“These street co-namings are the equivalent of placing your flag in the neighborhood,” said Laurie Cumbo, the City Council majority leader. “We have placed a Haitian flag in this neighborhood today for people here and the future to always know that this is a Haitian community.”

But the naming of Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard — along Rogers Avenue between Farragut Road and Eastern Parkway — and the neighborhood designation were not without complications.

Some felt Little Haiti was redundant because the area had previously been christened Little Caribbean by another group. And the street co-naming was delayed because of Dessalines’s controversial history.

After Haiti’s victory against France, Dessalines became Haiti’s first emperor in 1804. Aware that the French wanted to re-enslave the country, Dessalines called for the slaughter of all remaining white Frenchmen. Thousands of white people were killed in the massacre, historians believe.

Historical figures are being re-evaluated across the United States, with several Southern cities removing Confederate monuments in recent years, and Mayor Bill de Blasio establishing a commission to examine statues in New York. In that climate, the City Council committee that vets street co-namings flagged the Dessalines name as possibly offensive.