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Shalom Park DEI Committee Sponsors "Charlotte in Black and White" History Tour
January 2024
By Howard Olshansky, JFS Exectuive Director
On November 3, close to 50 members of the Charlotte Jewish community participated in the program, “Charlotte in Black and White.” Sponsored by the Shalom Park DEI Committee, the experience is a program of Community Builders Initiative (CBI). CBI’s mission is to give people and organizations the knowledge, skills, and courage to fight bias, remove barriers to opportunity, and build a more equitable and just Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Since its inception in 2011, the CBI Bus Tours have offered an innovative, interactive method to illustrate Charlotte's history and explore how our past influences our present and future.
Facilitated by Tom Hanchett, known as Charlotte’s community historian and author of “Sorting Out the New South City: Race, Class and Urban Development in Charlotte,” the program included a presentation of the history and development of Charlotte through a racial lens followed by a bus tour of a historically racially divided city. Hanchett’s presentation and tour highlighted the laws and policies that led to Charlotte’s racial divisions, segregation, and lack of economic mobility. He also acknowledged ongoing progress, especially regarding affordable housing access. While the program covered well-known policies like redlining, it also unveiled lesser-known aspects. For example, the construction of Charlotte's highways created physical racial divisions, and the once predominantly Black community of Brooklyn in Uptown was demolished for urban development. These insights highlighted elements contributing to institutional racism in Charlotte and the nation.
The tour also shared lighthearted details, such as the reason Charlotte's downtown is termed "Uptown" because it is literally up a hill and early settlers going to Charlotte’s center would reference going “up to town.”
This program is just one of many being sponsored by the Shalom Park DEI Committee. With representatives from many of the organizations on Shalom Park, the committee’s goal is to create a welcoming environment for everyone entering the Shalom Park campus. This can only happen if we introduce programs that create an understanding of diverse populations whether gender, disability, religion, race, or other differences. Look for future programs sponsored by the Shalom Park DEI Committee including a program by Rabbi Minna Bromberg: “Belonging for Every Body: Fat Torah Workshops for Building Inclusive Spiritual Community.” Join Rabbi Bromberg from Israel via Zoom on February 4 as she guides us through fat liberation in Jewish life.
If you have ideas for the committee, contact Howard Olshansky at howard.olshansky@ jfscharlotte.org.
