Gray’s Planned Destruction maps “devaluation and destruction of neighborhoods in Downtown Richmond, Virginia”

LaToya S. Gray’s Planned Destruction is a look at the impact on the city of Harland Bartholomew’s1946 Master Plan for the City of Richmond, with a focus on the displaced Black communities in Jackson Ward and Navy Hill:

“Drawing on primarily government sources and maps created by Harland Bartholomew, this story map tells the story of the devaluation and destruction of neighborhoods in Downtown Richmond, Virginia through comprehensive plan. This is just the beginning of a larger project which will explore urban renewal’s destructive impact on the African American community as well as document the many victims of displacement in the former capital of the Confederacy.

It is the author’s goal to use GIS software to digitally reconstruct and repopulate Richmond’s lost communities in an effort to document and preserve a part of African American history in Richmond that has been forgotten.”

The piece includes a number of fascinating historic and contemporary maps of the entire city.