DEPUE — The two sides of the renaming of Negro Creek issue came together Saturday, not to yell or to name-call, but to celebrate the things the groups have in common.
Several months ago, Phillip Mol of DePue had heard the creek referred to as “Nigger Creek” one too many times, so he formed a group and created a Facebook page dedicated to changing the name of the creek. When Chad Errio of Seatonville heard about it, he disagreed and formed a group and a Facebook page dedicated to preserving history and keeping the name as it is.
A social network war ensued, with heated words and name-calling spread across Facebook and on newspaper blogs.
On Saturday, Mol and Sharon Kopina, who would also like to change the name, sat down with Errio and Carl Neuhalfen, another supporter of leaving the name alone, at the First Congregational Church in DePue.
The two groups didn’t agree on everything. Neuhalfen said there was no local support for changing the name, while Mol disagreed.
They also didn’t agree on who exactly calls it “Nigger Creek.”
Errio and Neuhalfen said they heard older people call it “Nigger Creek,” and Errio said it would pass away with time as those people died.
“My kids don’t call it that,” Errio said.
Neuhalfen admitted he had referred to it as “Nigger Creek,” but that changed when he first heard one of his children say it.
“Every generation wants more for their children,” he said. “We want them to be bigger and better.”
Kopina and Mol disagreed. Kopina said her husband heard it frequently from students when he taught at the school in Ladd.
“The majority of the time I hear ‘Nigger Creek’ it came from young people,” Mol said.
The groups also disagreed on why the African-American population was so low in the county. Errio said it was misleading to say the population is low because of racism, and that it is because of a general lack of jobs.
Mol disagreed and said the area was both beautiful and affordable.
“The jobs weren’t here anymore, but the jobs that were still here went to the white folks,” he said.
But there was a lot the two groups agreed on. Both would like to see a monument or plaque erected to commemorate the history of the area and the early African-Americans who came to work in the coal mines and settled along the creek.
Kopina offered to help with any fundraising, and Mol offered his efforts with any necessary drafting or surveying.
“The monument thing is an honorable pursuit, and frankly, it’s slightly more possible if we’re all involved,” Mol said.
The groups also agreed the battle wouldn’t be fought locally.
Mol and Kopina will continue the fight to change the name on either a social or national level, in which eventually either state or federal law would require all names deemed to be offensive to be changed.
Errio and Neuhalfen said they would continue their efforts to block any change on a local level but would accept a state or federal change. Neuhalfen said he was willing to go with the majority.
“If we’re forced, no one on our side would have a problem with it being changed to Love’s Creek in honor of that history,” Errio said.
Although the arguments and name-calling have been painful, Kopina said the process has been helpful.
“There has to be some pushing, and usually pushing brings awareness because when you don’t have to look at it, people won’t look at it,” she said. “As much disarray that it brought to the area, I say ‘Hurrah’ because I think this area needed it.”
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