by Thomas Healy
Young’s letter raised … mistakes of the past: FM to Whitney Young, January 27, 1969, Whitney M. Young Papers, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, box 21.
“Heart Cities, Head Cities, Hand Cities”: Gordon B. Hancock, “High Cost of Hand-Out,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, February 22, 1969, 9A.
“to disappoint and delude the ignorant”: M. A. Farber, “Advocate of ‘Black Education’ Argues With Negro Moderate,” New York Times, January 16, 1969, 28.
“They’ve been trying to get integration”: Parker, “Negroes to Build Town in Warren,” January 14, 1969.
five stages of grief: Baskin, “Skepticism, Fear of Soul City Abound in Warren County,” March 9, 1969.
“county tax structure would get a real boost”: Jim Smith, “Warren Officials Surprised by Soul City,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 15, 1969.
“hog maws and overcooked greens”: Burchard, “‘Soul City’ Stirs Its Future Neighbors.”
editor of the Warren Record: Bignall Jones, Boyhood Days in Warrenton (Warrenton, NC: Record Print Co., 1993).
“pull down the pillars of the temple”: Bignall Jones as quoted in Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 328 fn 36.
“I carry all the nigger weddings”: Geoffrey Gould, “Waiting to Be Born: Soul City,” New Republic, July 3, 1971, 10.
Jones was troubled … “did not see any persons in rags”: Bignall Jones, “Mostly Personal,” Warren Record, January 30, 1969, 3.
“I’d hate to see it happen”: Burchard, “‘Soul City’ Stirs Its Future Neighbors.”
as strange as any foreign nation’s: Nichols, “Present at the Creation,” November 4, 1973.
“definitely not true”: Jim Smith, “Soul City for ‘All Citizens,’” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 22, 1969, 5.
“When city rioters come”: Tornquist, “Puppet Capital in the Black South.”
“going to do something on it”: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 48; “Soul City’s Need Is Green Power,” BusinessWeek, January 17, 1970.
7: GREEN POWER
In the weeks … industrial trade organization: “Architectural Firm Chosen for ‘Soul City’ in Carolina,” New York Times, January 19, 1969, 76; Lentz, “Men Named to Guide Soul City Birth,” January 19, 1969; “Soul City Group Sees Gov. Scott,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 24, 1969; “Soul City Makes Go Go Boy of McKissick,” February 1, 1969.
let alone cover a down payment: Internal Memorandum from W. H. Clanton to FM, November 29, 1968, McKissick Papers, folder 5523.
more than $25 million to build Columbia: Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6405; Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 113, 136.
Operating informally … an ideal applicant: Leonard Sloane, “A Loan Criterion: Potential,” New York Times, September 20, 1970, 160.
“Just work with me”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
“keep the black man in his place”: “Another Opinion: Why the Negro Must Rebel,” New York Times, July 30, 1967, E9.
criticized Chase Manhattan … “are the enemy”: McKissick, Three-Fifths of a Man, 39–41.
“They are the people with the influence”: McKissick, Three-Fifths of a Man, 41.
“moral right to their remaining millions”: McKissick, Three-Fifths of a Man, 40.
“You owe it”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
The Chase team … “you’ll do the title work”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
needed cash immediately: Hammer, Green, Siler Associates, “Preliminary Economic Analysis,” February 13, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 2738e.
McKissick had scheduled … smoothly to a stop: Email from Gordon Carey to author, March 5, 2018.
Once on the ground … the missed deadline: Email from Gordon Carey to author, March 5, 2018.
stack of paperwork … two hundred years earlier: “Soul City Land Deal Is Delayed,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 20. 1969; “Soul City Deal Said Closed,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 21, 1969.
“good here for the whole country”: “Soul City Deed Filed,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 22, 1969.
spent several times that amount: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 136.
“Need Is Green Power”: “Soul City’s Need Is Green Power,” 106.
reservations about relying on government loans: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 44.
most businesses prefer tax breaks and subsidies: “Harvard University Study,” 1969, 37, McKissick Papers, folder 6573.
