This is Bird No.

John J. Autobahn's name is featured in the titles of many bird conservation groups.

The Autobahn Naturalist Society, or ANS, is one of the oldest,

though not the largest, but be the national Autobahn Society.

In 2021, ANS, that smaller organization based near DC,

announced that they're retiring the Autobahn name.

It's the fact that he was an enslaver.

And he held racist white supremacist views about black people and about native people

with the racial reckoning more and more of that part of his story has come out

and it's led people to rethink their association with him.

Caroline Brewer is a former director of marketing and communications for ANS.

She was integral to this decision.

We would all be better off by embracing the truth as difficult as it is

because what it gives you the opportunity to do is now accept responsibility for your role in the future.

While name changes like this are only a start, Caroline sees them as part of a broader shift

to make the environmental movement more inclusive.

If this is our only home, we should want everybody

who lives here to have a say in how to protect it.

Nobody should feel alienated.

You can learn more about this story on the Bring Bird's Back Podcast.

Listen to your podcast app or at birdnote.org.

I'm Tanaja Hamilton.

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