trading post with his wife and two children on the Chicago River sometime in the 1770s.

This story has been updated with additional information.