Niggerhead

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Former name of items and places

title: "Niggerhead" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["anti-african-and-anti-black-slurs", "english-toponyms", "english-words"] description: "Former name of items and places" topic_path: "general/anti-african-and-anti-black-slurs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggerhead" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former name of items and places ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Nigger_Head_Tobacco_-_Wm_S_Kimball_racial_trade_cards.png" caption="Nigger Head Tobacco trading cards from the United States featuring racist stereotype caricatures of African Americans; late 19th century."] ::

"Niggerhead" or "nigger head" is a term that has been used in English-speaking countries with things associated with the head of a black person. Like the word "nigger", the name is now considered taboo in normal usage.

The term was once widely used for a number of things, including nautical bollards, echinacea plants, and consumer products including soap, chewing tobacco, stove polish, canned oysters and shrimp, golf tees, and toy cap pistols, among others. It was often used for geographic features such as hills and rocks and geological objects such as geodes. The term appears in several US patents for mechanical devices prior to about 1950.

In 1955, the Aughinbaugh Canning Company of Mississippi renamed its "Nigger Head Brand" oysters to "Negro Head Brand" following pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). More than a hundred "Niggerheads", and other place names now considered racially offensive, were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.

In October 2011, while Rick Perry was running for president of the United States, controversial reports that his family leased a hunting camp once called "Niggerhead" caused his record on racial issues to be scrutinized.

In August 2021, a large boulder at University of Wisconsin–Madison was removed after protests by students. The Black Student Union petitioned the university to remove the rock because it had once been described in a 1925 Wisconsin State Journal article as a "niggerhead."

References

References

  1. (2009). "Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and Re-Naming the Australian Landscape". ANU E Press.
  2. (1911). "The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia". The Century co.
  3. (February 1945). "Skill in the Surf – A Landing Boat Manual". Accessed via [[Naval History & Heritage Command]].
  4. "English Dictionary – Definition of "niggerhead"". Collins.
  5. Sayre, L. E.. (1903). "Echinacea Roots". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science.
  6. Mordoh, Alice. (1989). "The Old Traditional Way of Life". Trickster Press.
  7. Wallace, Samuel. (1878). "The American Journal of Science and Arts VolXV". New Haven.
  8. "Niggerhead".
  9. "Niggerhead".
  10. Johnson Publishing Company. (18 August 1955). "Jet". Johnson Publishing Company.
  11. McCrummen, Stephanie. (2 October 2011). "At Rick Perry's Texas hunting spot, camp's old racially charged name lingered". [[Washington Post]].
  12. Tomei, Savannah. (2021-08-06). "UW-Madison moves 42-ton boulder after effort from students of color".
  13. Erickson, Doug. (2021-08-06). "No longer a memorial, rock removed from campus".
  14. Gretzinger, Erin. (2021-08-08). "Watch now: Boulder that provoked controversy removed from UW-Madison campus".
  15. PYRE, RUSSELL B.. (9 August 2021). "Read the Wisconsin State Journal's original article on Chamberlin Rock (1925)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

anti-african-and-anti-black-slursenglish-toponymsenglish-words