Route Fifty: How To Rename a Place
Route Fifty: How To Rename a Place. “Louisiana’s Dead Negro Branch was renamed Alexander Branch, after a late local civil-rights leader. Mulatto Mountain, North Carolina, became Simone Mountain, honoring the great Black pianist and singer (and Old North State native) Nina Simone. The new names are the work of the Board on Geographic Names, a little-known federal body with the remarkable power to literally remake the map.”