A COMMUNITY DESTROYED Dissecting the loss of Charlotte’s Brooklyn community
Willie Keaton admits that he was surprised by the way his students reacted when they learned about what happened to Charlotte’s Brooklyn community. It was part of a class he taught over the summer called Race, Poverty and Justice and Morality, where students were assigned to write a paper on Brooklyn and Sorting out the New South. “I was very pleasantly surprised because it shows this generation is interested in understanding—which is good,” recalled Keaton, justice organizer for the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice. In 1958, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission
did a study that led to the demolition of the Brooklyn community, which included the relocation of more than 1,000 Black families and more than 200 Black-owned businesses. The area that is now known as Charlotte’s Second Ward had been the thriving hub of the Black community. “There was an estimated $75 million value that evaporated through that urban renewal,” explained Keaton, “not to mention all the social capital that may have been even more valuable.” This moment in Charlotte’s history has always troubled
Keaton. “It really broke my heart, and I felt this class would be an opportunity to bring all the elements of race, poverty and justice together,” he said. “At the same time the students were studying Brooklyn, there was this national reawakening about race, so they were confronted with the protests and riots on television when they were thinking about this thing that happened in 1958 and right here in their community.” For Ben Ukaku ’21, the class was an eye opener. “I’m looking at things differently now,” said Ukaku, who came
to Queens from Nigeria. “I can’t believe this happened in America.” Ukaku added that he’d like to buy some of the books from the class and send them to friends at home. “I just want them to read a little bit about it and know that this happened.” This past fall, Rabbi Judy Schindler, the Sklut Professor
of Jewish Studies, taught a companion class looking at, in part, the trauma that can occur after you deconstruct a neighborhood. “They [the Brooklyn community] lost their whole support system,” said Schindler. “We’re studying the collective trauma and what happens to communities that have been impacted in this way right here in Charlotte.” Keaton said the loss of the Brooklyn community was
profound and had lasting impacts that are still felt today in Charlotte. He added that urban renewal segregated the city, as it contributed to the upward mobility problem that we now face in our community. “You had all of these people living, growing and working
together, all living in the same neighborhood,” he said. “There were Black children with dreams because they could see dreams fulfilled walking all around them. There was a pride in Brooklyn, in Second Ward, and it was all destroyed.” Seeing the interest his students took in this part of
Charlotte’s history gave Keaton hope for the future. “These are the next leaders,” he said, “and they had very powerful reactions in such an authentic way, even the students who are white.”
—Michelle Boudin 25
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