Freedom Hill

Princeville, NC sits atop wet, swampy land along the river. In the 1800s, the land was deemed uninhabitable by white people. After the Civil War, this indifference left it available for freed enslaved Africans. Once called ‘Freedom Hill,’ it was gradually established as an all Black town. But the town has been inundated with flooding...and with each flood, a little more of the small town erodes.

Princeville, NC sits atop wet, swampy land along the river. In the 1800s, the land was deemed uninhabitable by white people. After the Civil War, this indifference left it available for freed enslaved Africans. Once called ‘Freedom Hill,’ it was gradually established as an all Black town. But the town has been inundated with flooding...and with each flood, a little more of the small town erodes.

Filmmaker Resita Cox and DeVante Hudson of The Chisholm Legacy Project speak with Tina McDuffie, host of Local, USA, about FREEDOM HILL and the story of the historic Black town. Cox shares her own story to the making of film including an education of Princeville and environmental racism while Hudson provides a perspective of organizing, planning and obtaining resources within communities.

In cities and town across America, communities of color and people living in poorer neighborhoods have been the target of environmental racism. The unfair decisions and practices by local, state and federal governments, companies and organizations undermine the health and well-being of people as in the case of the historic Black town of Princeville, North Carolina.

In North Carolina, Princeville and Tarboro are neighbors separated by the Tar River. The former lies on low ground while the latter sits on high ground which is why Princeville is subject to flooding. Kofi Boone, a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at NC State University, talks history and racialized topography in the South.