Description

Soul City, an experimental Black community established last January at the site of an old Southern tobacco plantation in Warren County, North Carolina, is described by its founder, Floyd McKissick. The 2,500 acre settlement is presently inhabited by 56 black men, women and children who live in communal style and harvest tobacco. McKissick hopes to build a city there, which in 17 years will have a population of 50,000. In another segment, Black Journal investigates the social conditions in the Desire Housing Project in New Orleans. Dissatisfaction over these conditions was alleged by some residents to have led to the September 15 shootout between police and members of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, a group closely connected to the Black Panther Party. The shootout, which started, according to residents, when the police "sneaked up" on NCFF headquarters, resulted in 17 injuries, none of them policemen. Black Journal reports that 10,594 persons live in the housing projects, 8,312 under 21 years of age. Sixty-one percent of the families earn less than 53,000 annually. Desire residents testify to the less-than-adequate municipal services. One resident, who complains that buses and trains pass by the housing project without stopping, says "everybody is looking in on you like a zoo." Another resident describes the uncompleted swimming pool at the project as "the size of a bathtub." Residents say their complaints to the city have gone unanswered. "All we do is meet with the city and nothing is done," says a woman. In another segment,...

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Thirteen - New York Public Library

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Digital Commonwealth