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Alexander Fella is a professor of Anthropology at Christopher Newport University. This conversation focuses on Fella’s writing and research on rent, section eight housing vouchers, evictions and home ownership in Norfolk.
Antipas Harris is a community leader with the Urban Renewal Center, a faith-led community organization. Harris discusses his experiences working at a homeless shelter in Norfolk, including the impacts of flooding on people experiencing homelessness in the city. Harris reflects on his role as a faith leader and the changing nature of the city.
Billy Mercury, Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones grew up in the Park Place neighborhood of Norfolk in the 1990s, a historically Black neighborhood. The three reflect on their experiences growing up, changes in the neighborhood due to gentrification, as well as Kirts and Jones’s time working in the Department of Corrections.
Cassandra Newby-Alexander is a luminary historian of Black culture in the Tidewater area of Virginia, and Dean of the HBCU Norfolk State University, beginning in 2018. Chinedu Okala is a celebrated artist and Associate Dean of NSU at the time of this interview. Newby-Alexander discusses her experiences from childhood to adulthood with flooding in the city, illustrating her experiences with historical context around the City’s restriction Black residents’ housing. Okala discusses the history of race in the US and the current political climate.
Donquitta Clements is a resident and advocate in Southeast Newport News, where she was raised. In this interview, she discusses the impact of coal dust and other environmental pollutants on her family’s health. She also reflects on changes to the neighborhood through the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, a federally funded program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Johnny Finn is an Associate Professor of Geography and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Christopher Newport University. In this interview, he connects his research on redlining in Hampton Roads to Norfolk’s city planning efforts in the face of sea-level rise.
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.
Renee Hoyos is the former Environmental Justice director for Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), where she worked for 18 months between 2021-2022. This interview discusses her time with the agency, the limitations of the DEQ, and why she left her position.
Skip Styles lives in Norfolk, Virginia and is retired from his position as Director of the environmental nonprofit Wetlands Watch, located in Norfolk, Virginia, where he served from 2006 to 2023. The conversation is about the initiatives Styles pioneered through Wetlands Watch, including rolling easements and riparian buffers, that aim to reduce the harm of sea-level rise in Hampton Roads.
Vincent Hodges is a social worker and worked as an organizer between 2021-2022 with New Virginia Majority, a nonprofit focused on racial and economic justice in Virginia. Hodges discusses his firsthand experiences working with residents in St Paul’s, a public housing complex in Norfolk. He discusses the state of public housing infrastructure, his concerns about working with Norfolk City Council for resolution, and his perspective on the political climate of the City.
