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The end of West Rock was the beginning of a new story at a place clear across town called Granite Mountain. Last fall, I tagged along with a field trip from the University of Central Arkansas to better orient myself to the Granite Mountain area, which was once home to Gillam Park and Booker Homes, an ill-fated public housing project designed for Little Rock\u2019s Black residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booker Homes was torn down in the 1990s, but senior housing and a new subdivision have sprung up since then. The Little Rock Audubon Center has also developed hiking trails and other infrastructure on this site. The Gillam Park pool was in the process of being filled in on our visit and other structures had long since been demolished. It was eerie out there, knowing that soon there will be almost no physical representation of a place that has centered in the experience of so many of Little Rock’s Black residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Once a sleepy crossroads several miles\nsoutheast of the downtown area and across Fourche Creek, Granite Mountain was\ncleared of 165 homes and other structures in the early 1950s to make way for\nthousands of new residents virtually overnight. Booker Homes, a 400-unit public\nhousing complex and the new Granite Heights subdivision were meant to house\nBlack residents displaced by slum clearance projects. Pilgrim\u2019s Rest church\nrelocated to Granite Mountain from West Rock to begin its next chapter. Booker\nHigh School was built to serve the sudden influx of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n City leaders had first shown interest in the\narea decades before when land was needed to house people made homeless during\nthe Great Depression. The city purchased a large tract of land in 1934 that\nbecame the center of a push by Black community leaders for a public park. At\nthe time, six public parks in Little Rock were maintained for white residents\nwhile Black residents were forced to rely on generous private landowners for\noutdoor recreation. The city dragged its heels for years, building and\ndismantling park infrastructure, abandoning then restarting the project at what\nbecame known as Gillam Park. Finally, in 1949, a growing Black political force\npressured the city to hold an election for a bond issue to fully fund Gillam\nPark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To everyone\u2019s surprise, voters approved the\nbond issue. While the park was finally built out, other massive changes in\nGranite Mountain and the city as a whole were underway. City leaders used the\nfunds as leverage to secure millions of dollars of federal funding for their\nslum clearance and urban renewal plans. The picture below shows the extent of\nthe racial redistricting that occurred just in the decade between 1954 and\n1964. The sharp decrease in mixed-race orange and yellow shaded areas of the\nmap is visual evidence of the increasing segregation of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pool at Gillam Park opened to great fanfare just one year before the first residents began moving in at Booker Homes. But as with most amenities in this far eastern corner, city officials allocated too few resources for its upkeep. The most immediately tragic result was the drowning of 12-year-old Tommy Grigsby in 1954. Understaffed, underequipped, and far away from emergency services, Gillam Park had become a death trap. L.C. and Daisy Bates\u2019 newspaper, the State Press<\/em>, said of the incident, “the whole affair was a study in second class citizenship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Booker Homes, too, became hazardous due to\nlimited resources and neglect. In 1998, an article in the New York Times<\/em> reported on the HOPE VI program, begun under\nPresident Bill Clinton: \u201cOn a scale not seen in decades, the Federal Government\nis helping cities clear slums again, but this time they are slums it helped\ncreate: public housing projects crippled by flawed policies and mismanagement\nand overwhelmed by poverty and crime.\u201d Little Rock housing officials began\napplying for HOPE VI funds in 1996 and were awarded over $1.5 million in 2000\nto demolish Booker Homes. Most Granite Mountain residents displaced during this\nround of housing demolition were likely given vouchers to find housing in the\nprivate sector. HOPE VI led to a shortage of affordable and accessible low\nincome housing that Little Rock and other cities are still facing today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community Profile:\nGranite Mountain. Common Ground Education Initiative. Audubon Arkansas. 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earl Saunders, Jr.,\nphotographs, UALR.PH.0106. UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and\nCulture. <\/a>https:\/\/arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org\/digital\/collection\/findingaids\/id\/9300\/rec\/2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGranite Heights Subdivision Marks \u2018First\u2019 for Little Rock Negroes\u201d Arkansas Democrat<\/em>, January 6, 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Granite Mountain\nNeighborhood Community Improvement Work Plan. Granite Mountain Neighborhood\nImprovement Association. 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirk, John A. \u201cA Study in Second-Class Citizenship: Race, Urban Development, and Little Rock\u2019s Gillam Park, 1934-2004.\u201d Arkansas Historical Quarterly<\/em> 64 (Autumn 2005).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson, Ben F., III. Arkansas in Modern America, 1930\u20131999<\/em>. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlan for the homeless echoes Gillam Park history\u201d Arkansas Times<\/em>, July 20, 2017. https:\/\/www.arktimes.com\/arkansas\/plan-for-the-homeless-echoes-gillam-park-history\/Content?oid=8133527<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRazing the Slums to Rescue the Residents\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, September 6, 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Acadia Roher Hey everyone! Acadia again. For my previous post on the West Rock community, click HERE. \u00a0 The end of West Rock was the beginning of a new story at a place clear across town called Granite Mountain.…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ualrexhibits.org\/mappingblog\/files\/2019\/04\/aerial-1024x805.jpg\")
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