Outrage over the name "Nigger Hill" has prompted officials in California to vote for replacing 36 controversial gravestones that ignited a firestorm across the Golden State. The graves hold the bodies of black pioneers from a California Gold Rush settlement called Negro Hill, which was formed after two African-Americans struck gold there in 1849.
The federal government moved the bodies from the El Dorado County mining town in 1954 to make way for a dam.
Concrete headstones were erected by the U.S. government declaring that the settlers came from "Nigger Hill".
The bigoted text carving was not merely on one gravestone but on 36 consecutive engravings, each one a time-consuming effort. Unknowingly, taxpayers footed the bill.
Exactly why U.S. government employees would misrepresent the California community's name so offensively on these gravestones in 1954 is a question which no one today can answer, apparently.
The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has now unanimously agreed to get rid of the grave markers, which most Californians have condemned as racist, inflammatory and disgusting.
The board rejected a proposal to hand authority for the project over to the California Prison Industry Authority, which runs inmate work programs and offered its services at no charge.
Instead, supervisors organized a community meeting for input after a group of advocates demanded that the black community be involved in changing the situation.
"It's embarrassing and it's insulting to us for it to be there, and for you to take under consideration to let some prisoners fix it," said community member Ralph White, who attended the meeting.
Some have suggested that a monument be made to explain the history of the graves. Others want the original gravestones be displayed in museums or universities.
Advocacy groups want to see polished gray granite headstones to replace the weather-worn concrete slabs.
Most Californians want a public explanation of how the graves were so wrongfully and hurtfully designated by representatives of the U.S. government.
El Dorado County has been responsive to the outrage sparked by the gravestones and the racial epithet on them, but many feel that more needs to be done.
The federal government has taken the blame.
Many California voters assumed that the current head of the U.S. government, an African-American himself, would rectify the insult to pioneers of the Golden State.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has apologized for the offensive term.
