A Los Angeles City Council committee is weighing whether to rename downtown's Pershing Square after Biddy Mason, the formerly enslaved woman who became one of the city's first Black property owners.

The Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Community Enrichment Committee is deliberating on the proposal, the Korea Daily reported. If the committee approves the renaming, it moves to the full City Council for a vote.

Former Councilman Kevin de León introduced the proposal about two years ago. He also pushed for commemorative street signs along a stretch of Spring Street he designated the "Biddy Mason Legacy Corridor." De León lost his 2024 re-election bid to Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who succeeded him on the council.

Those corridor signs along 12 blocks of Spring Street have not been installed. The Los Angeles history and preservation account Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles noted the gap on Aug. 25.

@esotouric: "Why rename Pershing Square when Los Angeles already has a beautiful, but neglected, Biddy Mason Memorial Park—and voted two years ago to honor Mason with signs along 12 prime blocks of Spring Street, a prominent honor which has not yet been installed?"

The committee discussion follows a three-day "I Am Biddy" commemorative event hosted by the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, The Eastsider reported. The event celebrated Mason's journey from enslavement to civic leadership.

Born into slavery in Georgia, Mason was forced to walk to California with her slaveholders. She petitioned a Los Angeles court in 1856 and won her freedom. She was free.

She worked as a nurse and midwife, becoming one of the first Black women to own property in the city. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, Mason purchased about one acre of land in 1866 between what is now Broadway, Spring Street, 3rd Street and 4th Street in downtown. She built wealth through real estate and became a philanthropist who helped establish First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles.

De León began pushing for the rename after a 2022 wreath-laying ceremony where he met Mason's fourth-generation descendants, sisters Cheryl Cox and Robin Cox. According to the Korea Daily, the Cox sisters have said the existing Biddy Mason Memorial Park, tucked between Broadway and Spring Street next to a parking lot, is difficult to find.

Pershing Square was originally designated "La Plaza Abaja" in 1866 by then-Mayor Cristóbal Aguilar. It was renamed in 1918 to honor Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of American forces in World War I.

No specific date for the committee vote has been announced. If the proposal clears committee, it would require a full City Council vote before the 108-year-old name changes.