By Audrey Martin, Victoria Bond, Haley Lerner and Nathan Lederman
Boston residents voted not to rename Dudley Square in Roxbury to Nubian Square Tuesday in the Nov. 5 elections.
The measure lost by 4,556 votes with 24,207 people voting to change the name and 28,763 voting not to change the name, according to unofficial election results from the City of Boston.
Proponents of the measure argued the name Dudley Square, which name comes from Thomas Dudley, a leading politician in 1641 when Massachusetts became the first colony to legally sanction slavery.
Voters were given the option this year to rename the square after the Nubian Empire, a historical state in the Nile region of Egypt.
There was no option on the ballot to indicate that the name should be changed but to something other than Nubian Square.
As more than half of the population of Roxbury is African American, supporters of the measure argued that naming the popular center after someone so influential in the procuring of slavery sends an unfortunate message to the community.
Joel Lau contributed to the reporting of this article.
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