BORN OF RAW TOBACCO AND NEVER REFINED, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA EMBRACES ITS GRIT.
The Bull City has evolved into a new economic epicenter, where an entrepreneurial energy hums in the revitalized downtown and a creative class asserts its identity.
But the specters of segregation, urban renewal, deindustrialization and mass incarceration linger in Durham today. Crumbling communities are divorced from downtown, and plagued with congenital poverty and violence. Homicide was the leading cause of death for black males ages 20-39 in 2009 in Durham, and most murders were committed with a firearm. But the bullets don’t just stop against brick and bone; they tear through families, friendships, communities and generations.
This essay is an unfiltered look at the neighborhoods and families haunted by this violence. They are hard-scrabbling and sturdy, and refuse to be defined by their struggle or by tragedy. Those affected by violence have become part of a vocal, growing community composed of people from all walks of life, and they are transforming into conduits for change in their neighborhoods.
It is not easy to make the vital connections to these neighborhoods, so they are often overlooked and underreported. The resulting apathy can be just as fatal as bullets. Search the newspapers. The headlines read “Man Dies From Gunshot Wound In Durham,” but often the details are as thin as the pages.
The indifferent shrug their shoulders. Human beings are written off as drug dealers, as criminals, as poor; as black and brown and deserving of their fate. Their families are dripping with grief and left to navigate a bewildering legal system. Many of them can barely afford to bury their children.
This violence in Durham is a microcosm of a larger tragedy of violence in America. It is symptomatic of many social ills that we know how to fix. The solutions begin with fellowship and unity.
Angier Avenue and Driver Street in East Durham, a neighborhood tormented by violence.
"Since Ray been murdered, I have nightmares. I dream of him in the morgue and when they are cutting his body I wake up because I can feel the knife cutting me," says Joslin Simms, who weeps at the corner of Broad and Leon streets in Durham where her son Rayburn, 30, was shot to death on May 21, 2005. A motive and killer for the murder are elusive and Ray left behind four kids and a mother destroyed by his absence. Nationally, the leading cause of death for black males ages 15-34 is homicide. Durham is 40% African American, and similarly homicide was the leading cause of death for black males ages 20-39 in 2009.
In 2007 at the height of his drug dealing career, Malcolm was shot eight times by a friend he thought he knew well. His left kidney was destroyed in the shooting and his right kidney is hardly functional, causing kidney disease and requiring dialysis 3 days a week for 4 hours a day. Eight bullets debilitated this healthy young man, and ended his "hustling." But those eight bullets also set him on a better course, where he is dedicated to his kids, to his fiancee and to living a quieter life. Malcolm, 34, nearly blind from the effects of diabetes and having limited kidney function after being shot, recovers at home after an illness in 2013.
Gang graffiti discovered near the intersection of Vale and Clay Streets in 2005. Graffiti is like a newspaper or bulletin board in gang culture, marking territory and sometimes advertising future crimes, including murders. Upon discovering gang graffiti, officers have it removed. There were 37 homicides in Durham in 2005. Twenty seven (73%) were committed with a firearm.
Rashard Johnson has made a lot of bad decisions. By 18 he had been convicted of 11 felonies - all nonviolent property crimes - and he owes $6,000 in restitution for his criminal charges. He says took the fall for some of the crimes, but didn't commit them. At 20 he has escaped gang life and wants to start over. But as a felon, he faces employment, education and housing discrimination, and cannot vote. Rashard kisses his girlfriend Cheyenne after being apart for several weeks.
In a human moment after the chaos of a drug raid, a member of the Durham Police Department Selective Enforcement Team escorts a child to the bathroom. His mother was detained during the search on the house and was unable to tend to him. Through raids, officers hope to recover illegal or stolen guns, and disrupt drug trafficking and gang activity. The officers feel traumatized when children are caught in the middle of drug raids because many have children of their own. November 2005.
A mural of downtown Durham and Hayti, Durham's vibrant African American community, shows signs of neglect. Southside neighborhood. In the 1960s the Durham Freeway, NC 147, was built through the city to connect Interstates 40 and 85, to feed the growing technology hub in the Research Triangle Park south of Durham. But the artery cut through a historically African American neighborhood, disrupting their businesses and creating an easy route for drug traffickers.
