Taking a Longer Historical View of America's Renaming Moment: The Role of Black Onomastic Activism within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

This paper examines the history of Black naming activism in the USA, focusing on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement. It argues that renaming practices are a significant political technology used by marginalized groups to assert their rights and identities. The authors analyze SNCC's onomastic tactics—the renaming of people, places, and institutions—as a form of activism that went beyond symbolic gestures, facilitating intelligence gathering, organizing transportation, and creating a revolutionary atmosphere. The paper concludes that renaming's efficacy comes from its integration with broader political practices and discourses, emphasizing that renaming alone is not liberation.

Derek H. Alderman, Joshua Inwood, Katrina Stack