Some Hillsborough residents are petitioning for a town street name to be changed from honoring a state Supreme Court justice with ties to white supremacy.
The namesake for Thomas Ruffin Street, which runs through a neighborhood off North Cameron Street, has many ties to the area. Ruffin practiced law in Hillsborough and served as a trustee for UNC during the early 19th century. He was chosen for North Carolina’s Supreme Court in 1829 and served as chief justice for 19 years. Even after, Ruffin owned property where the town hall currently stands and is buried in the St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church Cemetery just down the road from the street named in his honor.
Recently, however, Ruffin’s past as a slaveowner and his rulings in court that empowered slaveowners has led to renewed discussion about his legacy. Research from Orange County Commissioner Sally Greene and UNC law professor Eric Muller in 2018 shared details on the justice’s 1829 ruling that slaveholders should not be convicted for the assault or battery of an enslaved person. Other historical documents have revealed Ruffin’s poor treatment of slaves in his personal life as well.
In January 2020, just a few blocks away from Thomas Ruffin Street, the Orange County Courthouse removed a portrait of Ruffin at the request of former Superior Court Judge Carl Fox. A few months later, UNC renamed a residence hall to honor Thomas Ruffin Jr. instead of the senior due to his ties to oppression of Black people. One of the most recent changes regarding Ruffin saw the North Carolina Supreme Court remove a portrait of Ruffin that had hung since 1888.
Residents along Thomas Ruffin Street have been working to similarly change the namesake and symbolism of their street. Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver recently spoke with 97.9 The Hill about their efforts, which recently saw an advancement.
“For a couple of years, some of the residents on that street have expressed a desire to explore a name change,” Weaver said. “This group got 100 percent of the people living on that street [to] sign onto a petition and they brought their petition [Monday] night to the town board to ask to have a public hearing.”
The request at Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting culminated a sequence begun last year, when the group of residents’ request led the Hillsborough government to consider and establish a formal series of actions to determine when a town street name could be changed.
“What first had to happen,” said Weaver, “was the town needed to adopt a process to make this manageable for staff and something that was approachable for residents. This is kind of our test case.”
On Monday, the town commissioners granted a public hearing to be held on the street’s name change. Residents have proposed it become Hope Lane instead of Thomas Ruffin Street. The request passed with a unanimous vote from the elected officials, but Weaver said that future instances of potential name changes may have a different path.
“The town board is not required to grant a public hearing,” she explained. “If we get a lot of these, we’ll have some discussions in the future about whether we’ll grant one and not another. But, this one we did grant a public hearing and that will be in March.”
Another Hillsborough landmark set to have its name changed is located yards away from Thomas Ruffin Street. Cameron Park Elementary School is set to have its namesake changed this upcoming summer after the Orange County Schools Board of Education voted for a change on Monday.
Photo via Tammy Grubb/News & Observer.
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