Walltown Forever: Brandon Williams on Resisting Displacement Through Multi-Racial, Intergenerational Organizing

'Wednesdays at the Center welcomed Brandon J. Williams, a Duke Alum and a community builder who believes in the power of everyday people to transform society. For eight years and counting, he has been a resident of a historically Black working-class neighborhood in Durham, NC, called Walltown. Brandon used to lead a youth organization in the community and is now organizing with neighbors to resist gentrification and displacement. Walltown was founded in 1906 by George Wall, a formerly enslaved man who moved from Randolph County to Durham, NC, to work for Trinity College(eventually Duke University). Since then, the neighborhood has been home to generations of Black working-class families who, in the face of structural racism, have embodied a spirit of self-determination and resilience. When Northgate Mall, under the ownership of the Rand family, sought to encroach upon residential space, residents organized to keep their land. Now that the mall is in a state of redevelopment, Walltown has organized again.' -- John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University