Raleigh Housing and the Political Process
Segregated space in downtown Raleigh.
Much like Western Raleigh, Downtown Raleigh was riddled with housing disputes. Thousands of black residents found themselves in blighted urban areas with few housing options. Founded in 1965, it was the Raleigh Community Relations Committee's responsibility to address neighborhood concerns and foster discussion about spatial discrimination.
By 1967, the situation was dire. The RCRC failed to pass any major city initiatives in years, and black citizens and civic leaders demanded action. On June 1, 1967, Councilman John Winters warned of an increasing possibility of violence in Southeastern Raleigh, insisting that, "Some families have doubled up because of a housing shortage."[1] In October, Civic leader W.H. Peace implored white Raleighites to look beyond their front yard: "The Southside is truly a blighted area, and if you took a tour into some of these homes you would not rest easy tonight...if you would only check and see how that person who works for you is living, your attitude might change."[2] Peace understood that the space one occupies is, sometimes unfairly, associated with the individual who occupies it. By playing upon space's inherent relationality, Peace hoped to invoke action and change.
However, for many, gradual change was not good enough. UNC-Chapel Hill Professor, Howard Fuller, recognized the agitation in Raleigh's black community. At a gathering at Fairmont Methodist Church, Fuller discussed the Black Power Movement and the right of blacks to reclaim the city. Fuller equated the black struggle for equal housing within common notions of the American Dream. He exclaimed, "We don't have a democratic government in North Carolina; this state's black people have taxation without representation. I am trying to make black people a part of the government!"[3] Professor Fuller identified housing restrictions as control over a citizen's right to move within their own country. Without anti-discriminatory legislation, black Raleighites could never realize real citizenship.
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, dramatically changed the role of the Raleigh Community Relations Committee (RCRC) and the NC State GNC. The Good Neighbor Council reached out to Raleigh Mayor, Travis Tomlinson, and expressed hope in the law. GNC member and NC State librarian, Cyrus King, wrote, "The question is not whether we will have open housing, but rather how open housing will come to Raleigh. On January 1, when the Act becomes effective, discrimination in many areas of housing will be prohibited by law. A change in housing patterns of our community will take place that will, we trust, relieve our non-white students and faculty of the burden and the humiliation of being refused housing purely because of their race."[4] On September 9, 1969 the Raleigh Community Relations Committee responded with a resolution asking the City Council to "adopt an open housing ordinance with all deliberate speed."[5] Yet, despite the RCRC and GNC's positive outlooks, black Raleighites were still largely excluded from the city planning political process.
Black Raleighites' lack of political power remained evident as the blighted black ghettos of East Raleigh/South Park were razed for the Southside Urban Renewal Project in the 1970s. Initially, black citizens welcomed the program; residents understood that infrastructural improvements were vital to the neighborhood's success. However, many were discouraged by the lack of inter-community dialogue. The Citizen Participation Southside Project of 1970 was one of the few organizations that voiced the concerns of the black community anout the upcoming demolition. One resident expressed her exasperation, and stated, "We are discouraged. The decision-makers are not here. I just want to hear their side of what’s happening and tell them my side of it. If this was to happen it would be a good thing."[6] Councilman Clarence Lightner announced, "I don’t think some of the personnel of the Redevelopment Commission are geared to the sensitivity of the people. Some seem to think that highways, bricks, and mortar come first. The people must come first!”[7] Urban renewal programs of the 1970s revealed strict racial inequalities when it came to power over space.
With such a bitter racial struggle mere miles away, the Good Neighbor Council realized that simple suggestions and a few legal disputes were not enough to elicit trust in the black community. Consequently, the RCRC and the Good Neighbor Council of the mid 1970s actively addressed the university's appearance in black Raleigh. The Good Neighbor Council addressed spatial inequalities by broadening the concept of campus community and campus responsibility.
[1] "Inactivity Mars Relations Committee's Record,"Raleigh Times, 1 June 1967.
[2] "At Open Housing Meet- Don't Put Monkey on My Back," Raleigh Times, 17 October 1967.
[3] Jerry Williams, "Defensive Violence is Justified," The Technician, 25 October 1967, accessed 3 November 2014. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/technician-v47bn19-1967-10-25/pages/technician-v47bn19-1967-10-25_0001
[4] "Letter to Mayor Tomlinson from the Good Neighbor Council," November 1, 1968, Box 3, Folder 3, UA 022.053 North Carolina State University, Committees, Good Neighbor Council Records, 1966-1979, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.
[5] "Meeting Minutes of Good Neighbor Council," November 4, 1969, Box 2, Folder 1, UA 022.053 North Carolina State University, Committees, Good Neighbor Council Records, 1966-1979, North Carolina State University Special Collections, Raleigh, NC.
[6] Willie Alfred Denning, Citizen Participation: Southside Project (Raleigh: North Carolina State University These and Dissertations, 1970).
[7] Ibid.