No expert can say with certainty why the inconspicuous stream in the vicinity of the US city of Kansas City is called "Negro Creek".
But the name arouses sensitivities and emotions.
Everyday racism and the legacy of colonialism are currently being passionately discussed in the USA and around the world.
As if under a magnifying glass, this debate can currently be observed in the US state of Kansas.
Because the most common explanation for the origin of the name »Negro Creek« leads back to the middle of the 19th century, to the time of slavery.
Accordingly, the name of the creek is derived from a slave who escaped from Missouri and killed himself near the creek.
He evidently wanted to die rather than be captured and enslaved again.
Now, according to a report in the regional newspaper »Kansas City Star«, a committee of historians and activists is investigating the history of the brook in Johnson County.
The aim of the activists is to rename the "Negro Creek".
"How we name places and how we see ourselves in public spaces really speaks volumes and reveals what we value and what is important to us," said Kenya Cox, executive director of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, a regional advisory group.
“It is time for us to have this discussion.
We have to be ready to venture into discomfort and do the hard things. ”This is wholesome and better for the current and future generations.
In the summer of 2020, activists first drew greater attention to the creek after pushing an online petition to rename it.
Diane Mutti Burke is Chair of the History Department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
She and PhD student Deborah Keating have made an investigation report and are convinced that the story of the black slave who killed himself is the most likely origin of the name.
Such geographic features often have a "history of racist violence," said Burke.
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Other theories suggest that the stream was named after black families who lived in an old township in the area.
The name may also allude to the famous Underground Railroad: This was a network of escape lines and illegal shelters operated by opponents of slavery, with the help of which slaves were smuggled from the southern states into the safe northern states.
So far, however, there is no evidence for this theory, says Burke.
Not an isolated case: Kansas and its »Negro Creeks«
The discussion is about more than the name of a stream.
In the state of Kansas alone there are numerous places that have the word "Negro" in their names - including an oil field and other rivers.
A second "Negro Creek" is located southwest of the city of Wichita, about 300 kilometers from Kansas City.
It got its name from a report of a black man who froze to death in a snow storm nearby in 1872.
A third "Negro Creek", which flows into the Arkansas River near Wichita, was probably named after four freedom-seeking blacks who are said to have either been killed or wounded there.
And a fourth "Negro Creek" in the far northeast of Kansas was named after the lynching of a black man, according to a newspaper report.
The accumulation of these "Negro Creeks" in Kansas is actually a relic from a bygone era: In order to comply with a federal ordinance of 1963, the authorities removed racist designations from the maps, often including the word "Negro".
From then on it also disappeared from many federal documents.
In 2013, the state statistics agency, the US Census Bureau, decided to stop using the word "Negro" in their surveys.
A little later, the US Army followed suit and banned the term.
Suggestions for a new name - and a long way to go
The advocates of renaming the Brook near Kansas City meanwhile plan to collect suggestions for a new name.
In addition, they want to put up signs along the creek that explain the presumed origin of the name and remind of slavery.
However, it will take some time before the name can be changed.
Accurate historical documentation as well as applications and approvals on several levels are necessary.
The final decision is made by the Geographical Names Committee, a US federal agency.
With material from AP
