Mahmoud El-Kati Honored With Street Co-Naming as Community Gives a Living Legend His Flowers
Rain did not keep the community away on Oct. 27 as family, neighbors and elected officials gathered at Milton Street to unveil the honorary Mahmoud El-Kati Avenue. The professor, author and historian arrived in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood in the late 1950s and went on to teach history at Macalester College, where he is now professor emeritus. The designation followed a 6-1 City Council vote Sept. 9 led by Council Member Anika Bowie-Lundy, who called it a charge to honor elders while they can still receive it. Speakers including Nathaniel Khaliq and Melvin Collins credited El-Kati with filling the missing pages of Black history. El-Kati closed with a reminder that democracy is something Black people do and create every day.
Mahmoud El-Kati was overcome with emotion as he was escorted to the front of a tent at the intersection of Milton Street and the new honorary Mahmoud El-Kati Avenue.
Rain on Oct. 27 didn’t stop community members, elected officials and family from filling and surrounding the tent.
“We gather to honor a life, a legacy, a man whose teaching and love for this community has shaped generations,” said Makeda Zulu, a North Minneapolis resident and senior director of partnerships at the University of Minnesota’s Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center.
El-Kati, a professor, author and educator to many, was born in 1935. He arrived in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood from Cleveland in the late 1950s, as construction of Interstate 94 began.
Addressing the crowd, El-Kati credited his maternal grandmother with starting him on his educational path and praised the Black women who guided his life, including civil rights icon Dr. Josie Johnson.
A street sign may look like a simple marker, but it serves as a lasting statement that the community knows its treasures and is placing their names into shared history, Zulu said. She added that honoring elders is how the community honors itself, its ancestors and future generations.
The unveiling followed a 6-1 City Council vote Sept. 9, led by Ward 1 Council Member Anika Bowie-Lundy, to restore honorary street co-naming and approve the designation honoring El-Kati, as previously reported by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.
Bowie-Lundy, a proud student of El-Kati, celebrated the sign after a long effort.
“I was sent to City Hall with a charge: the mandate to give our elders their flowers while they can still receive them,” she said. “I’m proud to not only lead the council action to lift the ban on honorary street signs, but I am so proud to pave the way and demonstrate what it looks like to actually recognize and honor our living legends.”
Bowie-Lundy said it is the duty of the city, county, state and community to pay it forward, adding that the new sign symbolizes a commitment to carrying on El-Kati’s lifelong work.
Community and family members shared tributes describing how El-Kati taught them critical lessons about Black history and cultural pride.
Nathaniel Khaliq, a lifelong Rondo resident and president emeritus of the St. Paul NAACP, was one of those neighborhood students.
“He gave us a whole new level of understanding,” Khaliq said. “He came into our community and established many institutions that touch thousands of lives, young and old alike.”
Melvin Collins, a Macalester College trustee emeritus and retired nonprofit executive, said it would be difficult to chronicle El-Kati’s impact at Macalester, where he taught history for years and is now professor emeritus.
“His mission has been to fill the missing pages of American history, which is the story of its Black sons and daughters, pre- and post-slavery, to ensure those stories, and that history holds its proper place,” Collins said. “He was instrumental in transforming the academic landscape at Macalester, to be more inclusive, factoring the history of our contributions, trials and tribulations.”
El-Kati’s reach extended beyond that campus, as students from other colleges enrolled in his classes, Collins said.
Collins described El-Kati as a longtime fixture in analyzing the Black struggle, offering sharp analysis long before it entered mainstream discourse, and as a steadfast opponent of white supremacy.
El-Kati rejects any framework that denies human dignity and basic rights, Collins added, and his commitment to racial justice is central to who he is and driven by a belief in improving the human condition.
El-Kati began his address to the crowd with a simple, heartfelt message: “Thank you. I love you.”
He then reminded attendees of the ongoing responsibility to protect freedom and community history.
“Democracy is a process, and not a static condition,” El-Kati said. “It can be easily lost and never fully won, and its essence is eternal struggle. We don’t have democracy. We do democracy, we create democracy. That’s what Black people do.”
Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.