‘That’s not where we want to go.’ Carrboro drops neighborhood’s Plantation Acres name
With cheers, clapping and hearty owl hoots, Carrboro’s Plantation Acres became Barred Owl Creek after the council voted unanimously Tuesday to remove a name emblematic of slavery and oppression.
“This neighborhood has worked so hard for many, many months, jumping through more hoops than you could possibly imagine, and it’s great to say Plantation Acres is gone and Barred Owl Creek is the new name,” council member Jacqueline Gist said.
“And a very cool name,” council member Randee Haven-O’Donnell added.
Residents first petitioned the council in June about how to make the change, saying the name Plantation Acres doesn’t represent who they are or want to be in the future.
“We don’t really want to necessarily forget that (history), but we’re just acknowledging that’s not where we want to go,” resident Victor Jimenez told The News & Observer in a July interview.
More than 105 neighbors signed the online petition seeking the change — over half of the neighborhood’s households, Jimenez told The N&O earlier Tuesday.
The new Barred Owl Creek neighborhood includes the former Plantation Acres, which was formed in 1957 and later expanded, as well as R.S. Lloyd Section One, R.S. Lloyd Section Two and Lloyd Square subdivisions.
It now stretches from Simpson Street to Old Fayetteville Road, and from West Main Street to Hillsborough Road.
Only one resident spoke after the council’s vote Tuesday.
“It was really fun to see you all hoot and howl, and I just want to thank you for helping us get there,” resident Elyza HaLev said. “I guess long is relative, but it felt long to us. Just thanks again for working with us and for making this happen.”
More Carrboro name changes
A different group of residents is still working on a petition to change the name of Phipps Street, which was named for Judge Luther James Phipps. Phipps was a known segregationist who prosecuted the 1947 Freedom Ride case in a Chapel Hill court and prevented the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from speaking in the University Baptist Church sanctuary.
Phipps also was the attorney who drew up the original Plantation Acres subdivision.
They have ideas for the new street name but haven’t decided which one to submit to the town, Jimenez said. There are only nine households involved in that change, so it’s not expected to take as long, he said.
“We are still going forward with that. We’ve just spent a lot of time and effort on the neighborhood name change,” Jimenez said. “We are actively working on it now.”
A longtime, townwide conversation also continues about Carrboro’s name. The council asked staff in September to bring back more details about how much it would cost to change the town’s name. The other, less-expensive option is to choose someone else to honor with the existing name, such as Alabama civil rights activist Johnnie Carr.
Carrboro was known as West End and Venable until Durham industrialist, philanthropist and white supremacist Julian Carr asked for the town to be renamed in his honor.
Carr, who ran a local mill and brought electricity to the town, is more infamously known for his speech at the dedication of the Silent Sam Confederate statue on UNC’s campus, where he bragged about whipping a Black woman in the street.
Hillsborough naming rules, Wildwood plans
The idea of changing place names has taken root across the state and the nation, as communities evaluate their view of themselves and the associations they want to reflect. After George Floyd was killed in police custody in May, and Black Lives Matter protests spurred calls to action, schools, colleges and other entities have sought to remove Confederate names and monuments from public places.
Those conversations can be a crisis or an opportunity for regeneration, Derek Alderman, a University of Tennessee geography professor, has said.
In Hillsborough, the Town Board recently established a process for how residents or the town could seek a street name change. Under the policy, at least 75% of the landowners on a public street would have to agree to the change and the board would hold a public hearing.
On a private street, all the landowners must agree to the name change.
At least one Hillsborough street — Thomas Ruffin Street, which is named for a former N.C. Supreme Court chief justice and racist slave owner — has been recommended for a name change. No petitions have been submitted to the town yet, town staff said.
Just south of Hillsborough, the Wildwood neighborhood on N.C. 86 is evaluating several streets named for Confederate military figures: Wade Hampton, Judah Benjamin, George Anderson, Alexander Stewart, Charles Tew, Walter Clark, Braxton Bragg and John Breckridge.
Neighbors have started the process to change those names, which involves submitting replacement names to the county for review because Wildwood is outside the town limits. Once 75% of the property owners agree to the change and the county accepts the new names, the issue will go to the county commissioners for a public hearing.
Wildwood neighbors have narrowed their choices to a list of native trees and plants and could wrap up their selection process Wednesday. They also are raising money to buy and install 20 new road signs, estimated at $2,625.
While most Wildwood residents support the change, some have concerns about how they will need to change their addresses and driver’s licenses, said Natalie Prado of the Wildwood Naming Committee, while others suggested it’s a “waste of time and resources.” No one has openly expressed an “ideological opposition,” she said.
The committee addressed the concerns in a recent letter to their neighbors.
“We love living here, and we have great respect for our neighbors. But having these names displayed on our streets, describing our homes, is not a neutral act,” the committee said. “We believe that we can respect the past without glorifying men who fought to support oppression.”
