Healing Charlottesville

To reminnd us of historic differences and similarities, the Ninth-Tenth Street Connector should be named in honor of two people.   Sally Hemings and Laura Dowell.   A black woman in white country and a white woman in a black neighborhood.   A slave who was property and a free woman who slaved to own property.   We are familiar with Sally Hemings.

Mrs. Dowell was born to poverty in Nelson county in 1905.   She had a son out of wedlock at the age of 15.   He became a chief warrant officer.   The next time she had a child, she was over 21, married, and had the right to vote.   Altogether she had 12 children.   Only 6 lived past the first year.   With a third grade education, she worked many jobs while she rented.   She sewed and cleaned for rich property owners for half a century.

In 1960, after a car accident, a broken arm, and a one thousand dollar insurance settlement, she bought a hundred year old house on a white street in black neighborhood south of downtown.   Her large house had indoor plumbing, heat, electricity, a refrigerator and telephone. It was shelter for an extended family.   The estate was in compliance with every local ordinance, state and federal law.

At the age of 65, when she was ready to retire, a Democratic city council took her dream house and retirement home for urban renewal.   She liked living in the historic Garrett Street neighborhood. At the age of 92, she passed away in a nursing home against her wishes.

Sally Hemings and Laura Dowell were treated with disrespect from the day they were born until the day they died.   The naming of Tenth Street should be a covenant, a promise to Fifeville that the condition of a building is not justification to take the land on which it sits.

Tenth Street should be called Property Street.   Property tax is cheaper than rent.   The city has converted private property to public rentals.   Rent is more expensive than property tax.   Renters have no long-term security.   Rent generates more revenue.

Tenth Street should be named for a black woman and a white woman, a slave who was property and a free woman who slaved to own property.   Call it Property Street to reassert private ownership and control of property.

Blair Hawkins   Mon 5 June 2002

Upon completion of the speech, in a council chamber packed with black people, only a half dozen at the rear of the auditorium applauded.   But that applause was unequivocal.

Posted Tue 26 Feb 2002

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