Change Gonna Come
Lauren Adams DeLeon
Most Southerners, Black or White, do not easily embrace change. This said, it seems that parts of eastern Kentucky are having an unusual time of it, even for Southerners. Road signs in the area are being erected for the first time. ("If you didn’t know where you were going, you could stop and ask," Ron Eller, director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky, told The New York Times.) And the signs are causing trouble.
In Magoffin County, population 13,000, officials decided not erect a sign for Nigger Fork, changing it instead to a route number. If you’re Southern, you won’t be surprised that folk continue to call it Nigger Fork. It’s a tribute to Black midwife buried in the area, they say.
When the sign at Little Negro Creek in Knox County went up, the state’s Human Rights Commission had it changed. But in Rockcastle County, Negro Town Hill Road and Negro Creek are staying. The only Black man the White folks there seem to know is one Ike Thomas, who initially demanded the names be changed and now understandably, says he doesn’t want to comment. We sympathize with the colorful Mr. Thomas. He can’t be having too much fun.
Emerge Magazine, March 1997
To return to 4500/6500 home page contents, click here.
To return to Dr. B-A's home page contents, click here.
To return to the beginning of the
handout list, click here.