In Johnson County, new signs now stand along Negro Creek that offer context about how the waterway got its name.
As the Johnson County Post reports, Negro Creek — which runs through southern Overland Park and Leawood — was mostly unknown because it didn’t have any signage and appeared on few maps. But around the time that social justice protests emerged in 2020, spurred by the killing of George Floyd, people took notice and started petitions to change its name.
Researchers at the University of Missouri–Kansas City uncovered the story of an enslaved man attempting to escape from the Chiles family, a notorious pro-slavery family in Missouri…