John James Audubon (1785-1851) is widely considered the founding father of American birding.  His life-sized bird engravings depicted in Birds of America brought attention to the diversity of birds and set a bar for realism in nature art that continues to influence artists today.  Yet, more than 125 years after the founding of the Massachusetts Audubon Society for the Protection of Birds, the legacy of John James Audubon is undergoing a broad cultural reexamination.   His artistic achievements and love of birds are being weighed against his slaveholding and his opposition to abolition, and many Audubon organizations are deciding that they no longer want to bear his name. 

John James Audubon did not start the Audubon Society.  Forty-five years after his death, The Massachusetts Audubon Society for the Protection of Birds was founded in 1896 by Boston Brahmins Harriet Hemenway (1858-1960) and her cousin Minna B. Hall (1860-1951) in response to the commercial slaughter of birds for women’s ornamental hats.  Feathers had been used in clothing for centuries, but feathered Victorian hats, particularly exotic feathers, became a highly coveted status symbol starting in the 1870s.  By the late 1800s, the plume trade had decimated several species of birds including the snowy and great egrets, flamingos, and roseate spoonbills.  Hunters focused on rookeries because feathers are most vibrant during mating season.  It was estimated that plume hunters were able to destroy rookeries of several hundred birds in just two or three days.   In 1902 one-and-a-half tons of egret feathers were sold, which calculates to 200,000 birds killed. The number of birds killed by hunters in Florida alone was as high as five million. 

Ms. Hemenway and Ms. Hall consulted the Blue Book, Boston’s social register, and launched a series of tea parties where they informed their friends that birds were disappearing and urged them to stop wearing feathered hats. “We sent out circulars asking the women to join a society for the protection of birds, especially the egret.  Some women joined and some who preferred to wear feathers would not join.”  (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/) Nine hundred women joined the boycott and formed a partnership with many from Boston’s scientific community.  The society was named after John James Audubon, and Audubon societies formed in more than a dozen states.  In 1905, a national committee of Audubon societies was created which would eventually be called the National Audubon Society.  The symbol of the National Audubon Society is the Great Egret. 

These societies were vital in the passage of the 1913 Migratory Bird Conservation Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 with Great Britain.   As one of the first federal environmental laws, it protects migratory birds between the United States and Canada, making it unlawful to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell” nearly 1,100 species of migratory birds. 

The move to consider removing Audubon’s name from our societies stems from recent history. Although racism and discrimination against people of color have been a constant in American history, George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, was a major catalyst for protests against racism and for calls to reexamine America’s racist culture and cultural artifacts.  That same day in May, Christian Cooper, a Black birder and Board member of New York Audubon, was threatened by a white woman when asked to leash her dog.  His video of the encounter was viewed over 40 million times and was seen as another example of false accusations and racial profiling against Black people.  The calls for racial justice led to the toppling or removal of Confederate monuments and memorials.  These protests also encouraged academic institutions and scholarly societies to remove potentially offensive references from journal names or academic prizes.  For example, the Bird Names for Birds campaign was launched in June, 2020, with a letter to the American Ornithological Society requesting that birds named after historical figures with links to slavery and white supremacists be changed.

In this atmosphere of racial examination, many powerful, successful, and predominantly white conservation organizations confronted their own history.  John Muir (1838-1914), the founder of the modern wilderness and conservation movements, was the first president of the Sierra Club.  In the summer of 2020, the Sierra Club denounced him as a racist unworthy of the Club’s adulation.   

The National Audubon Society similarly reexamined the life and legacy of the organization’s namesake in a series of essays in Audubon magazine that publicly acknowledged that John James Audubon bought and sold slaves. The first, published July 31, 2020, “The Myth of John James Audubon,” was written by Gregory Nobles, a historian and biographer of John James Audubon.  Nobles writes about the tremendous artistic and ornithological achievements of Audubon, his passion and sacrifice to draw every American bird in the “size of life.”   The author also describes in detail Audubon’s ownership, selling and acquisition of slaves.  He dismisses the argument that “He was a man of his time” because many people in this era were strong proponents of the abolition of slavery.  Audubon strongly disapproved of the abolitionist movement, writing to his wife in 1834 that the British government had “acted imprudently and too precipitously” in emancipating enslaved people in the West Indian possessions.  Nobles concludes the article with these thoughts: “In this critical time of reckoning with racism, we must recognize that the institution of slavery in America’s past has a deep connection to institutions in the present – our governments, businesses, banks, universities, and also some of our most respected and beloved organizations.  Audubon didn’t create the National Audubon Society, but he remains part of its identity.  As much as we celebrate his environmental legacy, we need to grapple with his racial legacy.  If we could train our binoculars on history, now is the time to do so.” (https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon)

