An anti-racism charity has applauded another local charity for considering changing its name.

The Bermuda Audubon Society recently announced that it was “exploring a potential name change” to dissociate itself from anti-abolitionist owner of enslaved people John James Audubon, after whom the society was named.

Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda said it supported the society’s move and encouraged other organisations to similarly reflect on their histories.

“According to historian Gregory Nobles, John James Audubon was a man of many identities; artist, naturalist, woodsman, adventurer, storyteller and myth maker,” Bermuda Audubon Society president Janice Hetzel told The Royal Gazette. “He was also a racist, slaveholder and an active anti-abolitionist.

“Two organisations in the United States have recently chosen to drop the name ‘Audubon’ due to this legacy. This is certainly something for us to consider.”

Curb said American J Drew Lanham, who was formally on the National Audubon Society’s board, recently resigned from his position in protest, stating that he did not believe that the society was doing enough to address racial equity.

Mr Lanham said in a statement: “To excuse inhumane acts as just being in the context of their time is, I think, a lazy excuse … Those are the excuses the privileged tend to lean on when they don’t want to make changes.”

A Curb spokesperson said the organisation believed that when organisations made progressive changes, these changes were more impactful when they were made out of honest reflection as opposed to “pressure being brought to bear by a concerned society”.

Curb said that it encouraged other local charities to follow the Audubon Society’s example.

“If we want a more just and equitable society, we should be mindful of the words of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King: ‘It is always the right time to do what is right’,” the statement concluded.