Blacks have resided in the Salem area since its initial founding in 1766 (Old Salem 2018). Between 1750 and 1810, German-speaking Moravians established the towns of Bethania, Bethabara and Salem. Forsyth County was later established in 1849, almost a full century after the first recorded settlers of Salem.

The original black residents were both enslaved and free. They worked alongside Moravians, attended church services together and were also buried next towhites in the graveyard, God’s Acre. However, “even in Salem, where the early Moravians had anticipated an impartial and just religious community, society became more racially stratified” (Oppermann 1997). As a result, pressure from the surrounding settlements led the Moravians to adapt to segregation. In 1810, Peter Oliver, a free black man and main contributor to the construction of Salem, would be the last black person to be buried in God’s Acre for over a century.

About a decade before the Civil War, Forsyth County was designated, and the City of Winston was established as an extension of Salem’s grid pattern. Asthe war began, the 1850 census for Forsyth County indicates that slaves and free blacks accounted for about 14% of the population at the time. As late as 1860, there were about 300 registered slaves in the Winston and Salem area (Oppermann 1977).

During the 1870s, industrialization was on the rise across the country, and Winston followed suit. In 1873 the first railroad was constructed connecting Winston and Greensboro, and Richard Joshua Reynolds moved from Virginia to begin his tobacco company that would ultimately affect Winston-Salem in monumental ways.

The young town of Winston was becoming a leading industrial power of the New South, emerging from the ashes of the Civil War. In 1880, seven years after construction of the first railroad, Winston had 11 tobacco factories; by 1888 it had 26. Blacks made up about 40% of the population, and that figure remained steady as the population continued to grow.

As streetcar lines opened in Winston and Salem, the development of predominantly white suburbs such as West End and Washington Park became much more common. White families moved out of the city center, to the suburbs, effectively segregating the city. These higher-income residential developments grew to the west and south, away from employment centers.

Across town to the east, blacks were building their own neighborhoods and institutions. Beginning in the 1870s, a primary area of development for black residents in Winston was along Depot Street – today’s Patterson Ave, once home to R.J. Reynolds factories and now Bailey Park and the Innovation Quarter. Motivated by convenient proximity to work, black residents remained in the city center and cultivated a thriving community that consisted of lawyers, doctors, educators, churches, schools, hotels, grocery stores, duplexes and large single-family homes. Winston- Salem State University was founded in 1892.

Political changes at the turn of the twentieth century abated the growing successes of the black community. The 1898 elections restored white supremacy to North Carolina, and a victorious Democratic Party reinforced its political power through policy with the enactment of poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and Jim Crow laws – racially segregating facilities and transportation. This legislation effectively reversed the growth of a thriving black middle class. Opportunities and resources became increasingly restricted after 1900, setting back the movement for black equality for several generations.

By 1913, when Winston and Salem merged to form one municipality, many homes located at the center of the “Twin City” were demolished to make room for more factories. During the 1920s, Winston-Salem reached the height of its financial success and had become home to a prosperous and growing black middle class. By 1930 Forsyth County had grown from one of the smallest counties in the state to one of the most populous.

Reynolds relied largely on black labor and offered his employees advanced working conditions and higher pay. He also planned and invested in segregated housing developments across the city, and whites (both working and upper-class) settled in Reynoldstown.

According to the 1931 city directory, five of Reynoldstown’s six avenues were occupied solely by whites. Just a year later, after the only black high school (Atkins High) was built on Cameron Road, the neighborhood was transformed from solely white to solidly black, as successful black Americans populatedthe area. This dramatic shift reflects the “white-flight” tendency, as more blacks moved closer to East Winston in search of more affluent living.

Winston-Salem’s recovery from the Depression was more rapid than in some other cities, and Reynoldstown became home to a prosperous and growing black middle class.

During the 1940s, black Americans fought to gain political representation to raise awareness concerning the needs of the black community among city leaders. By 1949 the population east of Liberty Street and south of 19th Street was predominately black, a black man was elected to join the Board of Aldermen, and white-owned bus lines were desegregated; the impact of the 1898 legislation was slowly shifting.

Many black churches continued to advocate for political and social justice and were committed to uprooting the inequities that affected the black community. Lloyd Presbyterian Church became one of the centers for the civil rights movement, and in 1963 Lloyd was the local headquarters for the Congress for Racial Equality. During the 1960s, libraries, recreation centers and pools were built, the tobacco industry was booming, and police and fire departments were established – but there was also much civil unrest. Police brutality in the city sparked protests, and riots kept tensions between the races strong.

“As late as the 1950s and 1960s, Patterson Avenue from Sixth to Ninth streets was booming and was one of the most active areas of [black] American commerce in Winston-Salem” (Oppermann 1997).

As the civil rights era progressed and Winston-Salem continued to grow, urban renewal programs and the expansion of Reynolds Tobacco Company led to the displacement and disruption of over 4,000 black families (Oppermann 1997). The destabilizing effects of this displacement are still impacting black residents living in Winston-Salem today.

Various factors contribute to the divisions and disparities that exist in Forsyth County. Knowing and understanding our history moves us one step closer to closing the racial equity divide. With the findings of this report, BPI hopes that we may unite our philanthropic strengths and work together to tackle the divisions and disparities that not only hold back black Americans, but our entire community. When we “... target support where it is needed most – when we create the circumstances that allow those who have been left behind to participate and contribute fully – everyone wins ” (Blackwell 2017).