Keith Edwards - On housing and gentrification in Northside

Keith Edwards has lived at the same address on McDade St. in Northside since she was born but now resides in a different house, built with support from a development grant that Chapel Hill received in the early 1970s. She became the first black female police officer at UNC in 1974 and later won a discrimination suit against the University after a white male officer with less experience was promoted over her. This interview was done as part of the “Histories of Homes” initiative of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History. Topics include: procedure for condemned houses, real estate companies in Northside, and relationship with student neighbors. The interview focuses on property tax increases and the resulting gentrification that Carrboro and the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill are experiencing. She speaks on her childhood, home, building a new house, and the difference between a house and a home. Northside was seen as a safe space during integration with the solidarity that existed in the community. Race relations in Chapel Hill and Carrboro are a pressing topic considering the history of Civil Rights in the area.  The interview concludes with a description of Bank of America’s discriminatory lending, current regressive trends, racial solidarity in economic crises, how Northside has changed, and white allyship.