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Kim Sudderth is a community leader and advocate for racial justice with the Norfolk branch of the NAACP, and the first Black woman to serve as Vice Chair of the Norfolk Planning Commission, beginning in 2022. She was the Repair Lab’s inaugural Practitioner-in-Residence in 2021. Born in 1971, Sudderth grew up in Norfolk and spent some of her adult years in Virginia Beach before returning home to Norfolk.
Track 1: In this oral history, Sudderth discusses her childhood years growing up on the naval base near Ocean View in Norfolk, and her memories of her mother’s softball league. In her later adult years, Sudderth began advocating for environmental justice cases with Mothers Out Front. Sudderth shares her perspectives on power and change-making, and discusses the connected and widespread issues of housing and the environment, as well as the lessons she has learned through organizing.
Track 2: In this interview Sudderth discusses her experience with a representative of the city in conversation about the proposed downtown Norfolk seawall and the absence of structural mitigations for flooding for the predominantly Black Southside neighborhood, where she resides. Sudderth also addresses Norfolks’ Vision2100 document, a neighborhood planning guide created in response to forecasted sea-level rise and the resulting changes in the city’s geography.
Sharon Johnson is a lifelong resident of Norfolk, Virginia. She has lived in the Bruces’ Park neighborhood in midtown since 1954.
Track 1: This interview discusses Johnson’s life and family, including her grandfather who was a Black contractor in Norfolk in the early part of the 20th century. It takes place in Johnson’s historic home, built by her grandfather.
Track 2: In this oral history, Johnson describes her memories of downtown Norfolk in the 1950s, and key moments including President Kennedy’s assassination and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Johnson graduated from Maury High in Norfolk in 1970, and reflects on the changes precipitated by integration, and her observations on race and discrimination while she lived in Boston. She discusses her participation in marches in Washington with the Service Employees International Union. The interview also includes a walking tour with Johnson as she describes the changes that have occurred in the neighborhood since the 1980s.