Rashard jokes with Executive Director Gayle Erdheim and his tutor at Achievement Academy of Durham, where he is making strides in his reading comprehension as he works towards his GED. Rashard dropped out of school in the ninth grade. At Achievement Academy, he says he realized for the first time in his life that he was smart. Increasingly desperate for stability, Rashard often felt compelled to turn back to a life of crime, and even violence. School kept Rashard occupied with a positive goal, during a time when he had few good decisions to make. GED programs give students the tools they need to succeed in life, and a sense of belonging that they might otherwise seek in a gang. According to studies, about 70% of offenders are high school dropouts and about 50% are functionally illiterate.
A diorama of Durham's tobacco district in a storefront window. Yesterday's industry has become today's kitsch. Blue-collar workers lost hundreds of manufacturing jobs when tobacco and textile companies left Durham in the 1980s. Some communities in Durham have never recovered from the sharp shift from an industrial economy based on textiles and tobacco to a service economy based on medicine, higher education and research.
Malcolm (left) and his dad, Randall, finish an embalming. Randall is a "mortician for hire." They artfully prepare the dead for burial, and help lessen the blow to families and loved ones of the deceased and slain. Randall's family worked on tobacco farms for decades before North Carolina transitioned away from an agricultural economy, demand for tobacco fell and imports became cheaper, making farming less sustainable. Randall often embalms and prepares shooting victims. Through assisting his father and nearly dying after being shot 8 times, Malcolm has a new appreciation for life.
"I just want to go dig up his body so I can touch his face one more time," says Joslin at her son's grave in 2007. Her son Rayburn, 30, was shot to death on May 21, 2005. A motive and killer elude authorities.
Friends, family and neighbors grieve during a vigil for Mohammed Arfan Sundal, 51, a Pakistani immigrant who was shot to death outside of his restaurant, Kabab & Curry on Guess Road in Durham. Beloved by the community, Sundal moved to the US to create a better life for his family, including four children, only to be gunned down in the parking lot one night minutes after closing. The restaurant closed for good following his murder. The Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham holds vigils at the site of each homicide in Durham as a call for peace, community unity, healing and justice.
Malcolm flirts with his fiancee, Janice. Janice claims that Malcolm saved her from a previous abusive relationship. Malcolm recognizes that it can be exhausting for Janice to take care of him. "She's young, she could be doing anything else," he says.
Rashard's first day of a 90-day house arrest sentence after failing to pay back his restitution. He was living with a woman from his church and feared that having both feet out of the house when he smoked a cigarette might trigger an alarm on his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. As the weeks dragged on, Rashard became increasing frustrated while on house arrest, leading to anxiety and confusion over what to do next. He felt that house arrest limited his mobility, his ability to find work, proper housing and pursue his GED. He felt trapped in a cycle of negativity, with no way out. Studies suggest that the felon label increases violent crime because it locks convicts out of the mainstream economy, making employment, shelter, an education and other necessities difficult to find.
Malcolm rolls a blunt one morning. He takes about 17 pills each day because of his kidney disease and diabetes. He smokes marijuana to ease the pain he experiences after being shot, and fears taking prescription pain killers because he might become addicted. "Instead of taking another pill and getting addicted, I smoke a little bud, get sleepy or get the munchies," he says.
The last apartment unit on Beamon Street in Durham's Southside neighborhood is demolished. Non profits have partnered with the city of Durham to reclaim land in the neighborhood for an urban renewal project. The goal is to drive out slumlords and build nicer and affordable low-income housing and revitalize the area. But some Southside residents are weary of gentrification and urban infill in their proud, historically black neighborhood. They look to past urban renewal projects in Durham, including the construction of the Durham Freeway, that they feel dislocated a once centralized and vibrant black community. Many residents dub these projects "Urban Removal."
Durham Police officer R. Carson dances with members of North Carolina Central University’s step dance team during National Night Out near McDougald Terrace, a low-income public housing project where shootings have been rampant. National Night Out events are designed to strengthen relationships between neighborhoods, civic groups, local officials, businesses and police in an effort to fight crime and increase neighborhood spirit.
Ray's brother Billy Simms (left), points to the sky as he, friends and family celebrate Ray's birthday in 2012, seven years after his murder.
Malcolm jokes with his son Marcus at church. "I got one son, and I want him to learn what not to do from me," says Malcolm who want's his son to grow up with a father and not make his mistakes.
Rashard at the Durham County Detention Center after being arrested for cutting off his house arrest ankle monitor, violating his probation and going on the run for over two months.