Niggerhead

For other uses, see Niggerhead (disambiguation).

"Niggerhead" or "nigger head" is a term that has been used in English-speaking countries with things associated with the head of a black person.^[1][2] Like the word "nigger", the name is now considered taboo in normal usage.

Nigger Head Tobacco trading cards from the United States featuring racist stereotype caricatures of African Americans; late 19th century.

The term was once widely used for a number of things, including nautical bollards^[3][4] and consumer products including soap, chewing tobacco, stove polish, canned oysters and shrimp, golf tees, and toy cap pistols, among others. It was often used for geographic features such as hills and rocks and geological objects such as geodes.^[5][6] The term appears in several US patents for mechanical devices prior to about 1950.^[7][8]

In 1955, the Aughinbaugh Canning Company of Mississippi renamed its "Nigger Head Brand" oysters to "Negro Head Brand" following pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).^[9] More than a hundred "Niggerheads", and other place names now considered racially offensive, were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.^[10]

In October 2011, while Rick Perry was running for president of the United States, controversial reports that his family leased a hunting camp once called "Niggerhead" caused his record on racial issues to be scrutinized.^[10]

In August 2021, a large boulder at University of Wisconsin–Madison was removed after protests by students. The Black Student Union petitioned the university to remove the rock because it had once been described in a 1925 Wisconsin State Journal article as a "niggerhead."^{[11][12][13][14]}

See also

• Use of nigger in proper names
• List of rock formations that resemble human beings