
DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709280014

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL  

SERIES: CHURCH STREET

        WHAT WAS LOST...

SOURCE: - Marvin Lake

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

CHURCH STREET WHAT WAS LOST...

Church Street in its heyday was the heart of black life in the area, a nurturing community where African Americans could shop, worship, and play.

At a time when racial inequality reigned, Church Street - and it's surrounding life-blood community, Huntersville - provided a safe haven. Blacks frequently encountered a hostile or indifferent reception as they moved about. They had to return ``Home,'' as Eva Word Charity recalls, ``for a smile or even eye contact that imparted the perception that you were recognized as a fellow human being.''

But integration, redevelopment and neglect combined to destroy the street's flavor and viability. Many longtime businesses and the area's black affluent role models departed, eventually to be replaced largely by crime and decay.

Today, Church Street wears two faces - one looks ahead with hope; another peers out in despair. Beginning today in The Daily Break, we explore Church Street's past, present and future in a three-part series. Also, today at 8 p.m. WHRO-TV will air ``Church Street: Harlem of the South'' - Marvin Lake MEMO: EDITOR'S NOTE: BECAUSE OF A TECHNICAL ERROR, THE WRONG PAGE WAS

PRINTED ON PAGE E7 OF TODAY'S DAILY BREAK. THE CORRECT PAGE APPEARS ON

PAGE B7 IN THE HAMPTON ROADS SECTION. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Norfolk Public Library

1953: Shooting pool at the Hunton YMCA

Maps

JOHN EARLE/The Virginian-Pilot

CHURCH STREET, 1939

CHURCH STREET TODAY

IN TODAY'S DAILY BREAK KEYWORDS: CHURCH STREET HISTORY