Ramsey Library Exhibition: “MISSING: Stories of Urban Renewal in Asheville’s Historic East End and Valley Street Neighborhoods”

This exhibition by UNC Asheville students about urban renewal in Asheville’s East End and Valley St. neighborhoods, is on view in Ramsey Library’s Blowers Gallery through Feb. 27, during regular library hours, free and open to everyone.

Professor of Mathematics Patrick Bahls, director of UNC Asheville’s Honors Program, provides this description:

““Urban renewal” as a technical term dates back to the US Congress’s Housing Act of 1954, which granted the federal government authority to claim “blighted” properties from private owners and redevelop the land those properties occupied in the name of civic progress. Though many urban renewal projects were undertaken with the best of intentions, on the whole they resulted in the dislocation of millions from their homes and businesses, most powerfully affecting communities of color. MISSING, crafted by UNC Asheville students enrolled in Patrick Bahls’s first-year seminar on urban renewal, examines the impact of urban renewal on specific locations in the East End and Valley Street neighborhoods of Asheville, neighborhoods among several local predominantly African American neighborhoods impacted by urban renewal during the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.”

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Accessibility Contact: Wendy Mullis: (828.251.6729) wmullis@unca.edu