The story of Durham might be characterized as a tale of two cities, though in fact the area’s past is far more complex, a heritage of nuanced histories of race and class that have left an undeniable mark on the Durham of today. Durham is often defined in terms of black and white: from its roots in the tobacco industry to its prominence in the Civil Rights Movement to its continued de facto segregation and racial politics, the city is marred by a tumultuous past. John Hope Franklin’s recent response to the North Carolina General Assembly’s apology for slavery speaks to the fact that the pain of human rights abuses in our very backyard are still fresh in the memories of many. Durham is indivisible from its past of racial turbulence, yet this history has given rise to the city’s incredibly unique identity, one that is at once troubled and triumphant. Durham’s spaces are infused with these stories, and try as the city might, it has been and likely will always be unable to shake the influences of segregation and racial strife on its neighborhoods, schools, and economy. However, points of color have bloomed around the city, providing simple elements of much-needed urban rejuvenation, and perhaps more importantly, allowing Durham’s residents to unite around art.

Durham’s early black settlers were former slaves and their descendants who moved to the area and rented land from white landowners. Though they settled around the city, many of these residents inhabited the area that would later become known as Hayti. Over the railroad tracks and down the hill from the city center, this land was out of the eye of white officials and residents and easy for them to forget, although it was a primary source of labor for early Durham’s white households and businesses.

Rather than be let itself be forgotten, Hayti continued to grow and strengthen, as blacks began to buy up property and establish their own businesses. By the middle of the 20th century, Hayti had become a city of its own: a black metropolis that thrived despite a reign of white oppression throughout the South. Because of strict segregation by law, blacks were relegated to the outskirts of cities and banned from nearly all public amenities shared with whites. In Durham, however, this condition created solidarity and independence among blacks, and as they amassed more properties, businesses, and wealth, the city became renowned nationally as a center of commerce and culture that welcomed black patrons. Downtown, Parrish Street was another root of economic power, home to North Carolina Mutual Life and Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and soon became the famous “Black Wall Street.” But Hayti, a product of segregation, was the true cultural hub of Durham for the black community.

Despite the vigor of Hayti and its triumph in the face of institutionalized racism, the national and city governments were still white. And as downtown traffic was declining and the suburbs were growing in the 1950’s, the white faces in power realized the state of Durham’s deterioration. Their solution was to revitalize downtown business areas and “improve” the city with a new highway artery. The extension of 15-501 was to be constructed on a sweep of land that was in fact the crucial center of residential and commercial space in Hayti, and the improvements would be made at the cost of black-owned properties that would have to come down. The community was wary, but city officials were quick to assure them that they would be amply compensated for their beautiful homes, and a provision was created that required the relocation of businesses at the city’s expense. Having been convinced that they would be taken care of, Hayti’s residents could only watch as their homes were bulldozed, their property confiscated without due compensation, and their community promptly snuffed out. White control had seemingly trumped Hayti’s success, previously a symbol of incredible strength and accomplishment in a severely hostile political and social climate. Gary Kueber, an “urban health consultant” who authors the blog “Endangered Durham” asserts that the demolition of Hayti was overtly racist. “While the leaders of Durham did many, many stupid things in the 1960s in their attempts to 'modernize' downtown and 'clear substandard housing,' this was the stupidest. The fact that much of the housing demolished was populated by African-Americans was a good reason not to give a damn what happened to the people who lived in that housing,” he claims. Kueber describes today’s Hayti as a district in which “businesses have gone to die,” where crime is a significant problem, and children are discouraged from playing.

The old Hayti community was an example of an African American community able to achieve success, solidarity, and renown in the face of a powerfully white, oppressive world. However, the very nature of the area was a result of the south’s extreme segregation policies and the continued dominance of Durham’s white minority, despite the economic power of the black community. Today, the neighborhood has fallen into disarray. The impact of the “urban renewal” project of the 1960s still defines Hayti, as the Durham Freeway runs parallel to Pettigrew Street, serving as a constant reminder of what once lay under the asphalt, and local homes and businesses sag under the weight of generation-old economic ruin. What was once Hayti’s cultural center on Pettigrew Street, dubbed “Mexico” and chock-full of bars, theaters, restaurants, and jazz clubs, was one of the first things to go. Now, the area is completely erased of such a lively scene; the land along Pettigrew is completely covered in the cement and blacktop of 147.

