Summary: We asked the City Council to include the African American Heritage Commission in next steps, in order to ensure that the civil rights history was honored. Council Member Mosley asked staff to pursue that.

The Facts: (Originally posted 7/22/24) The Asheville City Council is being asked to pass an ordinance designating the F. W. Woolworth building at 25 Haywood Street as an historic landmark. One of the rationales suggested in the staff memo is that “the building is also especially significant for its importance as a site of local civil rights protests and activism in the 1960s.”

Sources: Staff Memo, Presentation

Our Assessment: We don’t think the description in the staff memo about this building’s “importance as a site of local civil rights protests” offers enough information, and wonder whether a more complete history will be publicly presented once this building is designated as historic. It’s important that people know that Woolworth lunch counters were a major pillar of Jim Crow segregation, which is why they were a focal point of civil rights protests in Asheville and around the country. We were glad to see a much more complete historical description reflected in the full report prepared by Urban Planner Alex Cole, but the staff report and presentation don’t offer that important level of detail. This historic landmark proposal moved through the Historic Resources Commission, where it was unanimously endorsed 8-0, but it wasn’t brought before the African American Heritage Commission (AAHC), and we’re not sure why. (It’s worth noting that the Woolworth building was included in a grant-funded African American Heritage Resource Survey AAHC and the City received just two years ago, so it would seem pertinent to their work as well.) Will AAHC be consulted on how this building’s history will be conveyed, once it receives historic status?

Our Ask: Join us in reaching out to the Asheville City Council to encourage them to ask why the African American Heritage Commission was not consulted about this historic designation, and how they might be involved moving forward in ensuring that this building’s prominent role as a pillar of segregation is fully told.

Report Back

Council Member Antanette Mosley asked City staff if there was going to be some historical marker, and they said they would pursue it. She also asked if they would engage the AAHC in that process, and they said they would.

The Citizen-Times ran an in-depth story about the issue, which you can read here. 

GAP Supporter Actions Taken: 8

Recipients and Responses:

Asheville City Council

• Mayor Esther Manheimer: No response
• Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore: No response
• City Council Member Antanette Mosley: No response (but she did take the actions we requested).
• City Council Member Kim Roney: No response
• City Council Member Maggie Ullman: No response
• City Council Member Sage Turner: No response
• City Council Member Sheneika Smith: No response