Alison Morrow, WBIR-TV (Knoxville), January 18, 2010
Though many spent Monday remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., some remembered a part of civil rights era history in Knoxville—history that no longer exists.
“Private homes, churches and businesses were wiped out in the name of so-called progress,” said Knoxville City Councilman Dan Brown.
“Because they had the ‘urban renewal’. There were shanty-type houses,” said former Knoxville City Councilman Raleigh Wynn, Sr.
Neither man can point to the home they grew up in, as both houses were bull-dozed.
{snip}
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Knoxville houses and businesses in what is now the greater downtown area were demolished for what city leaders called necessary revitalization.
“You didn’t have any African Americans very much in the local government. There were none on city council,” Brown said. “That makes a difference. There was no voice.”
Urban renewal was further mobilized by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s visit to Knoxville in the early 1960’s, during which he called the soon-to-be demolished neighborhood one of the poorest he had ever seen.
The Civic Coliseum, hotels, the UT Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, even the police department, were built on top of black history.
{snip}
“You had some minority-owned businesses that never bounced back once they were forced to move or relocate,” Brown said.
Knoxville’s urban renewal and the work to stop it were symptoms of a larger movement taking place nationwide.
{snip}
“A lot of times, governments, they may think they’re doing something good for communities, but as years go by, it may not turn out to be so good,” Brown said.
Original article
(Posted on January 21, 2010)
Comments
If you don’t rebuild their neighborhoods, you’re a racist. If you do rebuild their neighborhoods, you’re a racist.
It’s also telling that the alleged ‘bad old days’ have morphed into the ‘good old days’.
“Private homes, churches and businesses were wiped out in the name of so-called progress,”
Neither man can point to the home they grew up in, as both houses were bull-dozed.
“You didn’t have any African Americans very much in the local government. There were none on city council,” Brown said. “That makes a difference. There was no voice.”
It sure does make a difference. Look how much “progress” has been made in Knoxville since “people of color” got involved.
I heard they tore down the house that those two Whites were murdered in acouple yrs. ago. Shouldn’t they have let that house stand, isn’t that part of “black history”?
When I was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the mid-70’s, much was made of the fact that some slave cabins still existed. I drove out to see them one day, and what they were was a few boards still nailed together, enough to where you could see it was once a structure, and there were several of these in a field - and a lot of nice green grass, weeds and general overgrowth. Now I understand that these “historical black history sites” have been bulldozed over and new homes built on them. So? WHAT IS THE PROBLEM??? I got virtually nothing out of looking at the boards and overgrowth. But there are now families reaping a good benefit from having a home on that property. Life is for the living, not the dead - can we just move past this?
As if anybody could give a damn about any black issue in Knoxville after Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome. If the whites in Knoxville held this in the same regard as I do they would not have houses standing new or old.
When is whitey gonna get mad?
Every time I see any article about Knoxville, Tennessee it reminds me of the horrific story that the liberal media refused to broadcast or cover in January, 2007. That was the rape and murder of two beautiful, young white kids, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. I never knew them but I cannot look at their photos without somehow feeling sick to my stomach as to what they must have gone thru during their night of torture. In following the story it is disappointing that only one of the thugs has been sentenced to death while two others have received life in prison without the chance of parole. I realize that my comments here are way off the subject matter being discussed but I don’t much care since blacks will never stop complaining, no matter how much is done for them by the misguided elites in our country.
As I recall oh so clearly, I remember when LBJ signed those civil rights laws, my father sitting at the kitchen table. And I remember him saying that LBJ and any other President can sign all the laws they want and nothing, NOTHING is ever going to be enough for blacks. He said back then that they won’t want a house like yours - they will want your house. And they won’t want a school like yours - they will want your school. And most of all I remember him saying that blacks will never be happy until whites were picking their cotton.
I am actually a TINY bit sympathetic, in my opinion there are few things more odious and loathsome to our traditions of freedom and private property$ than the concept of “eminent domain”. Having some idiot politician decide your home and property would be better used as a new shopping mall or sports stadium or to make new McMansions for the wealthy has to be enraging beyond anything I can imagine.
That being said, when blacks take over a neighborhood turn it into a slum and drive out the white residents through crime and obnoxious behavior (boomboxes blasting at maximum volume in the middle of the night, trash, graffiti etc.) then my sympathy of course drops to zero. Also I have zero sympathy for people who live in public housing, if your free ride comes to an end thank society for housing you as long as it did and start supporting yourself like an adult.
-“A lot of times, governments, they may think they’re doing something good for communities, but as years go by, it may not turn out to be so good,” Brown said.
“Blacks will never be happy until whites are picking their cotton.” Thank you, Gayle! I’ve been wondering for a year what a “green job” is.
“In following the story it is disappointing that only one of the thugs has been sentenced to death while two others have received life in prison without the chance of parole.”
Prepare to be more disappointed. The SOB who got the death penalty will never die. He’ll be living off the taxes of the people of Tennessee. And the “no parole” SOMBEEAAACH will be out within 10 years.
