County commissioners and residents along Forest Service road east of Waldport advocate changing racist name

 

By KENNETH LIPP/YachatsNews

Almost 20 years after Lincoln County commissioners declined to change a racist road name east of Waldport, the county now appears poised to rename it for a former slave who lived there 140 years ago.

As far as the U.S. Forest Service is concerned, the half-mile stretch of fern- and tree-lined road it owns on the south side of Oregon Highway 34 across from Alsea River RV Park is called NF-3489.

But the legal address for about 25 homesites along it has become a source of shame and embarrassment for some. On official documents, it’s East Darkey Creek Road and labeled as such on online maps along with its Forest Service designation.

The road was deeded to the Forest Service in the 1960s and wasn’t officially named until the county undertook an address project in the 1980s. The county legally named it East Darkey Creek Road in 1986, county Counsel Kristin Yuille said during a name-change hearing initiated by county commissioners Wednesday.

The name is drawn from an eponymous creek that runs just south of the road, the former homestead site of Louis Southworth.

Southworth was brought to Oregon a slave in the mid-19th century and purchased his freedom with earnings from playing the violin. He settled and began building a farm with his family about 4 miles up the Alsea River from Waldport in 1880, ran a passenger ferry across the river, was active in civic affairs and later donated the land for the area’s first school.

“Darkey” was supposedly an affectionate nickname for Southworth given by neighbors. Yuille told commissioners Wednesday the assessor’s office located maps dating to the 1930s which give that name to the creek. The Oregon Geographic Names Board renamed it Southworth Creek in 1999 after public outcry over a vote not to do so six months prior.

The proposed new name for the road, Yuille said, is East Southworth Road or East Louis Southworth Road.

An awkward address

The hearing Wednesday drew about 10 to the commission’s regular meeting in the county courthouse, including several residents of the road.

Amy Anderson said the name led her and her husband to reconsider buying their house 10 years ago. Their address has since cost them a friend, Anderson said.

“It’s very offensive to our African American neighbors and friends,” she said. 

Their realtor told them when showing the property a “sweet little story” about how the name was a term of endearment, Anderson said. But she told commissioners she doubted Southworth would have preferred it to his own name –  and it was now clearly understood to be a belittling and pejorative term.

Greg Anderson and resident Kevin Hayden also spoke in support of the change, although Anderson noted that Southworth was, in fact, the slave owner’s name. 

Hayden, who bought his home a year ago, said the real estate agent listed the property address as on the Forest Service road, and he eventually had to redo all of the sale paperwork because that was not the legal address.

Kay Smallwood, a 25-year resident of the road, said she believed the fact that Southworth was a slave name should be a deal breaker.

“I feel Southworth is honoring the slave owner,” she said. “He was born as Hunter.”

Resident Oscar McMillin told commissioners he was “kind of neutral” on the issue of renaming, although his grandparents and parents had known Southworth, he said, and there was “nothing racial” about the road or creek being named Darkey.

“I would ask, because I feel that this is going to get changed no matter what, so whatever it is changed to, please, for those of us who have to change all of our documents, keep the name as short as possible,” he said.

Waldport Chamber of Commerce director Tom Fullmer said it was important to understand that the issue was “bigger than the city of Waldport,” and there is growing interest in recognizing Southworth at the state level.

Waldport Mayor Greg Holland said a name change was important for the city’s message of acceptance, and he wanted to see it in place before groundbreaking for the 12-acre Louis Southworth Park. Waldport won a $750,000 grant in September for the first phase of the park’s development and recently unveiled a life-sized sculpture of Southworth that will eventually be installed at the park.

Decision next week

The last time the commission was asked to change the name of East Darkey Creek Road was in 2004, Yuille said. Staff with the forest service submitted the petition, as they’d previously done with the state geographic names board, and commissioners held a hearing on the petition.

“At that time, the vast majority of the testimony on the name change was in the negative,” commission chair Claire Hall recalled from having covered the hearing as a news reporter. Her predecessors declined to change the name rather than inconvenience residents with updating their addresses and legal documents.

When the petition failed, Yuille said, the Forest Service simply took down the county’s Darkey Creek Road signs and put up one with the numbered designation.

“But the legal addressing system is still Darkey Creek Road,” Yuille said.

All three commissioners said they favored renaming the road. Commissioner Kaety Jacobson thanked commenters and said they gave her a lot to think about in terms of a new name. Commissioner Doug Hunt said he thought it was important to mention that the 2004 commission had failed to act rather than taking an opposing stance.

Commissioners will vote on whether to change the name and to what during their meeting next Wednesday.

• Kenneth Lipp is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at KenLipp@YachatsNews.com