Fulton, razed under the city's urban renewal plan
Declared a slum 1967; renewal plan 1970; most of the neighbourhood demolished by 1973Fulton, in Richmond's East End below Fulton Hill, Richmond City, VA
Fulton, a Black neighbourhood in Richmond's East End settled in 1853, was declared a slum in 1967 and cleared. The 1970 renewal plan displaced about 785 households - nearly 3,000 people - and most of the neighbourhood had been demolished by 1973.
Fulton sat in the East End bottomland below Fulton Hill, settled in 1853 and by the 1960s a largely Black neighbourhood of around 850 homes with its own churches, schools and stores. It was one of the last intact Black neighbourhoods left in Richmond, the others having already been cut up by the turnpike and by redevelopment.
In 1967 a study sponsored by the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority designated Fulton a slum. The Fulton Urban Renewal Plan, unveiled in 1970, would displace approximately 785 households - nearly 3,000 people. From the early 1970s the authority acquired and razed property, offered relocation packages to residents who took them, and took by eminent domain the homes of those who refused. Most of the neighbourhood was down by 1973.
Fulton's residents had watched what happened in Jackson Ward and in Carver and did not consent to it. Spencer E. Jones III and Earl Robinson led an effort to stop the plan short of total demolition. It failed on timing as much as on merit: by the time the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission considered whether Fulton was eligible as a historic site, the housing authority had already demolished most of the structures that would have made the case.
What was rebuilt was not what was taken, and the people were not brought back. The fullest account of the neighbourhood now is the one its own residents made: seventeen interviews with thirty-two named participants, recorded in 2011 and held by Virginia Commonwealth University.
The renewal plan put the displacement at about 785 households, nearly 3,000 people. The sources differ on the neighbourhood's extent: Encyclopedia Virginia describes 200 acres, while the residents' own oral history project puts it at 356.
Sources
- Urban Renewal in RichmondEncyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanitiesencyclopediavirginia.orgFulton's founding in 1853, the 1967 slum designation, and the 1970 plan's displacement of about 785 households and nearly 3,000 people.
- Historic Fulton Oral History ProjectVCU Libraries, Virginia Commonwealth Universityscholarscompass.vcu.eduSeventeen interviews with thirty-two named residents, recorded in 2011, on the neighbourhood before and after the 1970s renewal plan; Spencer Edward Jones III's account puts the cleared community at 356 acres.
- Residents Say Fulton Bottom Can Be Saved, January 15, 1967Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanitiesencyclopediavirginia.orgContemporaneous reporting reproduced as a primary document: residents' case against the slum designation, made at the time it was handed down.