The Bloomington Farm Stop Collective, formerly known as Rose Hill Farm Stop, announced its rebranding in a press release Sunday.
The name change comes after some community members called attention to the racially problematic history of Rose Hill Cemetery, located across the street from the collective.
“Once we got up and running as a business, it was brought to our attention by community members that a lot of people, especially BIPOC people, in that cemetery don't have headstones,” co-manager Lillian Greenberg said.
Established in the early 1800s, Rose Hill Cemetery was founded during a deeply racist period in American history, marked by slavery and segregation.
Greenberg and fellow manager Bobbi Boos said the lack of headstones for Black, Indigenous and persons of color (BIPOC) graves at Rose Hill connects to the erasure of Black lives from historical narratives, so the decision to change the name “was a no-brainer.”
“It was kind of like, well, why wouldn't we change the name? Why would we continue to stand by a name that makes members of our community feel unsafe or unwelcome?” Greenberg said. “That was a big piece for us.”
Greenberg also spoke about accountability.
“I think a big part of why it's taken so long is that we really understood that we couldn't just change our name and that would make everything okay,” said Greenberg. “We understood that we actually had to do that diversity, equity and inclusion work to back up what we were doing.”
Nevertheless, activists say a name change cannot not erase the harm done to Bloomington’s Black community.
Read more: Farmer sentiment dips in August
According to a press release from Black Lives Matter Bloomington (BLM Btown), the organization has been trying to hold the farming co-op accountable since “before it opened its doors” in August 2021.
“The name change comes years after BLM Btown exposed the farm stop for naming itself after the historic white segregated cemetery in the Bloomington community & near westside neighborhood. A neighborhood of historically Black homes, schools and its own cemetery White Oak where prominent Black members of the Bloomington community are buried,” the press release reads.
The group says changing the name is the smallest and least significant change the Farm Stop could implement.
The Farm Stop did implement internal changes led by the BTCC, a Bloomington organization specializing in implicit bias and anti-racism training, to ensure the new initiatives were done from an educated standpoint, Greenberg said.
Editor's Note: In a previous version of this post, Indiana Public Media repeated a claim about a Farm Stop founder that was not independently fact-checked. We regret the error.