“get out of that bag”: McKissick interview with Robert Wright, 14–15.
“into programs that have failed”: “Transcripts of Acceptance Speeches by Nixon and Agnew to the GOP Convention,” New York Times, August 9, 1968; Walter Rugaber, “Nixon to Retain Poverty Agency; Shifts 2 Projects,” New York Times, February 20, 1969, 1.
appointed as its director Donald Rumsfeld: John Herbers, “Rumsfeld Hopes to Speak for Poor,” New York Times, May 2, 1969, 21; Mehrsa Baradaran, The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017), 167.
without yet allocating any funds: Baradaran, Color of Money, 180.
Born in High Point … “able to go home again”: Robert Brown interview with the author, July 19, 2016.
After the election … accepted the job: Robert Brown interview with the author, July 19, 2016.
He wasn’t the only Black official … went straight to him: Milton Viorst, “The Blacks Who Work for Nixon,” New York Times, November 29, 1970, 260.
McKissick lodged his first complaint … “certain agencies”: FM to Robert Brown, February 4, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6199.
Six weeks later … “before the honeymoon ends”: FM to Robert Brown, April 4, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6199.
lack of access to the president: Frank C. Porter, “Black Coalition Claims Nixon Is Avoiding Talks,” Washington Post, January 26, 1969, 6.
cutting back on the SBA: Wolff, “Black ‘Soul City’ Described,” April 24, 1969.
“the right to have Black-run factories”: “McKissick Says Blacks Should Control Harlem,” New York Amsterdam News, July 5, 1969, 10.
consider alternative sources of funding: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 44.
insurance and hair products industries: Franklin and Moss, From Slavery to Freedom, 521.
“income producing properties and homes”: J. J. Henderson to FM, November 9, 1971, McKissick Papers, folder 6022.
“until he admits that he is defeated”: FM to Edward Kennedy, July 25, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6198.
Fitzgerald said he had never heard from Kennedy: Gordon Carey interview with the author, April 23, 2015.
those discussions went nowhere: Gordon Carey interview with the author, July 19, 2016.
he and McKissick were different races: Gordon Carey interviews with the author, April 23, 2015, and July 19, 2016; email from Gordon Carey to author, May 25, 2017.
“the deep rooted latent racism of white America”: FM to Louis Winnick, Ford Foundation, March 11, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5541 (filed in SC correspondence with Ford Foundation).
“word to the wise”: Irving Fain to FM, January 22, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6408b.
the beneficence of the federal government: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 44.
Building on the proposal … “will surprise the skeptics”: “A Proposal to Develop Soul City,” April 1, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6596.
town of Jonathan, Minnesota: “Table 4.1—Basic Data on Selected New Community Proposals Which Were Never Approved (Alphabetized), Key Dates and Final Disposition,” Jack Underhill Papers, George Mason University, box 10, folder 12; “U.S. Backs Its First New City,” Washington Post, February 14, 1970, A2.
raised precisely this concern: “Table 4.1—Basic Data on Selected Ne
w Community Proposals Which Were Never Approved (Alphabetized), Key Dates and Final Disposition,” Jack Underhill Papers, George Mason University, box 10, folder 12.
if it were truly integrated: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 53; Fergus, Liberalism, 202.
the addition of a white developer: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 54.
had doubts about the project himself: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 55.
“Manifestly, the taxpayers of the United States”: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 55.
assigned a young planner on his staff: Carlos Campbell interview with the author, January 25, 2019.
“cannot be treated as an ordinary case”: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 53.
“something we should be encouraging”: James Welsh, “McKissick’s ‘Soul City’ Gets No Federal Help,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 18, 1969.
apply for a planning grant: Memorandum from Gordon Carey to FM, May 28, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5527; Sam Jackson to FM, August 18, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6140.
writing to Bob Brown: FM to Robert Brown, October 9, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6201.
