Place (Re)Naming

Abstract

The American cultural landscape has entered an extraordinarily tumultuous time. At the time of this writing, in 2020, a new wave of anti-racist protest is sweeping the globe in response to the murders of unarmed Black women and men both at the hands of the state and white supremacist vigilantes. The memorial landscape, particularly in terms of place names, has become once again a site for (re)asserting a Black sense of place and the past, as well as for diverting attention away from concrete policy demands that could improve the lived material realities of the marginalized, especially Black people. This chapter explores the history and evolution of American place name landscape change and scholarly debates over the politics of place (re)naming. It situates place name politics in a wider critical historical and geographic context by surveying recent struggles over place names on American university campuses. Finally, in view of the increasing role the toponymic landscape plays in oppressed peoples’ demands for change, it concludes with a reflection on the possibilities and limits of reparative place (re)naming and a word of caution given how authorized place name changes are often used to placate rather than meet demands for justice.