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New reparations focus: Black enclaves lost to development

A commemorative plaque for Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jeffrey Osborne is attached to a pole in the neighborhood he grew up in, in Providence, R.I., Monday, April 11, 2022. Osborne is an uncle of Terrell Osborne, who as a child growing up in Providence in the late 1950s and 1960s saw huge swaths of his 30-acre neighborhood of Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, taken by eminent domain for redevelopment projects. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Ray "Two Hawks" Watson, stands for a portrait Sunday, April 24, 2022 near a home once owned by his grandmother where he lived from birth until the age of 12, in Providence, R.I. Watson is a member of Providence's recently formed reparations commission whose family has long lived in the Lippitt Hill area. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Terrell Osborne, of Providence, R.I., speaks during an interview, Monday, April 11, 2022, while visiting an apartment complex built where his childhood home once stood, in what was then known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence. As a child growing up in Providence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he watched as huge swaths of his neighborhood of Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain for redevelopment projects. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Ray "Two Hawks" Watson, of Providence, R.I., stands for a portrait Sunday, April 24, 2022 in front of a home once owned by his grandmother where he lived from birth until the age of 12, in Providence. Watson is a member of Providence's recently formed reparations commission whose family has long lived in the Lippitt Hill area. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Cheryl Taylor, of Providence, R.I., walks Sunday, April 24, 2022, past housing built on the spot where her family's home was demolished in the early 1960s as part of an urban renewal project, in Providence. Taylor, who grew up on Lippitt Hill and still lives nearby, hopes the reparations process can help Black residents purchase their own homes so that long standing residents can benefit as the neighborhood continues to gentrify. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Ray "Two Hawks" Watson, of Providence, R.I., stands for a portrait Sunday, April 24, 2022, in front of the University Heights apartments in what was once known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence. Watson is a member of Providence's recently formed reparations commission whose family has long lived in the Lippitt Hill area. The University Heights apartments were built following the late 1950s and early 1960s demolition of homes in a 30-acre area of Providence as part of an urban renewal program. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Cars are parked in front of a housing complex, in Providence, R.I., Monday, April 11, 2022. The housing complex was built after huge swaths of the 30-acre neighborhood once known as Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain in the late 1950s and early 1960s and demolished before the construction of redevelopment projects. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Terrell Osborne, of Providence, R.I., speaks during an interview Monday, April 11, 2022, while visiting an apartment complex built where his childhood home once stood, in what was then known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence. As a child growing up in Providence in the late 1950s and 1960s, he watched as huge swaths of the 30-acre neighborhood of Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain for redevelopment projects. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A wall with a mural separates a housing development, top, from a seating area behind a mall, in Providence, R.I., Monday, April 11, 2022. The apartments, the mall, and the wall were build after huge swaths of the 30-acre neighborhood, then known as Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and demolished before the construction of redevelopment projects. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Cheryl Taylor, of Providence, R.I., stands for a portrait Sunday, April 24, 2022, in front of housing built on the spot where her family's home was demolished in the early 1960s as part of an urban renewal project, in Providence. Taylor, who grew up on Lippitt Hill and still lives nearby, hopes the reparations process can help Black residents purchase their own homes so that long standing residents can benefit as the neighborhood continues to gentrify. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In this still frame from circa 1961 WJAR-TV newsreel footage, provided by the Rhode Island Historical Society, an armored military vehicle is used to demolish a residential building in what was then known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence, R.I. Homes in the 30-acre Lippitt Hill neighborhood, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain in the late 1950s and early 1960s and demolished to clear the area for redevelopment projects. (WJAR-TV/Rhode Island Historical Society via AP)

In this still frame from circa 1960 WPRI-TV newsreel footage, provided by the Rhode Island Historical Society, a boy walks through an area then known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence, R.I., where homes were demolished. Residential structures in the 30-acre Lippitt Hill neighborhood, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain in the late 1950s and early 1960s and demolished to clear the area for redevelopment projects. (WPRI-TV/Rhode Island Historical Society via AP)

Terrell Osborne, of Providence, R.I., stands for a portrait, Monday, April 11, 2022, in front of an antique shop, that was a general store in the early 1960s, in what was then known as the Lippitt Hill neighborhood, in Providence. As a child growing up in Providence in the late 1950s and 1960s, he watched as huge swaths of his 30-acre neighborhood of Lippitt Hill, a center of Black life at the foot of the stately homes of the city's elite East Side, were taken by eminent domain for redevelopment projects. The general store was just outside the area of demolition. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

New reparations focus: Black enclaves lost to development