Minneapolis honors trailblazing attorney Lena Smith with street name

A Minneapolis street is now named for a woman who spent her life fighting housing discrimination.

What was once Edmund Boulevard on Minneapolis' east side is now Lena Smith Boulevard.

Smith was the first Black woman to be an attorney in Minnesota.

The road's former namesake, Edmund Walton, was a real estate developer who played a role in blocking Black families from moving into White neighborhoods in Minneapolis.

Sharon Sayles Belton, who served as the city's first Black mayor, said her life was impacted by the actions of both of these historic figures.

"Our parents, our neighbors lived in Rondo, I grew up in Rondo. We moved over to the Bryant neighborhood here in Minneapolis," Sayles Belton said. "And our parents were subject to the harms associated with redlining and racial cove