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Monét Johnson is a Norfolk resident and advocate working with New Virginia Majority, a nonprofit focused on economic and racial justice. She works as the Lead Organizer for Housing and Environment. Johnson was born in 1996 in Brockton, Massachusetts, and spent her summers as a child in Virginia before moving to Norfolk.
Track 1: In this oral history, Johnson discusses her experience growing up in a majority-Cape Verdean community in Massachusetts, her memories visiting her family in Virginia, and her organizing work during her college years at Framingham State University. Johnson describes her work at New Virginia Majority starting in 2020 fighting housing discrimination and combating environmental injustices, including rising sea levels and coal dust pollution in Norfolk.
Track 2: Johnson discusses the legal battle with the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority in 2021, where she was a plaintiff on behalf of residents of St Paul’s public housing. In 2020, New Virginia Majority sued the city for housing discrimination violating the federal Fair Housing Act on behalf of Black residents. The lawsuit alleged that the NRHA perpetuated systemic racism and segregation through redevelopment of St Paul’s and the resulting displacement of hundreds of Black residents. Johnson’s party, made up of the New Virginia Majority and several other civil right organizations, won the lawsuit on behalf of tenants. The interview also discusses Johnson’s experiences advocating with public housing residents for better flooding and facility management and safer accommodations for children and elders. Kim Sudderth is also present in this interview.
Randall Griffin was born and raised in 1967 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and spent time as a young child in Lanett, Alabama, where his mother’s family worked as sharecroppers. Griffin discusses his Cherokee roots in Standing Rock, Alabama, and his early memories of growing up in public housing in Tennessee. His father was a musician in Tennessee with a band called the Fabulous Battalions. Griffin joined the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk in 1986. Following his time in service, Griffin worked as a manager at a Fertilizer plant in Chesapeake when he lost his left hand in a workplace accident, which disabled him permanently. He later went on to work for the Parks and Recreation Departments in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth. In this oral history interview, Griffin discusses his experience often being the first Black person in these departments and his experience with workplace discrimination. He discusses the importance of rec centers in young people’s lives. This interview was conducted in the Cavalier Manor Recreation Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, where Griffin serves as the Recreation Program Specialist.
Ray Smith was born in Douglas Park, Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1954. His father worked in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and when the city of Portsmouth built the interstate in Douglas Park, his family and other residents were forced to relocate to the Mount Hermon neighborhood. When the city of Portsmouth announced the closure of I.C. Norcom, a historically Black high school in 1972, Smith and others organized a walkout in protest. I.C. Norcom was saved and eventually rebuilt in 1999, when Smith served on the school board. Smith became involved in city politics working for governor and presidential campaigns and served as the President of the Civic League, a community organization dedicated to improving conditions for the Portsmouth community of Cavalier Manor, of which he was a resident for 45 years. In this interview, Smith discusses the ways that recent tolls in Portsmouth have impacted Portsmouth residents and how the city dealt with Hurricane Isabel.
Vernon Crump was born in 1929 in Portsmouth, Virginia, and has been a leader in civil rights work in the city since he was 25 years old. Crump’s roots in the area extend for generations. Crump’s great-grandfather, George Crump, was one of the founding members of the Zion Baptist Church, created by Black residents in 1865 just after the Civil War. In this oral history interview, Crump reflects on the city as it was transformed by WWII, recalling his mother’s experience serving white WWII sailors breakfast at the Portsmouth Shipyard, and his own memory delivering news about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As a young child, Crump worked as a shoe shiner in a white barber shop. Crump reflects on his time playing football and going to school dances in segregated schools in the 1940s and 50s, and his long and successful battles fighting workplace discrimination throughout his career with the Department of Disposal. In the 1950s and 60s, Crump led major voter registration campaigns with the Civic League in Portsmouth, which registered Black voters and later helped to elect the first Black man and woman to the City Council, the first Black judge, and the first Black Clerk of Court in Portsmouth. This interview, conducted with Crump’s son, Vernon Crump III also present, also includes Crump’s reflections on police violence and rising sea levels in the city of Portsmouth.
Wayne Jones worked in the Norfolk area for over 46 years, including as a Lambert’s Point shipyard worker and as a civil servant worker with the Naval Base. In this July 2023 testimony directed to the EPA, Mr. Jones discusses the presence of coal dust from Norfolk Southern trains and how the dust impacts the groundwater, soil, air and as a result, the people in Lambert’s Point and the greater Norfolk Area. He urges the EPA to listen to community members and hold Norfolk Southern accountable.
Yugonda Sample-Jones is a resident and activist in Southeast Newport News.
Track 1: In this conversation, Sample-Jones describes her experience advocating for residents during the design process for the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, a federally-funded program aimed at supporting neighborhoods with HUD-assisted housing. Lifelong residents Millie Taylor and her cousin Raymond Wazeerud-Din join the conversation from Taylor’s porch on 20th Street in Newport News, discussing their decades of living in the area and environmental concerns through the generations.
This conversation with Sample-Jones takes place outdoors and on the site of the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, near the East End neighborhood of Newport News.
Track 2: This conversation takes place at the coal terminal in Newport News. Sample-Jones drives around with interviewer Adrian Wood and discusses the impact of the coal terminal on residents of Southeast Newport News.
