As a high schooler, Brandi Kellam ran in track events at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Twenty years later, she was outraged to learn that construction of the campus where she had competed had destroyed a once-thriving Black neighborhood much like the one she grew up in. She dedicated herself to uncovering the full story–and, with much tenacity and teamwork, she did.
Kellam was part of a collaboration between ProPublica and The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO that revealed racial injustice in a largely overlooked arena: the location and expansion of state universities since World War II. Through the prism of public higher education in Virginia, the groundbreaking series illuminated how universities nationwide have taken advantage of federal funding and court rulings to displace tens of thousands of Black families, often seizing property by eminent domain. Usually seen as a boon to nearby communities, universities have actually exacerbated inequities such as the racial gap in home ownership.
The “Uprooted” series–which has spurred government action, university reforms, and calls for compensation for affected families–contradicted the narrative perpetrated by Republican governors in Virginia, Florida and elsewhere that systemic racism is a “woke” invention.
Against this backdrop, the “Uprooted” series painted a searing portrait of higher education’s continuing disregard for communities of color, and of one university’s leadership that deployed every available tool to obliterate a Black neighborhood–and pare the ranks of Black students and faculty.
Guided by ProPublica senior editor Daniel Golden, the reporting team of Kellam, VCIJ co-founder Louis Hansen, and ProPublica’s Gabriel Sandoval dug deeply into the actions and policies of Virginia’s public universities, especially Christopher Newport. Kellam spent two years reconstructing the history of a long-demolished Black neighborhood known as Shoe Lane. In the last gasp of Jim Crow, elected officials in Newport News had taken its core by eminent domain because they wanted to “erase the Black spot” near an all-white country club where they often gathered. Then, as the school expanded over five decades, its presidents pressured almost all of the remaining Black homeowners into selling.
Through of series of eight investigative stories and a 25-minute documentary, the team showed that Christopher Newport wasn’t alone among Virginia public schools – Old Dominion University and the University of Virginia also trampled Black communities.
Christopher Newport’s recalcitrance regarding former president Paul Trible drove reporters to investigate his record. They discovered that Black enrollment plunged from 17% to 7% during his tenure–in a 44% Black city. Black students felt unwelcome at Christopher Newport, the last Virginia public university to celebrate MLK Day. Meanwhile, as a “distinguished professor” with no teaching duties, Trible was making $524,000, triple the salary of Virginia’s governor.
Spurred by the series, Christopher Newport and the City of Newport News formed a task force to reexamine 40 years of property transactions, and consider possible redress for former and current Shoe Lane residents. The Virginia General Assembly voted to establish an “Uprooted Commission” to probe how public universities have displaced Black communities.
