Jim Crow Landmarks To Be Renamed Due To Racist Connotation

Washington state Senator Pramila Jayapal started a campaign to change the names of landmarks of Washington that were named after Jim Crow because of the racist connotation associated with that name. According to The Daily Astorian, the cannery town of Brookfield, which no longer exists, has three landmarks with the Jim Crow name that will soon be changed due to the racist nature of the name. Jim Crow Creek, Jim Crow Hill, and Jim Crow Point will soon be renamed Harlow Creek, Beare Hill, and Brookfield Point. The new names are supposed to honor the cannery town with names of a few people who lived there.

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After Senator Jayapal started her campaign, the state Committee on Geographic Names unanimously agreed in May to adopt the new names for the landmarks which were suggested by Puget Island resident Joe Budnick. Budnick says he lived in Brookfield since his birth in 1946 until the town was razed by a logging company in the late 1950s. Budnick and his siblings are among the last living former residents of the Columbia River town. The town was a ghost town for much of Budnick’s time there but was home to as many as 500 mostly immigrant families in the years before. Budnick says he has heard from several people with ties to the town that are thrilled to see the town getting recognition.

“It was quite a history. The older people I talked to said it was the greatest place on earth. They all still wish they were back there again.”

Some historians think the landmarks were named after an early black settler named James Saules, who lived in the area during the mid-1800s, but some locals argue that the places were named for an Indian chief or a logger named Jim Crow, or even the birds associated with that name. Some of those locals feel strongly that the names should not be changed, but others find them offensive.

The reason Jim Crow has racial overtones is because of a racist character named Jim Crow that appeared in minstrel shows, cartoons, and radio plays between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s. The name Jim Crow (as described in “A Brief History of Jim Crow”) became a racial slur that was used to describe the controversial laws that were prevalent in the South after the Civil War that called for racial segregation and excluded black people from participating in services and establishments that were labeled “whites only.”

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Budnick said he agrees that the names of the landmarks should be changed because of media accounts that made it seem as if everyone in Wahkiakum County was racist. He said that while growing up, the names didn’t mean much to him but after the controversy arose, he agreed that it was time for a change. Budnick also researched James Saules and decided that the landmarks shouldn’t be named after him either. Although Saules is an important historical figure in Washington, Budnick says he wasn’t that nice. Budnick said he was “bothered by accounts that Saules might have mistreated Native American women.” In 1846 Saules was charged with killing his native wife in an Oregon court.

“He wasn’t a stand-up guy, really.”

Budnick decided that the town landmarks should be named after people that were influential in the area. The town of Brookfield was named by Joseph Megler who built the salmon cannery in 1873. Megler named the town Brookfield after his wife Nellie’s hometown of Brookfield, MA. Harlow Creek will be named after the Harlow family who lived in a houseboat on the creek and later built a home there. The home was built over the houseboat which they dry-docked on land. Beare Hill will be named after homesteaders Georgianna and John Beare who settled in Brookfield in the early 1900s.

Do you think the Jim Crow landmarks names should be changed? Please post your opinions below.

[Photo by AP Photo/Elaine Thompson]