Calling the Church

Still sitting in the Study Center library, Professor Nelson and Dayna Matthew's conversation moves from discussing the current state of racial inequity in Charlottesville to examining what the church can do next.

"Instead of just giving ear to the problem, the church can roll up its sleeves and give love to the problem." - Dayna Matthew. 

At the end of his walking tour, Professor Nelson sits down with Dayna Mathew, William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law at UVA, to discuss Charlottesville's current landscape of racial inequity. The episode ends with a set of statistics of where we are today.

Standing in front of the Downtown Mall's Jefferson Theater, Professor Nelson explores the ways in which the white citizens of Charlottesville looked back with great fondness on the way of life of the antebellum South—slavery included—through social gatherings, re-enactments, and minstrelsy shows.

Professor Nelson expounds on three historical iterations of the Ku Klux Klan's presence in Charlottesville—including the August 11 and 12 rallies in 2017—and the impact the white supremacist group has had on the city's minority communities, including its African-American and Jewish citizens.  

Professor Nelson continues to meditate on the history surrounding Charlottesville's Vinegar Hill neighborhood. As he stands in the parking lot that has come to replace the black-owned and -occupied homes and businesses, he expounds on the disenfranchising impact that loss of place has had on the city's black communities. 

In this first episode of a two-part series, Professor Nelson explores the Vinegar Hill neighborhood: a once-vibrant African-American neighborhood located near Preston Avenue and Ridge/McIntire Road. Claimed by the Charlottesville government under eminent domain, the neighborhood was razed and left as a vacant scar in the city's landscape for 20 years before being rebuilt. 

In this episode we take a tour of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center with its director, Andrea Douglas, as she traces the process of integration in the Charlottesville schooling system. Then, we rejoin Pat Edwards on her porch as she reminisces on what the integration experience meant to her. 

Professor Nelson concludes his walking tour with a powerful reflection on the monument of Stonewall Jackson, located in what is now called Court Square. 

"Adopting a framework of celebrating the peaceable city of Charlottesville and not recognizing the legacy of white supremacy and marginalization that have been inscribed in this landscape for centuries is simply not hearing our neighbor."