I'm Paris Jackson in the Cascade PBS newsroom.

Welcome to The Newsfeed.

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at how community members pushed to rename King County after Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reporter Venice Buhain spoke to a local civil rights activist-turned-politician to learn more about that story.

VO (BUHAIN): We might take it for granted now.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

's likeness on county vehicles, bus stops, ballot boxes and official county correspondence.

But former King County Councilmember Larry Gossett remembers it took a major community effort.

GOSSETT: Renaming a county after a Black man is not something easy to do, I believe you know this, in the United States of America.

VO: In 1986, King County Councilmembers Ron Sims and Bruce Laing pushed for the rededication of King County for the civil rights leader.

It was originally named in 1852 for Alabama politician and slaveholder William Rufus DeVane King.

It took nearly 20 years for the name change to become official because the state legislature had to approve it.

Support that we got from Black, Latinos, Asian, Native American and progressive white communities all over the King County was something else.

VO: In 1999, community activists pushed for Gossett to make the namesake official.

It took six years.

And Gossett said there were some who opposed the change.

GOSSETT: I got more threats about being a [expletive] over this than I ever got.

When I'm a founder of the Black Panther Party and the Black Student Union.

VO: Gov.

Chris Gregoire signed the law in 2005, and a few years later, the county adopted its new logo with the blessing of the King family.

GOSSETT: I felt honor that we accomplished it.

VO: In Martin Luther King, Jr.

County this is Venice Buhain, Cascade PBS.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching The Newsfeed, your destination for nonprofit Northwest news.

Go to CascadePBS.org for more.