Is this true about blacks and whites and street names in the South?

Question

A long street may all of a sudden change names because it crosses into or out of a city or county or township border or something like that.

But, a friend insists that, at least in the South, there sometimes is an alternate origin from many decades ago: If a long street had whites living on one end and blacks on the other, the whites insisted on two different names so that the name of the street they lived on wouldn't also be the name of a street that blacks lived on. My friend said that this is especially so for streets that traverse RR crossings.

I've never heard of this. Have you? Could it be that the two streets at one time were separate and then, with development, were paved together or otherwise connected?

I'm looking for historic accuracy, not speculation of late-19th and early-20th Century regional culture based upon 21st Century racial sensibilities.

Answer 1

Pull up street maps of Charleston, Baltimore, Atlanta, and other Southern cities and see if the names change in the old city (pre-1900) areas.  Suburbs didn't start developing until after cars were widely available so it should be able to see on the city maps.