Looks like a four-block stretch in Downtown Brooklyn that was to be renamed after Sonny Carson will have to find someone else to honor.
The emotionally charged City Council vote, along racial lines, was 15 in favor and 25 against, with seven abstentions.
Brooklyn's Charles Barron clashed with Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum when he exceeded the allotted two minutes of floor time. Refusing to stop speaking, the brother pointed at Council Speaker Christine Quinn and blasted her as a hypocrite.
"You brought us to a place of divide that this City Council has never experienced. You have divided us more than Sonny Carson ever divided any people," he charged, pointing his finger at her.
"We're not voting on the civil- rights movement . . . we're voting on a person . . . who has been a representative of Black separatism," said Oliver Koppell, a white Democrat from the Bronx.
Carson, who died at age 66 in 2002, was a huge figure in New York's African American community. The controversy around the street naming focused on whether someone should be recognized for espousing what some argued were polarizing views on race and racism.
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