'Racist' Phelan Ave. name disappears from San Francisco New street signs unveiled

View of a sign on Ocean Avenue directing where to turn for Phelan Avenue. Phelan Avenue signage has been replaced with signs designating Frida Kahlo Way. View of a sign on Ocean Avenue directing where to turn for Phelan Avenue. Phelan Avenue signage has been replaced with signs designating Frida Kahlo Way. Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 55 Caption Close 'Racist' Phelan Ave. name disappears from San Francisco 1 / 55 Back to Gallery

Street signs designating Frida Kahlo Way were unveiled in a ceremony Friday celebrating the rechristening of a street in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood.

City supervisors voted in June to change the name of Phelan Avenue — a stretch of roadway less than half a mile long on the west side of City College of San Francisco's Ocean Campus.

Phelan Avenue was named for James Phelan, a 19th-century tycoon who made a fortune in wheat and real estate. But it had often been associated with Phelan's son, James Duval Phelan, who was mayor of San Francisco at the turn of the century and later a U.S. senator.

Phelan the younger was a noted racist whose Senate re-election campaign promised to keep "California white" and protect the state from "Oriental aggression." He promoted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and worked to prevent Japanese immigration to the U.S. as well.

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Thanks largely to Phelan's efforts, the 1913 alien land act, which prevented Asian immigrants from owning agricultural land or securing leases longer than three years, was passed into law.

Last year, the University of San Francisco renamed its Phelan Hall (which unlike the street was named for the son) to Burl A. Toler Hall, co-captain of a renowned 1951 football team and the first African-American official in the NFL.

Supervisor Norman Yee, who represents Ingleside and spearheaded the street name change to Frida Kahlo Way, said it was fitting for a city that takes pride on its values of inclusion and diversity.

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Kahlo, who married the famous muralist Diego Rivera, was an acclaimed artist in her own right. She was known for her many portraits and took inspiration from her native Mexico's folk heritage and artifacts. Her work explored identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race.

She is celebrated by the LBGTQ community and by people with disabilities, the latter because of her struggle with polio as a child and later from injuries suffered in a car crash.

Some residents on the street fought the name change. They said did not support racism but were opposed to "erasing history."