Hillsborough renames street for an enslaved woman who was shot in the back
A neighborhood street got a new name Monday night that reflects a former North Carolina chief justice and slaveowner’s history, but from a different perspective.
The Hillsborough Town Board voted unanimously to change the name of Thomas Ruffin Street to Lydia Lane. About a dozen families who live on the street asked for the change and supported it unanimously.
The families are choosing where they want to live, board member Kathleen Ferguson said, and what they have chosen is inclusive but also respects history.
“We do have much to be grateful for in our history, and that history is well rounded and it’s messy. It includes the good and bad,” Ferguson said.
The new name will take effect in about 60 days, giving town staff time to make the necessary changes, Assistant Town Manager and Planning Director Margaret Hauth said.
Neighbors asked the board last month to change the name to Hope Lane, but on Monday, neighbor Martha Nelson said they instead wanted to honor Lydia, the enslaved woman who was a key figure in Thomas Ruffin’s landmark 1830 ruling as the state’s chief justice in State vs. Mann.
“We feel like she really embodies this call not to forget history and pay attention to who we honor,” Nelson said.
Erasing vs. preserving history
Lydia was enslaved in Chowan County in the early 1800s when she was shot in the back after refusing her master John Mann’s orders. He was convicted on assault charges, but Ruffin overturned that decision on appeal to the state Supreme Court, writing that “the power of the master must be absolute, to render the submission of the slave perfect.”
Changing the street’s name doesn’t erase what happened, but it does create a more complete, accurate history and add context, Nelson’s neighbors told the board.
Jill Heilman, chair of the town’s Historic District Commission, agreed.
“Too often historic preservation is seen as something that considers history as a static event, but in fact, history is evolving as we educate and learn more, and so we are very supportive of this change,” Heilman said. “We feel it honors history and, as our previous member Mr. (Brad) Farlow said, does so without racism.”
Board member Matt Hughes supports the change but said he also feels “a little conflicted” about naming the street for someone without a connection to Hillsborough.
“I think that it’s undeniable, as Mr. Ruffin was one of our first state chief justices, that he played a big role in the jurisprudence of the state supreme court,” Hughes said. “And I think great men are capable of having bad decisions and being led by bad morals, and so I think it is a step in the right direction.”
Board member Evelyn Lloyd said she voted for the change “because the neighbors want it, not because I want it.” She shared a history of Ruffin’s life with the board before the vote. He also did a lot of good for Hillsborough, she said.
“It’s not about whether we change the name of the street or not. It’s about the man. He was not all bad. Those were different times, and people need to know that there was a lot of good things about him,” Lloyd said. “As board members, we should at least know something about him before we change the name.”
It’s worth thinking in the future about the idea of naming things for people, which can be complicated, Mayor Jennifer Weaver said.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
