Protect the Black Community and Stop the Red Hat Amphitheater Expansion
On September 17, 2024, at 1 PM, the Raleigh City Council will vote on a proposal to permanently close a block of South Street at the intersection of W. South Street and W. Lenoir Street. This decision is part of the city’s plan to expand the Red Hat Amphitheater. The city claims that this expansion is intended to boost the local economy, but the truth is that it will come at a significant cost to Raleigh's Black communities—particularly the families of Heritage Park, a Section 8 public housing neighborhood.
The closure of South Street will have a negative impact on commuting in the area and will further the ongoing gentrification that threatens to displace the residents of Heritage Park. While the city promotes the expansion as beneficial, the economic gains will not be shared with the Black communities. Instead, this project will only deepen the displacement and erasure of these historically Black neighborhoods, which have long faced systemic injustice.
In 2023, the Raleigh City Council passed a resolution supporting "community reparative justice for the African American community in Raleigh," acknowledging the harm caused by decades of housing discrimination, redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification. The council’s resolution recognized the responsibility to right these wrongs and to protect Raleigh's Black residents from further displacement.
Yet, by pushing forward with this amphitheater expansion, the city is continuing the same harmful patterns that have plagued Raleigh’s Black communities since the destruction of the Fourth Ward in 1958. We cannot allow this to happen again. The City Council must honor its commitment to reparative justice, not contribute to further gentrification and the elimination of Black neighborhoods.
That’s why we need your help. We urge you to sign this petition and demand the City Council, especially Councilmember Jane Harrison of District D (given her past voting records furthering gentrification, genocide, and settler colonialism along with Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin), to vote NO on the closure of South Street and the expansion of Red Hat Amphitheater. Raleigh must prioritize livelihood of the most impacted and disenfranchised, the and put an end to the policies that perpetuate displacement and erasure.
