Redlining Exhibit Promotes Understanding

“UNDESIGN THE REDLINE,” an interactive exhibit sponsored by The Winston-Salem Foundation, looks at the history of racism and inequality as it played out in neighborhoods, across the country, and in Winston-Salem. The exhibit is on display through Monday, Feb. 28 during Central Library’s operating hours. “Undesign the Redline” was created by Designing the We and involved a number of local community partners. Two of those partners offer their perspectives on the exhibit.

Wanda Allen-Abraha, JD, SHRM-SCP is the director of the city of Winston- Salem’s human relations/ diversity, equity and inclusion team, a community partner for the “Undesign the Redline” exhibit.

THE “UNDESIGN THE REDLINE” exhibit has been the talk of the town. As a community, we were quite fortunate that The Winston-Salem Foundation had the foresight to bring such an important exhibit to our city. We were also fortunate to have the Forsyth County Public Library as the first host site for the exhibit.

The community’s interest in the “Undesign the Redline” exhibit has been noteworthy and important in many ways. First, it would be remiss not to note that redlining was the precursor to fair housing law protections in that it was legally-protected housing discrimination.

I have conversed with some people who walked away from the exhibit in disbelief that federal and local government ever sanctioned housing discrimination.

Yet, I have also heard many in Winston-Salem clearly recall when it was perfectly legal and government-required to determine mortgage lending based on skin color and the overall racial composition of neighborhoods; however, what is often, inadvertently, missed is the fact that we are still feeling and living with the reverberations of this government-sanctioned form of housing discrimination.

The exhibit has spurred many overdue and pivotal community considerations and conversations that will, hopefully, raise awareness and encourage action. I am hearing that we must “connect the dots” between redlining, which resulted in the decimation of and disinvestment of formerly vibrant and thriving historically African American neighborhoods and businesses, in contrast with the poverty, blight, versus gentrification that we are witnessing today.

I am hearing that we must connect the dots between predatory lending practices, that have plagued mainly African American potential homeowners, and the higher rate of foreclosures among this group due to the astronomically high interest rates that were designed to exploit versus empower them.

Finally, I am hearing that we must also connect the dots to understand that housing discrimination still continues in our present day in more subtle forms, such as through substandard housing and a lack of neighborhood accessibility to basic life resources (such as grocery stores, public transportation, and banks).

Redlining is a legacy of federal, state, and local government that can neither be ignored, nor forgotten. Fair housing laws, such as those enforced by our city of Winston-Salem human relations/diversity, equity, and inclusion department, serve as the vehicle to address housing discrimination in the purchase or rental of residential housing. It also is a shining example of the government’s attempts to right the wrongs of a sad and destructive past practice.

Dr. Mike Wakeford is a historian and associate professor in the division of liberal arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as executive director of MUSE Winston-Salem, a community partner to “Undesign the Redline.”

"Wait a minute,” she said, “let me call my husband … ” And so, she did. A moment later, she was peppering him with questions about the Winston-Salem streets, neighborhoods, and businesses he had known as a younger man, describing historical photographs and maps on the wall in front of us.

A faculty member in nursing at Winston-Salem State University, she was the only person to arrive for a tour of the “Undesign the Redline” exhibit that October evening. We chatted our way through the introductory panels, which help visitors learn about the history of urban redlining practices and place them within larger narratives of racial inequity and dispossession.

But when we got to the place where the story localizes, where snippets of firsthand accounts of Winston-Salemites who had experienced the consequences of redlining and related discrimination, and imagery of Black businesses and neighborhoods that vanished under waves of so-called “urban renewal” in the 1950s and ’60s, she thought to call home. For the remainder of our time together, there were three of us in conversation.

As executive director of MUSE Winston- Salem, a community partner to “Undesign the Redline,” I’ve given tours to varied audiences. I’ve been encouraged by the curiosity and appetites for learning and understanding that visitors have brought to the exhibit, the questions they’ve asked, and the candor many have shown in acknowledging that the history of redlining is something they knew nothing about.

That Tuesday evening “tour for two” (which became three), however, captures what I value most about the exhibit’s visit to our city.

Time and again I’ve seen viewers gravitate to the portion of the exhibit that zooms in on personal testimonies about redlining’s impact on Winston-Salem. My colleagues, Billy Rich and Linda Dark, who work closely with the Winston-Salem African American Archive, were key contributors to that section, which is the one I find most powerful, too.

Moreover, I think there’s an important truth tied to this memory of my visitor ringing her husband on the phone, putting him on speaker, and letting his experiences and historical knowledge enrich our time together.

It is difficult to avoid feeling overwhelmed, if not downright pessimistic, after visiting “Undesign the Redline.” The more one learns about this history, the more one recognizes that unbuilding the structural manifestations of racism will be a daunting and multigenerational task. But in the personal sharing of knowledge and experience between community members — something the exhibit is sparking — I spy hope. I| S