After reading about research that the U.S. East Coast is sinking as sea levels rise, I recalled that some churches in Norfolk, Virginia had started to post tide tables to help people determine when roads were passable or were inundated. One cause for the sinking was purported to be the echo of the meteor that created the Chesapeake Bay, as land that was thrust upward settled over centuries. Another, more recent development ties the sinking to the draining of water tables, causing land to settle into the vacated space, as is happening on the West Coast.
So I fired up the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer to confirm that my recent move to the Virginia Piedmont was far enough inland to survive a generation or two. As I zoomed out (turns out I am OK for now) an odd phrase jumped off the screen at me. “Negro Run.”
So yeah, this piece isn’t about climate change after all.
Why in the name of demon rum, in the year 2023, is there a place on a NOAA map called “Negro Run?”
Interestingly, the place is now named Tims River, having been returned in 2016 the name it was originally given by the Europeans in 1753. No idea why NOAA wasn’t informed. But in 1933, it was renamed N******* Run. 1933. The Secretary of the Interior “corrected” this slur in 1962, softening it to “Negro Run.” Same meaning, but there’s no need for derogatory language, right? Oh, wait. The Fauquier Times have a correction for me (in a piece that references a different “Negro Run”):
Historically, “Negro” was a common term applied long ago, even in Great Britain, for any creek with very dark water.
Of course. Great Britain would certainly choose to use the Spanish term for black - far more reasonable explanation here. Of course, “Negro” wasn’t the first choice in this case.
The racist naming is of course bad enough, but it useful to point out that “run” is a regional term for a brook, or in New Orleans a “bayou,” or in my native New York: a “kill.” Consider the Battle of Bull Run, as one example. (Fun fact: the Union referred to battles by geographic features, while the Confederacy referred to them by the settlement names. The Battle of Bull Run that I was taught about growing up in New York? Here in Virginia, that’s the Battle of Manassas (1 and 2).)
In any case, while we may excuse the “run” word here, there’s no cause for assuming the racists in 1933 didn’t engage in a double-entendre. After all, this renaming happened 68 years after the surrender at Appomattox. In any case, why on Earth was there a movement to rename Tims River at all? And why, 61 years after the name Tims River was restored, does NOAA still refer to it as Negro Run? (Apologies - I don’t have the answer to this one.)
With the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, the Lost Cause became emboldened as he promoted the Ku Klux Klan and segregated the federal workforce. More than many other presidents, he worked to reverse gains Black people had made since Reconstruction. The Daughters of the Confederacy, who continue to exist for some reason, insist the statues they erected on courthouse grounds as a reminder of the established hierarchy for any Black people seeking justice within the courthouse walls, are simply misunderstood.
We are grieved that certain hate groups have taken the Confederate flag and other symbols as their own. We are the descendants of Confederate soldiers, sailors, and patriots. Our members are the ones who have spent 128 years honoring their memory by various activities in the fields of education, history and charity, promoting patriotism and good citizenship. Our members are the ones who, like our statues, have stayed quietly in the background, never engaging in public controversy.
This despite their overt and central participation in advancing the Lost Cause. This from their national convention in 1900:
You stand before the world the living witness that the past is not dead, but all in it that was good and great and true still lives and has its worshipers. To you the selfsame welcome of the heart goes out as went that day to Jefferson Davis, the martyr chieftain of our sacred cause.
No public controversy there, just bake sales and teas, right? Today, over a thousand celebrations of that “sacred” cause live on. Turns out, while the Pentagon has been busily adjusting from an era where they named military assets after traitors, the nation continues to quietly host (as of 2015) “at least 1,441 federally recognized places across the nation [that] include slurs in their official name.” We’re talking Dead Negro Hollow, Tennessee. Wetback Tank, New Mexico. Dead Injun Creek, Oregon. And now I wonder if Rick Perry still has that unfortunately named hunting camp. But also today: one fewer.
Because today, April 27th, 2023, the U.S. Army garrison in Southern Virginia’s name was changed from Fort Lee to Fort Gregg-Adams.1
Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, the first African American to achieve such a high rank, retired in 1981 after serving as the Army's deputy chief of staff, logistics. He becomes the only living soldier in modern history to have an installation named in his honor. Lt. Col. Charity Adams joined the newly created Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942 and was the highest-ranking Black woman of World War II.
Since the Naming Commission was formed to provide removal and renaming recommendations for installations “that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America,” installations like famed Fort Bragg are no more; replaced with Fort Liberty. That work continues.
This Commission, it must be mentioned here, was the subject of a veto by the 45th president, someone who is seeking the office again in 2024. He vetoed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (the annual bill that funds the Pentagon,) because of his opposition to changing the names of military assets so as to stop honoring the legacy of traitors. Fortunately, Congress overrode this veto and the NDAA became law. Along with the establishment of the Naming Commission and days like today.
Days when we step forward from the worship of a white supremacy movement once considered a “sacred” cause. Perhaps this movement never really went away. The roaches waited for the lights to dim, and once again appear underfoot. The work continues to uproot over a thousand attempts to remind non-white Americans that they are less than. When will we celebrate the removal of the last slur, the last dehumanizing place name in America?
For the Pentagon: this process will continue as bases, posts, ships, and streets are undergoing the long unwinding of the Lost Cause movement. For the Interior, action is underway as of 2021 to remove the most frequently used slur from the Board on Geographic Names: squaw. For the rest: when will we be sufficiently shamed to take action?
https://apple.news/AgkFuZgibR3SmjilJb_-o2A
https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/racial-slurs-are-woven-deep-into-the-american-landscape-160045373.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tims_River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_Run
https://apple.news/AN7CgiixaSRuIglZg8RsD_g
https://birminghamwatch.org/daughters-confederacy-put-statues-indoctrinated-generations-historians-say/
https://hqudc.org
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/12/trump-vetoes-defense-policy-bill-over-base-names-unrelated-internet-law/171025/
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-takes-action-remove-derogatory-names-federal-lands
Please do read the article, their life stories are remarkable and worth reviewing.