dustyelbow
08-15-2007, 10:02 AM
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Youngblood's assault on Negro Mountain
Pa. Rep. Youngblood's son and graddaughter found a reference (below) to a Negro Mountain in Pennsylvania, and now she wants a change in the name, which offends her. But it was named for a hero.
http://media.philly.com/images/20070713_dn_0jl35pil.jpg
Daily News file photo
Pa. Rep. Youngblood's son and graddaughter found a reference (below) to a Negro Mountain in Pennsylvania, and now she wants a change in the name, which offends her. But it was named for a hero.
WHAT'S IN a name? Embarrassment, when the name is Negro Mountain.
State Rep. Rosita Youngblood says her son and her graddaughter, seventh graders at Henry Houston Elementary School in Mount Airy, were working on a class project last spring when they discovered the name of a ridge in southwestern Pennsylvania.
"They were both offended," Youngblood said. "My granddaughter said,
'Grandmom, is this true?' I said, 'There's no such thing as Negro Mountain.' Then I learned it was true."
And because she's a state rep, the children asked her to do something about it. Now she is.
...
Clout now mines some irony in this mountain. It got its name not in derision, but to honor an African-American hero.
According to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and several other sources, here's how it happened:
During the French and Indian War in the late 1750s, an African-American slave or scout named Nemesis fought valiantly with a frontier force under Col. Thomas Cresap.
Nemesis, a large and powerful man, was killed in the skirmish and buried on the mountain.
An alternate legend calls him Goliah and says he saved a hunting party led by Capt. Andrew Friend during an Indian attack.
The Appalachian ridge, which runs 30 miles through Pennsylvania and Maryland, has been called Negro Mountain ever since.
The ridge took on added significance in 1921 when the state recognized it as the highest point (3,213 feet) in Pennsylvania. And in so doing changed the name of the summit (but not the mountain ridge) to Mount Davis, in honor of a white settler who once owned the land.
....
Christopher Bracey, a law professor and associate professor of African and African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote about the mountain on his blackprof.com -some_thoughts_on_negro_mountain (http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/08/some_thoughts_on_negro_mountai.html) Web site after discovering it on a cross-country drive.
"I must confess I have a slightly different take on it than [Youngblood]," Bracey said yesterday. "Here we have a mountain, whose name was intended to be a testament to Negro bravery. It seems rather crass and unsophisticated to name it Negro Mountain, but the intentions were strong."
What disturbs Bracey is the 1921 naming of the summit for Davis, the white landowner, rather than the valiant black scout.
"I actually like 'Negro Mountain,' " Bracey said. "The main thing is not to refer to it as Mount Davis. Negro Mountain seems at once courageous and tragic because we simply don't know enough of the history to honor this man's bravery."
Bracey's research also uncovered the name of the ridge just south of Negro Mountain. Which is . . . ?
"Polish Mountain," Bracey chuckled.
Youngblood's assault on Negro Mountain
Pa. Rep. Youngblood's son and graddaughter found a reference (below) to a Negro Mountain in Pennsylvania, and now she wants a change in the name, which offends her. But it was named for a hero.
http://media.philly.com/images/20070713_dn_0jl35pil.jpg
Daily News file photo
Pa. Rep. Youngblood's son and graddaughter found a reference (below) to a Negro Mountain in Pennsylvania, and now she wants a change in the name, which offends her. But it was named for a hero.
WHAT'S IN a name? Embarrassment, when the name is Negro Mountain.
State Rep. Rosita Youngblood says her son and her graddaughter, seventh graders at Henry Houston Elementary School in Mount Airy, were working on a class project last spring when they discovered the name of a ridge in southwestern Pennsylvania.
"They were both offended," Youngblood said. "My granddaughter said,
'Grandmom, is this true?' I said, 'There's no such thing as Negro Mountain.' Then I learned it was true."
And because she's a state rep, the children asked her to do something about it. Now she is.
...
Clout now mines some irony in this mountain. It got its name not in derision, but to honor an African-American hero.
According to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and several other sources, here's how it happened:
During the French and Indian War in the late 1750s, an African-American slave or scout named Nemesis fought valiantly with a frontier force under Col. Thomas Cresap.
Nemesis, a large and powerful man, was killed in the skirmish and buried on the mountain.
An alternate legend calls him Goliah and says he saved a hunting party led by Capt. Andrew Friend during an Indian attack.
The Appalachian ridge, which runs 30 miles through Pennsylvania and Maryland, has been called Negro Mountain ever since.
The ridge took on added significance in 1921 when the state recognized it as the highest point (3,213 feet) in Pennsylvania. And in so doing changed the name of the summit (but not the mountain ridge) to Mount Davis, in honor of a white settler who once owned the land.
....
Christopher Bracey, a law professor and associate professor of African and African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote about the mountain on his blackprof.com -some_thoughts_on_negro_mountain (http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/08/some_thoughts_on_negro_mountai.html) Web site after discovering it on a cross-country drive.
"I must confess I have a slightly different take on it than [Youngblood]," Bracey said yesterday. "Here we have a mountain, whose name was intended to be a testament to Negro bravery. It seems rather crass and unsophisticated to name it Negro Mountain, but the intentions were strong."
What disturbs Bracey is the 1921 naming of the summit for Davis, the white landowner, rather than the valiant black scout.
"I actually like 'Negro Mountain,' " Bracey said. "The main thing is not to refer to it as Mount Davis. Negro Mountain seems at once courageous and tragic because we simply don't know enough of the history to honor this man's bravery."
Bracey's research also uncovered the name of the ridge just south of Negro Mountain. Which is . . . ?
"Polish Mountain," Bracey chuckled.