On Tuesday, nine House Republicans voted against naming a North Carolina post office after poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.
“The vote was 371-9-1, with one member voting present. The vote to designate a Winston-Salem post office the “Maya Angelou Memorial Post Office” came after a 381-0 vote to rename a Camp Pendleton, California, post office the “Camp Pendleton Medal of Honor Post Office,” ABC News reports.
“Naming post offices is one of the most benign and bipartisan duties we perform in the House of Representatives, and there is rarely any opposition,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) wrote in a statement. “That’s why I was shocked today as nine Republicans voted against naming a post office after Maya Angelou, indisputably one of our country’s greatest poets, authors and civil rights activists.”
ABC notes that the votes are “the latest example of the polarization surrounding even the most mundane proceedings on Capitol Hill, particularly around issues of race.”