In Johnson County, new signs now stand along Negro Creek that offer context about how the waterway got its name.
As the Johnson County Post reports, Negro Creek — which runs through southern Overland Park and Leawood — was mostly unknown because it didn't have any signage and appeared on few maps. But around the time that social justice protests emerged in 2020, spurred by the killing of George Floyd, people took notice and started petitions to change its name.
Researchers at the University of Missouri–Kansas City uncovered the story of an enslaved man attempting to escape from the Chiles family, a notorious pro-slavery family in Missouri.
But as the man ran toward freedom, he was cornered at the creek. Faced with the threat of being forced back into slavery, he decided to take his own life.
Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast, who led the Negro Creek Renaming Committee, said that community leaders agreed that preserving this history was a way to honor the man.
Because historians were unable to recover the man's name, the creek’s name of Negro Creek remains unchanged.
“I’ve always believed that unless you know your past, you don't know where you're going in the future,” Fast told KCUR’s Up to Date. “Johnson County has a history of segregation [and] discrimination, and those stories need to be told. We need to uncover more of those stories so that we become a county for all residents.”
Jean Sonderand, a New York based filmmaker who grew up playing in Negro Creek, is currently producing a film on the history and culture around it.
- Becky Fast, Johnson County Commissioner, 1st District
- Jay Holbert, past president of NAACP