The legacy of Hayti serves as a symbol of Durham’s roller- coaster history. Though it was once a “Black capitol” of the South, racial oppression was as ubiquitous as tobacco throughout the 20th century. The Civil Rights era may have been more physically peaceful here than in other cities in the region, but its costs were paid in spatial fees; by dissolving the black community, white leaders dissolved its great progress and strength, sending blacks many steps backward. It was clear that Hayti, and the Black community of Durham, was not seen as important to the city’s government leaders. “The loss of Hayti created a vacuum from which blacks over forty years old have not recovered,” writes former policeman Marshall Thompson in his book Hayti Police. It is recognized by many that Hayti will not ever truly mend from the injustice it incurred at the hands of a racist society.

 

The Walls Have Voices: A Mural in Hayti Speaks for the Community

Smack in the middle of what was once Hayti’s commercial heart stands a stretch of brick wall covered in colorful paint. Emily Weinstein’s “Old Hayti Community” mural is a larger-than-life portrait of what the neighborhood once looked like. “I had seen, at another mural across town, a handful of kids underfoot, spraying graffiti, getting into trouble. I thought, if those five kids had so much fun, what could happen with 200?” So Weinstein recruited a group of young students from various Durham public schools to create a work for the Hayti community. She describes the process of creating Hayti mural as one that thoroughly involved the whole neighborhood, both artistically and thematically.

“It was a very big wall surrounded by very inner city- type schools. If kids would wander up and say, ‘What are you doing?’ I would tell them, ‘I’m giving you a paintbrush and telling you to paint.’ The kids hung out with me for two months. [Their] relatives came into town and would set up a picnic across the street to watch them paint. And I had tremendous support from the community. Everyone would come up and say, ‘Can I paint?’ I never turned anybody down. What was important was that people would come up and say who needed to go in, what needed to come out. Taxi drivers would drive by and say what they thought about it. I had people walk up from hither and thither and say, ‘Hey, don’t put that in, he’s not as relevant.’ It was very meaningful to people here in town now, that know the history and remember it. The people in the area were a valuable resource. There was a running conversation, I’d say.”
“In life, when you do stuff, when it doesn’t pertain to you or to others, its just not as interesting. Life is more interesting when you make other people important. The kids were much more important than the mural— sure, it was nice to have my name up on the wall, but nicer to work with the kids, to give them this.”

Weinstein remembers her young artists as less “taken care- of,” from rougher households, even recalling one boy whose father was in prison. “It was great that he could get into it. He was very excited about what he could do. And he could do a lot. It was wonderful to possibly make a difference in a few lives. In that sense it was very successful.”

The wall painting depicts a number of historical Hayti icons. The Biltmore Hotel was one of the first Black-owned hotels in the South, and drew celebrities and political figures from around the country. The movie theater was another focal point of Hayti’s culture, remembered by many as a haven for youth on weekend evenings. St. Joseph’s Church is one of the few standing relics of old Hayti, and is now adjacent to the Hayti Heritage Center. “N.C. College” refers to what is now North Carolina Central University, the first state-sponsored college for black students. Even the N.C. Mutual Life building looms in the background, a reminder of the proximity and influence of Black Wall Street. The figures, though perhaps unrecognizable to the untrained eye, are familiar to many of Hayti’s residents.

