North Minneapolis street to be renamed after child advocate of community

By Maury Glover, Fox 9

After years of living on Russell Avenue in north Minneapolis, Bernadette Anderson will soon have the street in front of her old house as a tribute to the woman who once called this neighborhood home.

Tireless advocate

“It’s truly a blessing. We loved our mother, and we know many in the community loved her as well,” said Anderson’s daughter, Sylvia Amos.

First at the Ruth Hawkins Center at North Commons Park, and later at the Minneapolis Urban League’s Street Academy, Anderson was a tireless advocate for children.

She even had her own teen club at the Uptown YWCA called Bernadette’s Place.

Family members say Anderson was not only a mother to her own six children, she was considered a mother to the entire community.

“She and her sisters went into foster care when they were young because their parents got tuberculosis. So that was what caused them to take in other kids all the time. I think that’s why their house was always open to folks,” said Amos.

Fox has more information, including about one of the extraordinary children she mentored.

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