A fight over Jim Crow Road divides rural Northern California town
Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times
May 31, 2021
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Downieville, California, United States, North AmericaEmily Riddell/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images
LOS ANGELES, Calif. As the story goes, a Native Hawaiian man came as a Gold Rush pioneer to a mountainous swath of Sierra County to strike it rich.
His name was given to a ravine, a stream and a street off scenic Highway 49, three miles east of Downieville, Calif. That’s how Jim Crow Canyon, Jim Crow Creek and Jim Crow Road came to be.
Generations later, people who own property along the less-than-a-mile-long road, including a small mountain resort, say that Jim Crow has got to go.
In rural Northern California town, officials vote to rename Jim Crow Road
Debate is raging over Jim Crow Road in the small town of Downieville, Calif., pictured here in 2019.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
June 1, 2021 1:48 PM PT
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A Northern California county has voted to rename Jim Crow Road after a debate over the racist implications of the name and accusations of “woke cancel culture.”
The 4-1 vote by the Sierra County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday came after property owners along the road, located about three miles from Downieville, asked for a name change in early April. The name will be changed to Crow City Road, as recommended by the county’s historical society.
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Supporters of changing the street's name say it evokes the racist laws that kept Black people segregated in the American South. Opponents call the proposed name change "woke cancel culture" run amok.