During the early 1970's, Allentown demolished the entire neighborhood between Union and Lawrence Streets. It was, in a large part, home to the black community. How ironic that we destroyed the cohesion of a neighborhood, but renamed Lawrence Street after Martin Luther King. The only remnant of the neighborhood is the St. James A.M.E. Church. Going up the hill today we now have a vacant bank call center on the east, and the Housing Authority Project on the west. A whole neighborhood existed in from both sides of Lehigh Street, including black owned shops. The houses were old and humble, but people owned them, many for generations. Some blacks at the time wondered if the project was Urban Renewal or Negro Removal?
reprinted from January 2017
The bank call center referred to above is now Building 21, Allentown School District's own alternative charter like high school.
ADDENDUM: I was recently asked if I had done any posts on Allentown's black community. I graduated Allen in the mid 1960's when blacks only comprised about 2% of the town. Only one black guy hung out with my group, and he attended Dieruff. My father's meat market was on Union Street just before the bridge over the Lehigh. Mr. Brantley purchased meat there for his cafe, one of several black owned businesses in the former neighborhood chronicled above. Although many of Allentown's black residents lived there, the neighborhood was still predominately white.
My mom was a member of the Human Relations Commission, set up by Chips Bartholomew when he was mayor, that suggested the area should be razed due to too many unsafe buildings. I know of others on that commission, they were not racist and were not out to destroy a tightly knit black community. The information they had at the time was that all of the families would do better integrating into the wider community. My recollection is that many of the houses were not safe to live in which was one of the reasons the commission was set up, to explore options. I remember the neighborhood from when my parents visited with Melba Moore's parents who stayed with relatives in that neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if the families were properly compensated for their property?
ReplyDeleteslk@7:55, i didn't accuse anybody of racism, but I don't think the residents did better from the move. I believe that the houses were safe. urban renewal was considered progressive at the time.
ReplyDeletesusan@8:06, i do not know how the displaced felt about the compensation offered, but I will make some inquiries. Some friends grew up there, but their parents are now gone.
Much of that neighborhood was scheduled to be demolished in the early 60's due to being unsafe. Mayor Bartholomew organized the committee to inspect the buildings while at the same time look into alternatives to tearing it down. As a native Allentown resident and educator in the city he knew the amount of history generated by that neighborhood. But the prevailing mode of operation in the 70's was tear down & build new. Allentown is still doing this unlike Bethlehem.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, not so many years from now, we'll be looking back on the folly of the NIZ in the same way we're looking back on the folly of "urban renewal."
ReplyDeleteGovernment and the growth of communities and cultures just don't mix.
Most were lied to and not properly compensated. I believe it was Miss Marshall who fought for and got some their money. She was finally honored at the NAACP convention last fall. She is in her late 90's. If you want the real story you should contact her. The last of the living history.
ReplyDeleteGo down to the cultural museum on Walnut St.
ReplyDeleteThey know some of the history
I grow up on Lehigh street i had the best childhood in my year there late 70's early 80's the historic in that neighborhood is so beautiful nothing like it is today ... It is nice to know the history of the environment I grew up on... It was so simple then.
ReplyDeleteI graduated from Allentown High in 1960, the last year it was called that. Dieruff opened that school year (1959-1960), and hence the School Board the following year decided to change Allentown High's name to avoid confusion, since there were now two high schools in Allentown.
ReplyDeleteDue to location residence, whatever black kids remained in school post jr. high at Harrison Morton (I believe the legal age you could drop out of school in Penna. in the 1950's was 14) went to Dieruff. In 1958 Allentown High was one of the largest high schools in Penna., and I recall maybe under ten black & Hispanic kids total. Of course, the following year, when Dieuff opened, I seem to recall maybe 3 black kids and no Hispanics in the school. There were none as faculty staff.
That was 58 years ago; obviously, the demographics have changed markedly. Hopefully, the percentage of minority kids remaining to graduate high school has changed for the better.