Charlotte Leaders Warn Growth Projects Continue Historic Harm to Black Communities

From Left to Right: Darnell Ivory, Sean Langley, and Mary Johnson

At the Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum on Tuesday morning, community leaders, environmental advocates, and residents drew direct connections between Charlotte’s past urban renewal projects and present concerns surrounding proposed data centers and highway expansion in historically Black neighborhoods.

The discussion, titled “Past, Present, & Future for Black Communities,” examined how infrastructure decisions have repeatedly displaced Black residents while limiting long-term economic investment within those same communities.

For many panelists, the conversation began with memory.

Mary Johnson, president of the Dalebrook Neighborhood, recalled how Interstate 77 cut through her predominantly Black neighborhood only a few years after many families had purchased newly built homes in the early 1960s.

“These people had just moved into these brand new houses, living there for less than five years,” Johnson said, describing homes demolished to make way for the interstate.

Some families relocated their houses, while others lost them entirely.

Johnson also recounted stories from her mother about a cemetery near Erwin Elementary School that extended into the area where I-77 now stands. According to Johnson, construction crews unearthed graves and caskets during development with little regard for the site’s historical significance or the families connected to it.

Darnell Ivory, board member of the Biddleville-Smallwood Neighborhood, shared similar experiences from McCrorey Heights, where her mother received notices from the state demanding compliance through eminent domain proceedings connected to highway expansion.

Ivory said her family ultimately relocated their home from VanBuren Avenue to Hyde Park, where it still stands today. While her mother expanded and improved the property during the move, Ivory described the process as one shaped by necessity rather than choice.

Sean Langley, president of the McCrorey Heights Neighborhood Association, said the Brookshire Freeway alone displaced approximately 240 homes in the area.

“If we are using history as our guide, we would not allow this to happen again,” Langley said.

Langley criticized ongoing interactions with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, arguing that residents were repeatedly redirected when raising concerns about highway expansion, environmental conditions, and neighborhood protections.

The conversation later shifted toward proposed hyperscale data centers planned across Charlotte, particularly on the city’s east and west sides.

From Left to Right:  Rev. Janet Garner-Mullins, environmental justice fellow, Advance Carolina; Greg Asciutto, executive director, CharlotteEAST,

Greg Asciutto, executive director of CharlotteEAST, said communities across political and socioeconomic lines are increasingly unified in opposition to large-scale data center developments due to concerns over environmental pollution, energy consumption, and neighborhood impact.

“These developments will end up in Black and brown communities,” Asciutto said, pointing to lower property costs and historical patterns of industrial placement in marginalized neighborhoods.

Rev. Dr. Janet Garner-Mullins, environmental justice fellow with Advance Carolina and secretary of the West Boulevard Coalition, described a proposed 3 million-square-foot data center project in West Charlotte as part of a larger pattern of environmental inequity.

While supporters of the project have cited potential jobs and economic development, Garner-Mullins questioned why similar projects are not proposed in Charlotte’s wealthier communities.

“Why can’t it go on Queens Road? Ballantyne? Park Road?” she asked.

Garner-Mullins characterized the trend as “environmental and technological racism,” arguing that historically marginalized communities continue to absorb the burdens of development while receiving limited long-term benefits.

Malcomb Coley, retired EY partner, closed the forum by emphasizing the need for collective strategy and accountability as Charlotte continues to grow.

“There have been many broken promises in the past, and marginalized communities suffer the most from these broken promises,” Coley said.

Coley pointed to disparities in public contracting participation, noting that Black-owned businesses reportedly completed only 2% to 3% of work connected to major infrastructure projects like the Blue Line Extension and I-77 expansion.

“The boogeyman is your past,” Coley said. “When 2-3% of the work was only done by Black-owned businesses, it should raise alarm bells.”

Throughout the forum, speakers repeatedly returned to a shared theme: growth without community accountability risks repeating the same patterns that displaced and fractured Black neighborhoods decades ago.