Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, the first Haitian-American woman elected to office in New York City and one of the leaders of Little Haiti BK, the nonprofit group that helped create the district, is concerned by the delay.

“Columbus murdered a lot of people and still people across the nation recognize him as a hero,” Ms. Bichotte said. “It’s not the same standards when it comes to black leaders.”

Mabel O. Wilson, a professor of architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and associate director at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies, said Ms. Bichotte has a point.

“What we define as history is from a Western European tradition. It affects the way history is written, monuments are built and narratives are defined,” Ms. Wilson said.

The push to create the Little Haiti cultural district was reignited after President Trump made disparaging remarks about Haiti and ended a program that allowed Haitians to live and work in the United States after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

“The mentality of Dessalines is you have to go and win the fight,” Ms. Bichotte said. “And that’s the type of heroes we are looking for, especially in this time of Trump.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson, Jennifer Fermino, declined to say why the Dessalines street co-naming was flagged.