This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. Many Americans see

their local universities as cultural centers that improve the surrounding community.

But for many African Americans, white-led colleges and institutions have been built by undermining

or even destroying our neighborhoods. And that troubling history for Virginia's Christopher

Newport University is the subject of a new pro-publica investigation.

This story is a story that's historical, but it's also still happening today.

Erasing the black spot, coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson. Stay with us.

Welcome to a word of podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your host,

Jason Johnson. Town versus gown is shorthand for the conflicts that often arise between colleges

and universities and the neighborhoods that surround them. But many of these institutions

were founded or expanded at the direct expense of the existing communities, especially

if those communities were predominantly African American.

One example of this troubling history was highlighted in a report entitled Erasing the

Black Spot, how a Virginia college expanded by uprooting a black neighborhood. The report

was a collaboration between pro-publica and the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism

and documents the way Christopher Newport University displaced the historically black

community of Shulane and Newport News, Virginia. Joining us to talk about it is Brandy

Callum. She's an Andy Award-winning investigative journalist and she co-authored the story, Brandy

Callum. Welcome to a word. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here today.

For those of our listeners who are unfamiliar with it, can you just describe Christopher

Newport University today? Yes, absolutely so. Christopher Newport University is a predominantly

white college. Right now, it sits still in the center of Newport News. It was started

...