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Board committee advances resolution to remove Julius Khan’s name from playground amid broad community support
Summary
Supervisor Yee’s resolution to ask the Recreation & Park Commission to remove Julius Khan's name from a Presidio playground advanced out of committee after extensive testimony from community groups documenting Khan’s advocacy for the Chinese Exclusion Act and urging a name change and formal apology.
The Board of Supervisors' Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee voted to pass Supervisor Yee’s resolution out of committee on May 23, directing the matter to the full Board and asking the Recreation and Park Commission to consider removing Julius Khan’s name from the West Pacific Avenue playground.
Supervisor Yee framed the resolution around Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and recounted Julius Khan’s role pushing to make the Chinese Exclusion Act permanent and advocating restrictions on other Asian immigrants. “This is an opportunity… to say we will not tolerate racism, bigotry, and exclusion,” Yee said in opening remarks, connecting historical exclusion to contemporary threats facing immigrant communities.
Pro bono counsel and representatives from the Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and other community groups offered historical context and urged the Board to act. Linda Zhang (Perkins Coie, pro bono counsel) summarized the historical record, noting Khan’s effort to cement exclusionary immigration policy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Testimony from a broad coalition of 37 organizations described the removal as a symbolic step toward inclusion and a teaching opportunity about historic harms.
Speakers urged additional steps beyond renaming, including an official apology from the city for policies that harmed Chinese immigrants and a broader truth‑and‑reconciliation style engagement with community history. Several longtime residents, historians and community leaders described family and community harms from exclusionary laws and asked the city to right a symbolic wrong by renaming the playground.
Supervisor Yee moved to pass the item out of committee with a deposit recommendation to the full Board; no objections were recorded and the motion passed. The committee’s action advances the resolution to the Board, which will consider adoption and send a request to the Recreation & Park Commission to process the renaming.
