Controversial American River Park Name Changed

" ... local banker and philanthropist Charles M. Goethe, for whom the park was first named, was a proponent of eugenics ... "

by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer
www.news10.net

SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento County supervisors Tuesday voted to rename Goethe Park on the American River Parkway to River Bend Park.

The name change was triggered by the revelation that local banker and philanthropist Charles M. Goethe, for whom the park was first named, was a proponent of eugenics, a controversial philosophy which advocates improving human genes by selective breeding. Eugenics was notoriously embraced by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany before World War II.

River Bend Park was the name favored in an Internet poll and by a county parks commission.

The Sacramento Bee reports changing park signs will cost between $12,000 and $32,000. The reason for the name change will be explained on the new signage.

Last year, Charles M. Goethe Middle School in Sacramento switched its name to Rosa Parks Middle School for the same reason.

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