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Instead of criticizing something you know nothing about, why not take the time to learn?
So, story time....
When I worked at The Tidewater News in Virginia a few years back, there was a public hearing in front of the Southampton County board of supervisors regarding a potential name change for some local roadways.
These types of hearings were rarely newsworthy and extremely mundane, since most involved a citizen or two voicing their displeasure with tax rates, right-of-way easements, phone towers, etc. But this night was different.
While I was typically one of just 10 people in attendance at these monthly hearings, the board room was full and there was a line of people to the parking lot hoping to have their voices heard on this particular subject.
So the meeting starts and a county resident steps to the podium. He introduces himself as an African-American man and a retired Marine. He then pleads with the supervisors to change the names of...
• Hanging Tree Road,
• Blackhead Signpost Road and
• Greenhead Road
• Hanging Tree Road,
• Blackhead Signpost Road and
• Greenhead Road
Just let that sink in for a moment.
Hanging Tree Road should be fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll share the background on the other two for those who aren’t familiar with the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831.
Blackhead Signpost Road was named for the place where the decapitated heads (and other limbs) of slaves involved in the rebellion were placed as warning to others.
Greenhead Road, meanwhile, got its name from those same severed limbs turning to rot.
So a hearing that typically took 15 minutes turned into three hours of people of all races pleading for the road names to be changed. A handful of people were against it, of course.
Those wanting the roads to remain the same argued against political correctness, claimed history would repeat itself if the names were changed and mentioned how difficult it would be to update their address on all their bills.
A minor inconvenience stopped those people from considering the feelings of every black man, woman and child who travel those roads every day.
In the end, the supervisors hid behind the county’s emergency response system and zoning protocols (blah, blah, blah). And rather than create a positive change in the world, those racist road names still remain to this day.
I see so many people get upset on social media about things they’ve always known to be a certain way getting changed. But far more often than not, the reason for change significantly outweighs your desire for things to remain the same.
