From Porch Swings to Patios
(Virginia: University of Virginia. Carter G. Woodson Institute. Virginia Center for Digital History),
Source: www.vcdh.virginia.edu
Source: www.vcdh.virginia.edu
Details
- Abstract / Summary
- The complete "From Porch Swings to Patios: Oral History Project" included interviews taken from white and black residents in Charlottesville which covered changes from 1914 through 1984 in fourteen different neighborhoods. The recordings and transcripts of interviews presented here, however, are only those of African Americans. Although black residents occupied several different neighborhoods within the city limits from the mid-nineteenth century on, the people interviewed for "Porch Swings" and represented on this site came from the Vinegar Hill area. Vinegar Hill encompassed a section of West Main street that began at downtown Charlottesville and extended west toward the campus of the University of Virginia. The area was composed mostly of businesses owned by Charlottesville's black citizens, and though the stores catered to the black population, they served both black and white clientele. In the early 1960s, Charlottesville's city officials designated Vinegar Hill as a blighted area in need of an overhaul. Following a national trend, a sweeping "urban renewal" project was carried out that ostensibly removed decrepit buildings and cleared unsightly landscape for improved sanitation and overall appearance. In these interviews, former Vinegar Hill residents share their thoughts on the extent to which those promises for improvement were fulfilled or not.
- Field of Interest
- Letters and Diaries
- Content Type
- Oral history
- Format
- Related Web resources
- URL
- http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/raceandplace/oralhistory_porchswings.html
- Publisher
- University of Virginia. Carter G. Woodson Institute. Virginia Center for Digital History
- Place Published / Released
- Virginia
- Subject
- Letters and Diaries, History, Communities, Ethnic groups, Race relations, United States of America, USA, US of A, America, Estados Unidos, Charlottesville, VA, North America, United States, Virginia
- Keywords and Translated Subjects
- United States of America, USA, US of A, America, Estados Unidos