SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Officials have rebuffed a new push to change the name of a southern Utah canyon that's offensive to some but a point of historical pride for the state's largest NAACP chapter.
The Grand County Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to keep the name Negro Bill Canyon, which was dubbed for a black cowboy whose cattle grazed there in the 1870s, councilwoman Mary McGann said.
Amid renewed national scrutiny of the Confederate flag, she had pushed to change a name that she says is offensive and outdated.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake City chapter of the NAACP, opposed the effort. She says the name isn't offensive and is instead a point of pride because it makes clear the canyon is named for a black historical figure.
McGann says the councilmembers who wanted to keep the name cited the support of the Salt Lake NAACP.
