Long Island street named after KKK leader Paul Lindner is renamed

Long Island street named after Ku Klux Klan New York leader Paul Lindner is renamed Acorn Way after students pushed for tribute to wealthy white banker to be slashed from the village

  • A street that honored a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in New York has a new name 
  • New York has recently removed some KKK symbols, including at West Point 
  • His KKK affiliations led the local school students to push for the change

A street that honored a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in New York has been renamed after a years-long campaign led by high school students.

The village board of Malverne, on Long Island, voted last year to rename Lindner Place, named after Paul Lindner (pictured), a banker who helped develop the village more than a century ago and also served as great titan of the New York State Klan

The village board of Malverne, on Long Island, voted last year to rename Lindner Place, which was named after Paul Lindner – a banker who helped develop the village more than a century ago and also served as great titan of the New York State Klan.

The change became official last week when Lindner Place became Acorn Way.

‘The true meaning of justice is righting the wrongs that came before you,’ Malverne High School sophomore Olivia Brown told WCBS.

Brown was part of a group of students who began researching Lindner in 2020 and learned he was a Klan leader. 

While KKK and Confederate symbols are largely associated in the south, there have been movements to remove some scattered up north, including at New York’s West Point Military Academy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9q5E1DgS574%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

The unveiling was done by the village’s Mayor, Keith Corbett, who climbed a latter to cut off and unwrap the yellow and pink covering to reveal the new name.  

‘We are a community where any child of any skin color, of any religion, of any ethnicity is given the tools in this school district and the tools in this village to ensure that they can truly achieve anything,’ Corbett said. 

Students pressed for the street name to be changed in school forums and with the village board, which voted to change the name in September 2022.

The name Acorn Way stems from the village of Malverne’s official motto, which is ‘Oaks from Acorns.’  

The street, fittingly, is home to both the elementary school and a public library.

That elementary school was, in fact, formerly named Lindner Place School, before being renamed in 2011.

A former teacher at that school, Francine Stopfer, felt the new name made perfect sense.

‘Acorns are the perfect example of something you plant and it blooms,’ she said. ‘That’s what we hope that the children will expand upon.’ 


A street formerly named Lindner Place (pictured left) that honored a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in New York has the new name Acorn Way (pictured right) after a years-long campaign led by high school students

The village board of Malverne, on Long Island, voted last year to rename Lindner Place, named after Paul Lindner, a banker who helped develop the village more than a century ago and also served as great titan of the New York State Klan

The unveiling was done by the village’s Mayor, Keith Corbett, who climbed a latter to cut off and unwrap the yellow and pink covering to reveal the new name

Malverne High School senior Jamila Smith told WCBS, ‘This whole initiative showed me I do want to step up and be a leader.’

Lorna Lewis, Malverne’s schools superintendent, told the Long Island Herald, ‘I believe you’ve just witnessed the power of the Maverick public education and what our students can do when supported in their pursuit of civic engagement.’

Those opposed to the renaming wanted the Lindner name to be used as a teaching tool. 

Many Americans associate the Ku Klux Klan with the South, but the group’s rallies and cross burnings drew large crowds in New York in the 1920s. 

The Klan of that era targeted Catholic and Jewish communities, as well as black people.

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