Salt Lake City approves new name for 500 South after removing Cesar Chavez's name

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Salt Lake City Council added an honorary name to a portion of 500 South to celebrate Dolores Huerta.
• Huerta, a labor movement leader, was nominated for her advocacy and activism work.
• The road previously honored Cesar Chavez, but his name was removed after allegations of sexual assault.

SALT LAKE CITY — 500 South has a new honorary street name through the heart of Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to change the honorary name of 500 South to "Dolores Huerta Boulevard," recognizing a trailblazer in the labor movement and farm workers' rights movement that emerged during the 1950s and '60s.

It applies to a city-owned section of the street, which runs from State Street to 700 East.

"I would like to thank the many people who reached out to us through email and social media to highlight the work Dolores has done and to set the example of a very complex issue," said Salt Lake City Council Chairman Alejandro Puy, moments before the vote. "(It highlights) the work and the impact that she has done in our society, so I'm very thankful for this opportunity to rename this portion of the street."

The expedited vote came after the City Council agreed in March to remove Cesar Chavez's name from the road. The New York Times published an explosive investigative report earlier in the month that detailed allegations of sexual assault with evidence from multiple women.

Salt Lake City had honorarily named 500 South after Chavez in 2002 to celebrate his work as an advocate for better working conditions for farmers. But it began the process to remove his name from street signs last month.

"It was literally shocking to hear that a hero for many of us committed such horrible things, and victimized and hurt so many people," Puy said at the time.

Huerta, now 96, was quickly nominated to replace Chavez's name on the road. Huerta worked alongside Chavez during many of the same nonviolent protests and helped secure aid for families and disability insurance for farmers in California, as noted by the U.S. Department of Labor.

"Huerta was an outspoken advocate for world peace and the rights of immigrants, women, minorities, at-risk youth and LGBT Americans," the agency wrote after inducting her into its Hall of Honor.

"During her decades of leadership, Huerta endured beatings, death threats and arrests for leading non-violent protests to give a voice to the voiceless," it added.

She also came forward as a victim in the New York Times article, saying Chavez sexually assaulted her in the 1960s.

The new signs honoring Huerta are expected to be added to 500 South in the coming weeks and months.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Carter Williams

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Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.