In the early‑ and mid‑20th century, Greenville’s city planning deliberately separated Black residents from white neighborhoods. The 1907 Kelsey and Guild “Beautifying Greenville” plan labeled the Black population a “planning difficulty” and urged the creation of distinct residential zones.
Ordinances That Divided the City
In 1912, the City Council adopted an ordinance that split the city block by block, dictating where people could live, shop, eat, and enjoy recreation. This segregation extended to schools, parks, and even the allocation of public funds. Black children attended under‑resourced schools, most notably Sterling High School, which suffered from inadequate facilities, lower teacher salaries, and textbooks passed down from white schools.
Public Spaces and Broken Promises
In 1924 the city purchased land on Mayberry Street for a park intended for Black children, who were barred from white parks. Decades later, part of that land was taken for the Meadowbrook baseball stadium. When the Black community asked for a replacement park in 1939, the request was denied. The site became a landfill, a police firing range, a women’s stockade, and a public‑works storage yard. Only in 2022 did the city finally fulfill the original promise by opening Unity Park on the same site, offering a long‑overdue green space for the Southernside neighborhood.
Self‑Reliance Amid Exclusion
Facing exclusion, Black Greenvillians built their own institutions. In 1919 Hattie Logan Duckett founded the Phillis Wheatley Center to provide programs for Black girls and young women denied access to white city offerings. Springfield Baptist Church became a hub for civil‑rights meetings, while neighborhoods such as Southernside, Sterling, and Nicholtown supported their own churches and businesses.
Lasting Geographic Impact
Even after Jim Crow laws were dismantled, the physical layout of the city remained. The neighborhoods once marked as “less valuable” continued to bear the scars of disinvestment. Post‑World War II, the decline of textile mills accelerated white flight to the suburbs, emptying downtown and prompting highways and urban‑renewal projects to cut through these historically marginalized areas.
Revitalization and Reflection
In the 1970s Mayor Max Heller, together with business and civic leaders, launched a downtown revitalization effort that succeeded in turning Greenville into a national model for urban renewal. Yet the story of the city’s divided past raises the question: who benefited from these changes, and who bore the cost? The answer, as this series shows, often depends on where a family’s home sits on the map.
Dr. Russell Stall, a Greenville native, former at‑large city‑council member, and certified city planner, serves as executive director of the Greenville County Historical Society. He emphasizes that understanding this history is essential for shaping a more equitable future for all Greenville residents.
Original reporting: Greenville Journal — read the source article.
