Welcome to A People’s Tour of Charleston!

By Jean-Marie MAUCLET, from an article by Damon FORDHAM

Look at the present and …

The displacement of low-wealth, marginalized communities? check

The resegregation of schools? check

The privatization of coastal property? check

The inequitable banking practices? check

The destruction of neighborhood? check

The elitist appropriation of history? check

Look to the past and …

Slavery? check

Slave rebellions? check

The Denmark Vesey Rebellion? check

The Emancipation Proclamation? check

Reconstruction? check

Jim Crow? check

Let us start in 2015, a pivotal year in the history of our beautiful town.

The shooting of Walter Scott on April 4th and the Bible Study killing of the Emanuel Nine on June 17 made world news for the All America City.

Did the transition of this targeted violence into History make major ripples locally?  

Was the lack of rioting due to a level of racial harmony in the Holy City?

Or was it because “no leadership arose, demanding this pain to be recognized,” in the words of Muhiyidin D’baha, yet an other young Charleston activist, killed in New Orleans in 2018? “Again, it’s let me accommodate you so you’re not scared, we’ll just get on the bridge and hold hands, we’re over it. There has been an arrangement here, created over generations, to be able to endure terrorism. At this point, this is the way it is. We endure, we don’t ask for more.”

Many TINY businesses in Charleston show the scars and carry the weight of every Charleston shortcoming. Yet, they are still the hope of those who want to make a difference in their community, their neighborhood.