“This is My City”: The Promise of Reparations and the Legacy of Urban Renewal

Into the Mix

Ben & Jerry's and Vox Creative

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 537 Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Priscilla Robinson says the Southside neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina was once a thriving, tight-knit community. She describes fruit trees and multigenerational homeowners, booming small businesses and neighbors who looked out for one another. But that all changed in 1968, when the city approved plans for “urban renewal” and displaced more than fifty percent of Asheville’s Black residents, including Priscilla and her family. Decades later, in 2020, Asheville became just the second city in the US and the first in the south to approve reparations for its Black population, and Priscilla is making sure that the harms of urban renewal aren’t forgotten as a community Reparations Commission shapes its plan. To see photos of the Southside prior to Urban Renewal, and to explore Priscilla’s research, click here. You can also learn more about the Racial Justice Coalition of Asheville here, and join us in calling for President Biden to establish a federal Reparations Commission here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Into the Mix, a Ben & Jerry's podcast about joy and justice, produced with Fox Creative.
0:07.9	I'm Ashley C. Ford.
0:09.6	And my name is Priscilla and Jai Robinson.
0:12.6	I'm a native of Asheville, North Carolina.
0:18.0	Tell me about growing up in Asheville.
0:22.1	Like what was a normal Sunday like in your childhood?
0:27.1	For me, a normal Sunday for my childhood would first of all be grandma getting me up to send me to Sunday school, to send me to church. And church was maybe about
0:40.9	four or five houses up, coming home, sitting on the front porch, watching everybody else,
0:49.3	you know, go to church, lots of good food, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, collard greens,
0:57.5	cornbread, you know, and everybody just sitting around.
1:02.0	Community, people visiting, a lot of laughter, a lot of unity, and just sitting around enjoying
1:08.6	life.
1:09.4	Yeah.
1:10.0	The older women and men, they instilled wisdom, value, and morals.
1:14.9	They used to have me, now you sit up, Priscilla, you sit up and you cross your legs like a young lady.
1:21.7	And my mama used to dress me and can-can skirts, you know, and you can tell me I wasn't a little princess, and I was
1:30.7	Preci. I love it. Still Preci.
1:34.1	Uh-huh.
1:38.7	Priscilla grew up on Asheville's south side, on the ground floor of a three-story apartment building. Miss Emma on the
1:46.2	second floor. Miss Angeline on the third. And Miss Little John down the street. Miss Little John was just
1:53.8	the sweet little old woman and she had the sweetest little voice. And she made the best cupcakes.
2:02.1	I mean, she lived probably about seven, eight houses up Black Street.
	...

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