Ingrid Pollard - From the series Pastoral Interlude (1987)
There’s no easy way to start off this post.
Brookhill Village in Charlotte, NC, is being demolished. Hundreds of African-American families are going to be evicted, and their are no plans to offer them any sort of affordable alternative to their homes, which are now being demolished.
Developers like Shook Kelley are actively demolishing the neighborhood and replacing it with higher-end housing that will “attract millenials” without a second thought of what will become of Brookhill’s current residents.
In other words, this is another step in the process of gentrifying Charlotte, making it essentially unlivable for all of the communities that have lived here throughout its entire history.
The developers and architects of this project to displace an entire community have continued shamelessly and unchallenged, what little publicity this event has received has been glamorous news reels, talking of plans to “revitalize” a working-class community.
This Thursday, December 13th, I hope that I can help change that.
A small organization has gathered around the purpose of offering some kind of meaningful resistance - I am proud to say that I have been doing what I can to aid in these efforts.
The main goal of everyone involved has been to organize a community meeting this Thursday in order to rally the community to defend their homes.
However, as you can imagine, this is not as simple as handing out flyers and expecting everyone to be there - I must once again stress that the residents of Brookhill are working class families who work long hours, and need a material reason to show up in opposition to a developer who is literally burning down flyers and posters that mention the event.
The organization, STP Charlotte, has vowed to do their best to provide transportation to and from the meeting as well as provide food and child care at the meeting itself. As you can imagine, this costs money.
If you have the money to spare, I ask that you send what you can to help organize this meeting. This really means a lot to me, but it would certainly mean a whole lot more to the families living in such a precarious housing situation.
Google Pay: ServeThePeopleCLT@Gmail.com
Venmo: @STP-CLT
If you can’t spare any money, consider reblogging this post, and if you know anyone in the area, be sure to let them know.