Located on East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Uptown, the only part of the original school that remains is the gymnasium. But for former students like Arthur Griffin, who graduated in 1966, this milestone is something to commemorate.
JCSU virtual-reality project to showcase Black neighborhoods torn apart by urban renewal
Using grants totaling $307,000, researchers at the school will use computer technology to reconstruct the former Brooklyn and Greenville neighborhoods.
With aid from computers and historic documents, JCSU researchers will use historic photos such as this to stitch together two Charlotte communities long vanished. (Photo: Courtesy of JCSU)
April 5, 2021
Seventy-three-year-old Arthur Griffin Jr. remembers growing up in the Brooklyn community long before urban renewal razed the historic Black area in uptown Charlotte.
“We felt safe,” Griffin said. “We felt like we belonged.”
Now thanks to work underway at Johnson C. Smith University, Griffin soon may get to revisit the lost neighborhood of his youth, but only in a virtual reality.