THE CURRENT SITE: FORMER FAYETTEVILLE STREET HOUSING PROJECTS
The Fayetteville Street Housing Projects (“Fayette Place”) is a remnant of the destruction of America’s longest lasting and most successful “Black Wall Street” – Durham’s Hayti Community. Prior to Durham city officials using federal highway funds to construct a highway that destroyed the Hayti district, they promised the black community that they would replaced any destroyed property and rebuild it better.
The Durham Freeway ultimately destroyed 600 single family homes and 200 businesses in Durham; splitting the community in half. Upwardly mobile blacks were able to relocate to suburban areas, while the poorest were left behind. None of the destroyed businesses were ever replaced. Instead of the single family housing being replaced with equivalent housing, the city replaced it with public housing. Fayette Place public housing was one of a number of such developments constructed in Hayti. It is estimated that with urban renewal (often called urban removal) that billions of potential black individual, familial, and community wealth was forfeited.
For the last 20 years, the 20-acre Fayette Place housing complex has sat empty, following health hazards related to the site. After it’s abandonment, the site became a center of high crime. At its height this complex included 200-housing units. Originally, whole black families were allowed to relocate to this housing. Soon thereafter, male figures were forced to leave if women and children were to receive public benefits. This began a process that destroyed many black family units and economic mobility. This narrative is not unique to the Fayette Place site, nor even unique to Durham. Similar stories happened all across the United States creating much of the systematic despair that the black community continues to deal with.
Fayette Place currently sits empty, behind fencing in the heart of the black community – that after decades of no and dis-investment, now is threatened with gentrification.
There is unprecedented amount of research and capital investment being harnessed towards finding innovative solutions to a range of global problems – including racial inequity. Unlike the computer-chip industry, which primarily emanated from one place in northern California, the “racial equity” revolution – composed of innovations that combine social, economic, and environmental objectives in their processes related to racial inequity – is highly dispersed. A disperse set of locations across the United States and the Globe form the backbone of these efforts. In addition, a broad range of activities make up this sector. DGEP proposes bringing a global hub for racial equity innovation to Durham’s historic black Hayti community, on the 20-acre deserted Fayette Place site, at a scale that can transform the world and move towards systematic racial equity.