Between the 1960’s – 1980’s, urban renewal in Knoxville demolished predominantly Black neighborhoods to allow for expanded public infrastructure that ultimately left Black families physically isolated and disconnected from economic opportunity. Today, the scars of that displacement are still visible. One sees the impact of urban renewal not only in the physical landscape surrounding Knoxville’s downtown, but also in disproportionately high poverty rates for Black residents, low Black-owned business ownership levels, and a persistent sense of both physical and cultural segregation between historically Black neighborhoods and the thriving downtown and economic redevelopment areas nearby.
Working for Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation in collaboration with PORT urbanism, Sanders Pace Architecture put together an in-depth analysis of the history and lasting effects of Knoxville’s urban renewal, and established a framework to reconnect Knoxville through increased economic growth, expanded greenway networks, and enhanced park networks.
Knoxvillian’s Disrupted by Urban Renewal
The area’s disrupted by Urban Renewal were home to numerous notable figures of African American History, including brothers Beauford and Joseph Delaney who influenced modernist painting, Nikki Giovanni, one of the world’s most well known African American Poets, and Daniel Brown, who would go on to become the first African American mayor of Knoxville.
Urban renewal ravaged the homes of the influential Knoxvillian’s, as well as black cultural institutions like the Gem Theatre.
The Gem Theatre
The Delaney Residence
Nikki Giovanni’s Residence