Create a 10-word scroll-stopping headline for: A Raleigh Neighborhood Ditched Its Slave-Owning Namesake. Some Are Still Fighting to Keep It. | Vibe NC

The neighborhood known either as Cameron Park or Forest Park, depending which side of the debate you’re on, is one of Raleigh’s oldest and stateliest. 

Tucked off of Hillsborough Street, it’s a patchwork of genteel Colonial and Queen Anne-style homes situated on ample lawns and shaded by oaks, ashes, and elms. Most of the 800 or so residents are wealthy and liberal. Some are politicians and university chancellors. The vibe is friendly: People know their neighbors. They hang out at the bar down the street. They barbecue together.

“When we moved here, the first few days, we literally had to start spying out our windows,” recalls Joel Lutterman, president of the Forest Park Neighborhood Association.

“Neighbors were stopping by to talk to us and we couldn’t get any work done.”

The neighborhood has an active listserv that serves as a forum for party invitations, furniture giveaways, and the occasional spirited hyperlocal argument. In early 2021, it lit up with discussion about whether Cameron Park should change its name due to its namesake’s connection to slavery. 

Over the next five years, the debate would cleave the otherwise close-knit, politically homogeneous community into two factions, each claiming to have history, the law, and racial politics on their side. 

A series of surveys and votes culminated in a decision to rename the neighborhood Forest Park in 2022. Then last year, six neighbors filed a lawsuit claiming the name-change process had been flawed and should be deemed invalid. And although they voluntarily dismissed their suit this spring, they say they plan to bring it back.

The plaintiffs plan to again ask the court to declare that the neighborhood association’s renaming process was improper, said their lawyer Robin Tatum. And they’ll ask the court to clarify the procedure for how the neighborhood could legally change its name.

The INDY spoke to neighbors, current and former neighborhood association presidents, and the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit and combed through court records and emails to understand why this debate still hasn’t been put to rest. A majority of people seem to have accepted the change and moved on. But a vocal minority refuses to let it die.

The Cameron Legacy

Born in 1777, Duncan Cameron was a judge, state lawmaker, and University of North Carolina trustee. He and his family owned thousands of acres of plantations and more than 1,000 slaves. 

He also owned the land that became Cameron Park. This land was never a plantation, and he leased some of it to the Episcopal School of North Carolina, which became Saint Mary’s School. By the 1900s, developers had acquired the land and planned a suburb for the growing and industrializing capital city. A wave of new upper-middle-class professionals needed somewhere to live. 

Early advertisements for the neighborhood courted…