Resentment toward revitalization efforts
Fonvielle vents his frustration with city politicians who treat black community in a cavalier fashion. He argues that because blacks own little property they have little voice in governmental decisions about their community. Consequently, redevelopment projects begin replicating the urban renewal projects of the 1960s and 1970s, which Fonvielle discusses earlier in the interview.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with William Fonvielle, August 2, 2002. Interview R-0174. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- WILLIAM FONVIELLE:
-
Well, where I store is empty. That hurts me to think that they tore down
a black landmark and nothing's there. That property is what
$500,000 now. I don't know how you justify. I
don't know how the city, okay, the city. Now this is the
thing I have problems with. The city bought that property. The city
doesn't own that property anymore. It's privately
owned.
- KIERAN TAYLOR:
-
At some point they sold it.
- WILLIAM FONVIELLE:
-
Yeah, at some point they sold it. Why wouldn't they try to
sell it back to me? That's what really burns me, and
they've got a guy, a black guy now from what I understand
that is going around trying to make the cities be responsible for that
kind of action. I'm not sure how it works because I wrote him
a letter, and he wrote me back. So I imagine I will get to meet him one
day. But I think that's a travesty where you take somebody,
you give them $15,000 in 1963, '64, and then in
2002 that property is no longer owned by the city, and it's
owned by a private individual and the price tag is a half million
dollars.
- KIERAN TAYLOR:
-
Worth quite a bit more.
- WILLIAM FONVIELLE:
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I think the bank may have bought it. I'm not sure.
- KIERAN TAYLOR:
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I know that the Bynes Royal was also pushed out. I think they gave a
fight.
- WILLIAM FONVIELLE:
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Yeah, Frank Bines is a strong individual, but there again still, he had
to go. So he may have gotten more than somebody that didn't
know any better, but in terms of what it was really worth and relocation
money and to—well he didn't have to build. He
bought, but still it wasn't fair. Burger King,
Wendy's, it's like. Okay, we don't have
any say so about what goes on in the black community because we
don't own anything. We can't develop anything
because we can't borrow any money. So we sit back, and we
watch. It's going to be interesting to see what Dr. Evans can
do because I don't know if you're aware he owns,
he's from out of Detroit originally, I think, from Savannah,
and he's come in and bought maybe eight or ten parcels on
MLK. His first development was the SDS, Savannah Development and Renewal
Authority right down here in Huntington and
MLK. That was an old fish market, wholesale fish market that he bought
and now has developed and it's going to be apartments
upstairs, and SDRA is downstairs. So it's going to be
interesting to see whether his ideas can change ML King. [phone rings]
Cut it off. Hello. Hey. [break] Yes, so it's going to be
interesting to see if he can get the crossover because you're
not going to find many black folk who want to rent an apartment for
$1500 on ML King across the street from a Wendy's.