1937 Durham in Black and White

This 1937 public works map is more than just a detailed street map of Durham after the acquisition of West Durham in the 1920s, it highlights the racialized history of the city through color-coded neighborhoods and public facilities. Note the laconic qualifier on the map's legend "A few white people live in Negro communities and vice versa." Both Hickstown to the upper left of the map and Brookstown towards the center, as well as parts of Hayti near the bottom center have been mostly destroyed by the Durham freeway (NC-147) projects of the 1960s-80s.


1937 Bureau of Public Works map (Duke University Libraries):



[click to enlarge]