Negro Head Corner, Arkansas

Unincorporated community in Arkansas, United States

35°20′38″N 91°21′27″W / 35.34389°N 91.35750°W / 35.34389; -91.35750CountryUnited StatesStateArkansasCountyWoodruffElevation

^[1]

217 ft (66 m)Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)GNIS feature ID52597^[1]

Negro Head Corner is an unincorporated community in Woodruff County, Arkansas, United States, located about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Augusta.^[2]

The area is named for an oak sculpture of a Black man's head that was once displayed at the corner of a farm near the crossroads. It was carved by Wade Antney, who farmed the land first as an enslaved person and then later as the owner.^[2] It has been theorized that the sculpture represented Legba, the loa of crossroads in Haitian Vodou.^[3] However, due to the presence of Bakongo-based Hoodoo in Arkansas, it is more plausible that the sculpture was a face nkisi,^{[according to whom?]} which many Black Americans in the South use for protection, healing and the connection of the physical world to the spiritual world, where the ancestors are said to reside. In American conjure tradition, these figures and charms are often placed in the corner of a house or property, which represents the Kalûnga line and Kongo cross.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Negro Head Corner, Arkansas
^ ^a ^b Hankins, B.J. (July 11, 1968). "The Man Who Lived at Nigger Head Corner". Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine. 67 (27). Arkansas Baptist State Convention: 5.
^ Brownderville, Greg Alan (November 2002). "Devil of the Blues" (PDF). The Society for the Study of Southern Literature. 36 (1). University of Arkansas.
^ "The Chipstone Foundation". www.chipstone.org. Retrieved July 4, 2024.