How do you mourn something when the world doesn’t acknowledge your loss?

Thanks to the good folks at Triad City Beat for allowing me to contribute this column about Warnersville -- what really happened to Greensboro's oldest African-American neighborhood, how the city ignored its legacy, and why it all still matters.

You want to find a root cause for the distrust in Greensboro politics, you could start with the gutting of the old commercial district along Ashe Street, Warnersville’s main drag. You want some subtext for the uproar several years ago over the sale of the old JC Price School, understand that the building where generations learned to read and write was one of the few physical legacies of the community left standing.

You can see a short version of the documentary here; I hope the full 12-minute film is online soon.

It's not hard to imagine ways that actual redevelopment might have worked. The short-term costs would have been higher, but the long-term payoffs much greater. 

Comments

[Lex]

I strongly recommend "If These Walls Could Talk," an online oral history project about Warnersville in general and the J.C. Price School in particular, created by Greensboro College history students and hosted by the college. https://www.greensboro.edu/museum-jcprice.php

[Ed Cone]

Thanks, Lex, looks good. Lisa also has some in-depth conversations about the neighborhood, audio and some video, that add a lot to the record.