Sunday Pick: A Black Utopia In North Carolina | Far Flung

Each Sunday, TED shares an episode of another podcast we think you’ll love, handpicked for you… by us. Today we’re sharing an episode of Far Flung. “I thought I’d come to paradise,” said Jane Ball Groom upon arriving in Soul City, North Carolina. It wasn’t amenities or location that made Soul City paradise, but the promise of what it could be: a city built by Black people, for Black people. Our guests take us back to 1969 when the city was founded and built from (below) the ground up — and while the city itself was short-lived, we’ll see how the seeds it sowed laid roots for spaces that celebrate and center Black culture today. 

For photos from the episode and more on the history of Soul City, head to the Souvenir Book of Soul City in the North Carolina digital collections.

Special thanks to Shirlette Ammons who we could not do this story without, and our guests Charmaine McKissick-Melton, Jane Ball-Groom, Lianndra Davis, Lou Myers, Tobias Rose, and Derrick Beasley. Extra special thank you to Alan Thompson, who recorded the saxophone music you heard in this episode from Parish Street on Durham’s Black Wall Street.

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