In spring, 2021, Audubon published “What Do We Do About John James Audubon?”.  Written by J. Drew Lanham, a Black American ornithologist on the faculty of Clemson University where his work focuses on the intersections among race, place, and nature, the article describes his love of birds and his childhood adulation of John James Audubon and what he calls the almost “mythical power of Audubon.”  Latham speaks about the fact that John James Audubon is American birding and how the name “Audubon” is “imbued with ascendant conservation powers.”   However, Lanham also details how “race is an issue in every aspect of American life, including birding, conservation, nature stewardship and environmentalism writ large.”  He urges environmental and conservation organizations to consider human injustices as part of their essential work. “Injustice and inequality don’t have statutes of limitations and don’t cease to exist where people sling binoculars.  Racism doesn’t stop at the borders of migratory hotspots.”   (https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/what-do-we-do-about-john-james-audubon) 

The Christian Science Monitor published an article on July 15, 2021, entitled “How Audubon societies are grappling with a racist past.”  In the article, David O’Neill, president of Mass Audubon, discusses how environmental groups understand that the future of their movement hinges on changing their white, elitist reputation.  “If we don’t get younger and we don’t get more diverse, we’re not going to have people to advocate on behalf of nature, and that’s not good for anyone.”  Scott Edwards, an ornithologist at Harvard, comments that some green groups will have to re-imagine their mission and pivot to more urban populations. “Organizations will have to think creatively about how to get communities of color more connected with nature.” (https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2021/0715/How-Audubon-societies-are-grappling-with-a-racist-past)

In early 2022, the Board of Directors of the National Audubon Society began an evaluation process to determine whether the organization should continue to bear his name.  Approximately 2,300 people from inside the organization were surveyed: staff, donors, members, volunteers, state and national board members, chapter officers, campus chapter members and external partners.  Views of students interested in conservation, members of environmental groups, and donors to environmental groups were also surveyed.  To ensure adequate representation in the data, 598 responses from a national survey of people of color and younger people were included. Factors weighed by the Board included the complexity of John James Audubon legacy in terms of his racist views and actions and his contribution to birds, the role of the Audubon name in positioning the organization as a powerful and influential force for conservation and birds, the current name’s reflection or disconnection from the values of the organization, and the anticipated operational, legal, and financial implications of undertaking a name change and rebranding process. 

In an open letter to Audubon members on March 16, 2023, Elizabeth Gray, Chief Executive Officer of National Audubon Society, announced that the 32-member Board of Directors voted to retain the organization’s current name. (Three board members resigned after the vote.)  Speaking about the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, Dr. Gray pointed to the need to marshal forces towards the areas of greatest impact for birds and people.  She wrote: “I understand people may be wondering how that is possible if Audubon remains in our name.  That is a question that the Board has grappled with, and ultimately, they decided that the organization transcends one person’s name. ‘Audubon’ has come to symbolize our mission and significant achievements that this organization has made in its long history.” A new $25 million commitment to fund the expansion of equity, diversity, and inclusion-specific work in conservation initiatives over the next five years was also announced. (https://www.audubon.org/news/open-letter-ceo-audubons-name) 

There are over 450 local chapters of the National Audubon Society.  Affiliated chapters are independent 501(c)(3) organizations that have the right to choose their own name. Whether a chapter decides to keep or change its name does not affect its affiliation or funding from the National Society.   More than 40 local Audubon chapters are engaged in a deliberative process to decide whether to keep the Audubon name.  Seattle changed its name to Birds Connect Seattle; the Washington D.C. chapter renamed itself Nature Forward; Golden Gate Audubon is now Golden Gate Bird Alliance; and the Madison chapter renamed itself Badgerland Bird Alliance.   Local chapters in Portland, Maryland, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City have all decided to drop the Audubon name and are working on identifying a process to select a new name. 

On November 1, 2023, the governing Council of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced its commitment to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people, along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary. AOS president Colleen Handel, Ph.D., stated: “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely – and birds need our help now more than ever.” (https//americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project)

The Board of Directors of North Fork Audubon Society has decided to initiate its own assessment of whether to change the name of our organization.  We anticipate that it will take 6 to 8 months to examine the impact of the “Audubon” name on our mission to protect wild birds and their habitat and to connect people to nature.  We plan to actively seek input from our members, stakeholders, and community organizations with whom we partner. In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts by contacting ebirenbaum@northforkaudubon.org.