IN-PERSON London. Section B

Abstract

In 1950 the Lower West End of Cincinnati Ohio was a vibrant walkable urban neighborhood, home to just over 25,000 Black residents. By 1970 only 125 people called the neighborhood home. This urban renewal-fueled displacement scattered Cincinnati’s African American community across the city resulting in a striking sense of disorientation and a loss of vital community networks. In June 2023, Cincinnati’s City Council issued an apology for this racially-motivated displacement and the demolition of homes, stores, churches, and schools. Despite this apology, the West End remains a contested urban space–long home to low-income African Americans until upper-income whites recently became attracted to it’s remaining nineteenth-century buildings and proximity to downtown. Most recently, a new major league soccer stadium has caused the demolition of important historic buildings, brought noisy crowds, and now threatens to remake the neighborhood as an upper-class playground surely causing a second round of displacement. Within this system of white power and privilege, one project could preserve not just an historic theater building, but also the Black history and culture so essential to the development of the West End. This presentation will share the history of displacement and broken dreams in Cincinnati’s West End, while offering The Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center project as a model for a community-engaged history, arts, and culture space. We will investigate issues including how cities can repair past wounds, how low-income residents can be most engaged as their neighborhoods change, and the importance of arts and culture in livable cities.