Truxtun Celebrates 105 Years Of Black History

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

From June 21-23, Portsmouth’s Truxtun neighborhood will stage various programs to observe the 105th anniversary of the historic Black community.

Bands, car clubs, bike clubs, and civic groups will be among the 50 to 100 units participating in the parade.

At the end of the parade on the grounds of the Truxtun School and Mount Carmel Church, food, games, a concert, and an awards program will be held.

The event is part  celebration, observance and reunion of the legacy Truxtun wrote in the past and the living history of Black America.

Truxtun’s origins had a unique twist that helped ensure the Black community endure to reach 105 years.

During World War I, with European immigration limited, there was a need for a workforce at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

There was ample manpower but no viable housing near the facilities.

Truxtun was built at the direction of the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, who historians today cast as a racist.

Upon taking office, he reversed years progressive policies of prior presidents, including resegregating federal personnel.

According to the Digital Archives of the New Journal and Guide and Public Records, between 1918 and 1920, directed by the U.S. Housing Corporation, Truxtun was the first wartime federal housing development for African-American families in the United States.

To help develop the project, Wilson created the Department of Negro Economics headed by Dr. George Edmund Haynes.

He studied Black labor migration during the time.

Activist W.E.B. Dubois and the NAACP closely watched the project’s development.

At one point, the Wilson administration sought to short-change the development.  A corporation, South of Truxtun, was also building a housing development for whites called Cradock.

Cradock was designed with better housing stock and other infrastructural amenities, which were left out of Truxtun’s plans.

DuBois and other activists noted this slight and wrote to Wilson, protesting this disparity. According to the GUIDE and the National Archives, Wilson initially balked.

However, the Black leaders persisted and reminded him that if he were seeking reelection in 1916, Black votes could help him.

Wilson conceded and approved plans equal to the Cradock project for Truxtun.

After the 1916 election, Wilson reverted to his old racist ways, but the agreement for Truxtun was underway.

Chester Benton, a son of Truxtun, has researched all of this history.

Benton, now 73, is noted for his career and knowledge of the history of local Black radio broadcasting also.

It was named for Thomas Truxtun, an early Naval hero.

When finally completed by 1918, the new neighborhood covered 43 acres with 200 single-family dwellings and 20 duplexes.  Norfolk architect Rossell Edward Mitchell of Norfolk designed it.

There was a variety of housing designs and indoor plumbing and electricity. There were wide sidewalks and paved streets to include Key Road, later named Portsmouth, Boulevard, Manly, Hobson, Dewey, Dahlia, and Bagley Streets.

By 1921, Truxtun boasted its first church, Mt. Carmel Baptist, which still stands as a school, community center, movie theater, small railroad station, and land for 35 shops/stores.

Benton said Black families initially rented their homes at a reasonable price.

He said developers designed a plan under the Jim Crow Codes. When Black workers commuted to work, they took a road that would deter them from entering or even “being seen” by their Cradock neighbors.

World War I ended in 1918, but Truxtun’s stability continued due to the availability of work at the shipyard.

It was a township until it was annexed by Portsmouth in 1923, which revealed another piece of unique history.

According to a June 25, 1921 edition of the GUIDE, Fred D. McCracken resigned as City Manager. McCraken, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was hired as America’s first Black City Manager, two years before, to oversee Truxtun’s development.

When he left Truxtun, the school was named for him for his brilliant administrative skills.

In 1921, the U.S. Housing Corporation sold the Truxtun development to a group of African-American investors, the first transaction of its kind.

Instead of paying rent, many families were provided with low-interest mortgages to buy their homes.

Benton, in conjunction with the city, residents, and the African-American Historical Society of Portsmouth, has been busy planning for the June 21-23 events.

At the same time, he has been working on a book on Truxtun’s history and legacy.

He relied on public documents and stories from longtime residents, family, friends, and Norfolk Journal and Guide archives.

For years after 1919, the GUIDE ran a weekly column featuring news on church, club, and school activities, births, career achievements, and deaths.

One interesting funeral notice was for P.B. Young Sr.’s father, Winfield Scott Young, a Truxtun resident who died in 1922.

Benton was born in 1951, and he said thanks to WWII and the shipyard, Truxtun’s economic and civic fortunes were still vibrant.

“We did not have to go anywhere to get anything,” Benton recalled. “We had our own business district. There was a pharmacy, open-air market, restaurants, and many social and clubs promoting various interests.”

“My parents lived across each other on Hobson Street…that is how they met. My dad carried her books to school,” he said. “After they married, Daddy bought a house on Portsmouth Blvd.”

“With my friends, we played sports and collected baseball cards and comic books until we discovered girls. “I remember going to the library and reading all day, gaining interest in history and current events.”

Truxtun’s library predates the historic public “Community Library” for African-Americans which opened in 1945.

Benton recalls role models such as principal John Cary and civic and political activist Lucy Overton, who were involved in political and civic interests.

Benton said A.C. Johnson, a civic leader, waged a campaign to build a hospital in the community. A lack of funding short-circuited the effort.

The development of Cavalier Manor, a new development for middle-income Blacks in Portsmouth in the mid-60s, took a toll on Truxtun’s residency.

Benton said even his father, Harrison B. Benton, a Master Pipefitter at the Navy yard, built a home from the ground up in Cavalier Manor.

With the exodus of the middle class, so did business activity. Many homeowners who left rented their old homes, and the upkeep and property value went down.

Crime and other urban negatives rose.

In 1983, Truxtun was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Portsmouth historic district.

Lobbying by Benton and others and the community’s historic status helped the city secure grant funding to build new homes and upgrade old ones.

Benton said that over 75 percent of the original homes still exist, with new and older generations occupying them.

Benton said he, too, briefly left Truxtun.  His father left him the house he grew up in.

But after surveying the erosion of his old neighborhood, Benton began to rally his friends and the community to save Truxtun.

“I think my daddy was sending me a message when he willed me the old house to me,” said Benton. “It inspired me to help keep and maintain a vital part of my family’s, the community’s, and the nation’s legacy.”