New Brunswick officially renames five locations with ‘Negro’ in their names

SAINT JOHN, N.B. – New Brunswick has officially replaced five place names in the Saint John area that use the anachronistic word Negro.

The province announced that Negro Lake in Grand Bay-Westfield will be called Corankapone Lake in honour of Richard Wheeler, whose African name was Corankapone.

The New Brunswick Black History society’s Ralph Thomas says this man brought other members of the black community in Westfield to Sierra Leone in search of a better life.

Negro Point in Saint John is being renamed Hodges Point, after the Hodges family who were black loyalists, while Negro Head will become Lorneville Head.

Negro Brook in Grand Bay-Westfield being changed to Black Loyalist Brook, while Negro Brook Road has been changed to Harriet O’Ree Road, named for a woman who lived on the route in 1861.

The announcements came on the last day of Black History Month in New Brunswick, and came with the agreement of the municipalities of Lorneville and Saint John.

Thomas has said that studies have shown the existence of the place names with the word Negro in them encouraged “the negative word, the N-word, and that’s what we are trying to get away from.”