South Dakota

True story from the place I grew up:

There’s a road connecting St. Maries, ID to Plummer, ID. It’s got three segments: from Plummer to Lake Chatcolet, around the lake, and from the lake to St. Maries. There’s a steep hill at both ends of the lake segment. The one connecting the lake segment to the St. Maries segment was officially named N-word Brown Hill. That wasn’t a nickname. The hill was named after a Black civil engineer named Brown (seriously) who lived there in the 19th Century and designed the entire road. It was listed on maps with that racist name, and when the state listed road construction projects it was named in official documents with that name.

Then Vernon Baker moved to town to invest in land. Mr. Baker was a Black man you may remember as one of the Black WWII vets to have their acts of heroism reevaluated with the intent of correcting past injustices. Shortly after he moved to town President Clinton called him to the White House to receive his Medal of Honor. (He singlehandedly took out three machine gun nests, an observation post and a dugout, then led his entire battalion safely across a huge minefield.) And shortly after that he found out the official name of that hill. He was on the phone to the state that day, and got the name of the hill changed. Not sure what it is now, but I can tell you what it isn’t.