“new life to a rural, depressed area”: FM to Spiro Agnew, July 24, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6199.
“‘We don’t know’”: FM to Spiro Agnew, August 12, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6199.
green light to Soul City: FM to John Parker, October 8, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author; FM to Robert Brown, October 17, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6201; FM to Ray O’Keefe, October 9, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6392.
good news from Sam Jackson: Memorandum from Gordon Carey to T. T. Clayton, November 17, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5527; Memorandum from D. R. Godschalk, D. H. Moreau, and J. A. Parker to The Faculty, November 25, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author.
“ready to move ahead”: Gordon Carey to David Godschalk, September 8, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author.
8: A FRESH START
McKissick and his staff … a thriving community: Mixon, Soul City, 20.
Jack Parker … department like a fiefdom: Edward J. Kaiser and Karla Rosenberg, The School That Jack Built: City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1945–2012 (Chapel Hill: Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013), xiv; 13, 88.
dispatched a telegram to McKissick’s office: Telegram from John A. Parker to Leslie Roberts, January 10, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author; Memorandum from John A. Parker to the Faculty, January 13, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author.
The meeting … effort to plan Soul City: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 40, 51; Kaiser and Rosenberg, School That Jack Built, 95; Memorandum from John A. Parker to the Faculty, January 16, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author.
“yet another Soul City planning conference”: Memorandum from David H. Moreau and John D. Patton to the Faculty, March 18, 1969, personal papers of David Godschalk, copy on file with author.
“Can Black folks do it?”: Harvard University Study, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6573, 4.
“projected an air of total confidence”: David Godschalk interview with the author, August 19, 2015.
“the belief that a thing can be done”: Floyd McKissick, “Will v. Reason,” undated yearbook editorial, personal papers of Charmaine McKissick-Melton, copy on file with author.
“land is ideal for a city”: Harvard University Study, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6573, 3, 19–20.
the population projections grew: Strain, “Soul City,” 60; Report of Soul City Foundation, April 12, 1974, Bradley H. Patterson Jr. (White House Central Files: Staff Member and Office Files), box 64, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum; “McKissick: Initial Plans Are Ready for Soul City,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 15, 1970; “Soul City Hopefully Waits for Federal Bond Approval,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 11, 1972.
“the very boldness of this project”: Gould, “Soul City: Black Leader’s ‘Magnificent Obsession,’” May 9, 1971.
The size of the project … in a new light: Harvard University Study, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6573, 18–19; “A Proposal Under Title IV of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act to Secure a Guarantee for This New Community,” February 1, 1970, McKissick Papers, folder 6603, 43.
“The mutual needs for water”: “A Proposal Under Title IV,” February 1, 1970, folder 6603, 43.
“a fresh start”: “The First City in the World That’s Built Around Your Family,” Advertisement, Black Enterprise, June 1977, 22.
In pursuing this goal … conceived and built: Mumford, Designing the Modern City, 253–81; David Godschalk interview with the author, August 19, 2015.
challenged the prevailing consensus … the two as interchangeable: Jacobs, Death and Life.
Jacobs’s book was groundbreaking … environmental sustainability: Mumford, Designing the Modern City, 295–304; Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (New York: North Point Press, 2010).
“irresponsibility, and superficial values”: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 111.
He preferred small … not enough: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 110–12; 114–19; William Severini Kowinski, “A Mall Covers the Waterfront,” New York Times, December 13, 1981.
“dignity, beauty, growth!”: James Rouse, “Cities That Work for Man—Victory Ahead” (speech, Lions International / University of Puerto Rico Symposium on “The City of the Future,” San Juan, PR, October 18, 1967), http://ebot.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/2038/638_05_03_01.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
To mitigate … “garden for growing people”: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 114–19; Amanda Kolson Hurley, “Here’s a Suburban Experiment Cities Can Learn From,” Washington Post, July 13, 2017.
