My Redacted Life: Chapter Nine (Cont._3)

It was funny that they never questioned. I guess centuries of subjugation had prepared them for anything. Even losing their homes. Richard Nixon occupied the White House and the Urban Renewal Program was scheduled for extinction. Pine Bluff was to be one of the last recipients and we were preparing the plans.

Those plans included the demolition of a functioning African-American neighborhood, albeit one with definite signs of blight. Once demolished, the area would be rebuilt along the lines of a modern subdivision. This meant that the functioning system of lots and blocks would disappear. In its place would be an illogical pattern of cul-de-sacs and winding street patterns resembling a handful of spaghetti thrown on the floor , prohibiting any degree of social cohesion and logical traffic flow.

There were two teams of us, most hired as temporary "social cassocks" whose job it was to evaluate each house, and determined its fitness to survive. That was a cruel joke. None would survive. Things just didn't work that way. The old ways were out and new ones in.

The owners didn't complain about the intrusion. What would have been the use? This was 1971 and what were still often called "coloreds" were used to being held harmless from the planning of their lives. If any of them saw what might be coming, they didn't say. But, had they listened, they would have heard the "federal bulldozer" warming its engine.

Richard Nixon, for all his other problems of being on the wrong side of history, saved their neighborhood. He ended the program.

Jean's Addition in Pine Bluff still exists as a neighborhood, quite a beloved one, I was to find out much later. It has new problems now, serious problems, but the federal bulldozer is not one of them.

I was beginning to learn that my profession was one of great complexity. If you wanted to do right, you'd better first make sure you weren't doing wrong.