The great significance of a mural is much more than the simple decoration of a building. In the muralist tradition, artists have decorated public spaces for centuries in the hopes of projecting an image of the surrounding space. In this sense, pictorial murals such as Weinstein’s are deeply rooted in the community that surrounds them. They are intended to speak both for and to the people- they represent an ideal to outsiders passing through, and seek to be an image with which their own neighbors can identify. Traditional murals fuse history with present, visualizing hope while alluding to the struggle of the past. For the students and residents of the neighborhood, the “Old Hayti” mural created a forum for the exchange of memories, and the ultimate product is one that reflects multiple voices. It serves as an enduring testimony to Hayti’s history, to the community’s identity, and to the hope it holds for the future.

Sadly, there are few other indications of Hayti’s old glory. The building on which the mural is painted is just one end of a complex of tired-looking businesses. Rent is high, business is low. Though the effects of the area’s mistreatment and inattention are still very salient, the bright swaths of color on the side of the building leap out at passersby, visually claiming ownership of this land and advertising the identity engrained in its memory. It pays homage to the greatness of Hayti’s peak as a cultural center, but in doing so it recognizes the dramatic difference between Hayti today and the Hayti of the past, and thus sub textually calls attention to the social disaster that was executed to the effect of dissolving the hard-earned strength that originally characterized the area.

Visit the Old Hayti Community mural:
401 E. Lakewood Ave., on Lakewood Ave. & Fayetteville St.

The "Old Hayti" mural up close

See more community art in Durham!

 

Making Strides: Durham Artists Seek to

Integrate & Connect a Wounded City

The concerns of urban planning in Durham today are enormously focused on cultural and artistic aspects. There is a strong sense of needing to revive the inner city’s glory days as a cultural hub, and Hayti is a focus of a number of Durham “preservationists,” who seek to revitalize the neighborhood while preserving its history. However, even today some officials have described development as a dramatically racialized issue. Residents of the Hayti neighborhood are particularly wary of plans for renewal, as the faces of the city’s development companies are white, and wounds caused by the earlier “urban renewal” project — led by a white-face government— are still fresh in the community’s collective memory. Plans for the community claim to emphasize historical art as a means of memorial, but the problem lies in the fact that the plans are not coming from community voices.

Artists around Durham are taking a much more grass-roots approach to reviving the town’s lost strength. More importantly, these efforts are both collaborative and community-centric. Events like CenterFest and the Durham Arts Walk emphasize the integration of art and public space, drawing visitors from all of the city’s neighborhoods and allowing art to be a participatory experience. The Durham Arts Council, the sponsor of CenterFest and the Arts Walk, is perhaps one of the city’s most prominent arts organizations. With public galleries, available grants, and affiliated theaters and spaces around town, DAC has brought together countless artists and groups in order to fulfill its goal of “Building Community Through Art.” Education director Shana Adams sees this responsibility as important because it creates a commonality among all citizens: “Everybody can connect to the arts in some ways, and we’re here for everybody.” Accessibility is the Council’s greatest tool, as it also brings art to others. The education department is looking to form a program that would send artists-in-residence to local schools, who would then use arts to educate students about history in Durham. The DAC has also been heavily involved in the Cultural Master Plan, a long-term program of cultural development for the city that is focused on the preservation of history.

A project connected to the Master Plan, dubbed a “A New Era on Parrish Street” is dedicated to the development project of historic Black Wall Street, the goals of which are to preserve the history of the district through education and art. Like many others, Kate Dobbs Ariail, a member of Parrish Street Advisory Group and a Durham “arts activist,” also feels that public art plays an essential role in communicating history and bringing life to the tired downtown area.

“The project is interested in trying to encourage public art along the corridor in order to enhance the design that would help carry on the knowledge of what went on there. Many people in the arts are passionately involved in reviving the city core. The things that we surround ourselves with have almost a reciprocal effect; we make our environments, they make us. It is extremely important for the health of any town that things look good, in some way that reflect the history and character of its people. Even sculpture that has nothing to do with Durham can be very effective because people will come to love it, it can become a touchstone for the community. Parrish Street has become nearly obliterated from the common conscious, but is extremely useful to have artwork that tells a different story."