Columbia aimed … imitation Swiss chalets: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 122–32; Hurley, “Here’s a Suburban Experiment Cities Can Learn From.”
followed a regular course of study: Memoranda from GC to FM, June 25 and June 30, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5527.
They learned … “more than they succeed”: Conversations Between The Rouse Company and Floyd B. McKissick Enterprises, Inc., 1969–71, McKissick Papers, folders 6576–6587.
He found just the man … program at MIT: Harvey Gantt interview with the author, October 14, 2015.
seventy-two job categories: “Soul City Team of 20 to Move in Shortly,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), November 12, 1969.
So McKissick invited … “a different story”: Harvey Gantt interview with the author, October 14, 2015.
As for transportation … light-rail service: “A Proposal Under Title IV,” February 1, 1970, folder 6603, 40.
recreation and animal habitats: “A Proposal Under Title IV of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act to Secure a Guarantee for This New Community,” February 1, 1971, McKissick Papers, folder 6604, 27–52; Harvey Gantt interview with the author, October 14, 2015.
“in the social arena”: “A Proposal Under Title IV,” February 1, 1971, folder 6604, 73.
“live together in a community”: Conversations Between The Rouse Company and Floyd B. McKissick Enterprises, Inc., 1969–71, McKissick Papers, folders 6576–6587.
seventy-five patients a day: Floyd McKissick Jr. interview with the author, October 12, 2015.
enough money to buy a station wagon: “Rural Fire Department Ends Ambulance Service,” Warren Record, January 4, 1968, 1; “Ambulance Service for County Nearer,” Warren Record, January 25, 1968, 1.
a blatant attempt to evade Brown: Turner v. Warren County Board of Education, 313 F. Supp. 380 (E.D. N.C.) (May 23, 1970).
little sense for the
county to build new facilities: Harvard University Study, 1969, 20–21.
a long history of privately owned towns: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 35, 153–55; Campbell, New Towns, 69.
governing body of the new community: “How Govern Soul City?” September 1971, McKissick Papers, folder 2043.
“the compromises from the ideal”: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 59 and fn. 105.
“project hinges on one single factor: “A Proposal Under Title IV,” February 1, 1971, folder 6604, 15–16.
General Electric agreed to build a plant: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 139.
McKissick couldn’t offer … record on racial issues: Harvard University Study, 1969, 10.
“ultimately become an economic reality”: Harvard University Study, 1969, 9.
“They both come first”: Conversations Between The Rouse Company and Floyd B. McKissick Enterprises, Inc., 1969–71, McKissick Papers, folders 6576–6587.
9: “THE SALAD PICKERS”
“land with a tremendous potential”: FM to Leon Perry, September 18, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 2738e.
As 1969 … large and boisterous family: Gordon Carey interview with the author, August 21, 2015; Beverly McNeill interview with the author, April 25, 2015; FM to Duncan McNeill, December 19, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5537.
For Groom … a life in Soul City after all: Ball-Groom, Salad Pickers, 23–102.
Which is what … “dust of past generations”: Ball-Groom, Salad Pickers, 103–29, 194–202.
“getting the physical systems going”: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 88.
dripping on cold winter nights: Ball-Groom, Salad Pickers, 112–13.
like a pair of suburban cowboys: Gordon Garey interview with the author, July 19, 2016.
At times … spuds upside down: Ball-Groom, Salad Pickers, 138–41.
But their inexperience … new neighbors: Gordon Carey interview with the author, August 21, 2015.
Nature presented … across the fields: Ball-Groom, Salad Pickers, 145–46.
It wasn’t just the environment … on edge: “Warrenton District Schools to Be Closed Indefinitely,” Warren Record, November 12, 1970, 1; “Warren County Schools Resume Operations Wednesday Morning,” Warren Record, November 19, 1970, 1; “Police and Firemen Called to John Graham High School,” Warren Record, December 3, 1970, 1; “Black Students Return to John Graham High School,” Warren Record, December 17, 1970, 1.