Although Ariail says that “everything in Durham is a racially- charged issue, as far as I can tell,” the plans for memorials and development of historical areas have been well-received. “There is big support from the black community, that has come out of the institutions that started on Parrish Street.”

Not far from Black Wall Street, Liberty Arts, a non-profit casting collective in the Central Park District, seeks to “Transform the Triangle through Art” and “improve the overall quality of life in our community through the promotion, creation, and placement of public art and sculpture.” The facility’s executive director, Jennifer Collins, says she was drawn to Durham because of its “rough edges,” but that it is an “open slate to do anything you want.” Liberty Arts has embraced that open slate by generating a creative outlet where anyone can take classes, and by establishing a firm commitment toward creating public art. Says Collins,

“Public art uplifts the community, makes the community feel like anything is possible. It creates cohesiveness and improves the overall quality of the community. [Liberty Arts’ involvement] has helped Durham come a long way in acknowledging the impact of different cultures, and what it has achieved. The term public art signifies there’s a process and it needs to be transparent. There needs to be discussion and dialogue. It needs to reflect the community, and I think the community here is ready to embrace that… Everyone is ready to make strides.”

Liberty Arts has gathered a group of artists to develop a design for historic markers to be placed on the streets of downtown Durham. Their intent to reflect the city was conveyed through their plan to incorporate “reclaimed” historic materials, such as old trolley rails, pieces of demolished buildings, and other symbolic objects. Their application was accepted by city planners, and the markers will be created and placed with the hopes of drawing pedestrian traffic. Ms. Collins even envisions for the future a walking tour that features recordings of Durham residents telling their histories, available by podcast.

Ms. Collins sees Liberty Arts’ role as one of advocacy and education. For organizations like hers, art can be a powerful way to speak for Durham’s past and its present. Just as importantly, the nature of public art brings people into shared spaces, encouraging interaction and integration, and ultimately conversation and education, precisely the result of Ms. Weinstein’s project. This simple act of bringing people together builds community and creates strength through shared experience and common identification.

Artist, musician, and educator Sandee Washington has worked with students all over the city to create public art. Outside the Hayti Heritage Center, Washington helped students research, design, and paint a mural that depicts historical figures of the area. “I wanted the kids from Hayti to learn about the history of their community. They identified figures they thought were important and started by drawing them. In the end, it was a matter of painting someone they felt like they knew. “While Washington isn’t convinced that art can make a political difference, she says, “It’s been a way for people to work out their feelings. African Americans in our culture have been marginalized. You can look at the drop out rate, and who is dropping out, and the poverty rate. [It shows that] Durham is particularly in need of healing. Because of the class issues, and the history, Durham is definitely still hurting.”

Like many Durham artists, Ms. Weinstein and Ms. Collins are from elsewhere. However, their ideas reflect an understanding of the city’s needs, sensitivity to its history, and most importantly, a commitment towards engaging with and developing the identities of Durham’s communities. These are the subtle insights that the area’s commercial companies and institutions may be blind to.

Learn More!
Hayti Heritage Center/ St. Joseph's Historic Center

Durham Arts Council

Liberty Arts

Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project

Endangered Durham

Preservation Durham

Upcoming Events

Sources Referenced:
Hayti Police: Memoirs of a Former Durham Police Officer, by Marshall Thompson. Plaza Printer, 1997.
The End of An Era, by Dorothy Phelps Jones. Brown Enterprises, Inc. Durham, NC, 2001.
The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, by W. Fitzhugh Brundage. Harvard University Press, 2005.
The Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project, www.durhamcountylibrary.org/dcrhp/index.html
“Developer’s project faces resistance in Hayti,”by Eric Ferreri, The Raleigh News & Observer. Oct. 29, 2006.
“Endangered Durham” Blogsite, authored by Gary Kueber. http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/

This page was created as a project for Duke Political Science course “The Arts & Human Rights.” Its author would love feedback! Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions to clare.eberle@duke.edu.