Hayti District

c. 1880 – 1958

Sometimes to be first is to be forgotten, and the Hayti District unfortunately proved this to be true as it was the first all African-American community to be fully self-sufficient. It was proudly named after Haiti, the first independent black republic in the western hemisphere. By the early 20th century, the Hayti District  had its own schools, library, churches, barbershops, hospital (Lincoln Hospital -1900), movie theater, recreation center, and hotels. The Hayti District was a place where African-Americans could freely eat in restaurants, practice their trades, and call each other “Mr.” and “Mrs.” – a place where they could stop being “colored,” and simply be people. When Booker T. Washington visited Hayti, he found “a city of Negro enterprises” whose citizens were “shining examples of what a colored man may become.” African Americans owned and operated more than 200 businesses, but Hayti’s value to African-Americans lay as much in its very existence as in its entrepreneurs and musicians. Hayti was a valued stopping place for the likes of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and countless other entertainers who performed there. Hayti was also home to North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company and after 1910, North Carolina College for Negroes, which later became North Carolina Central University. A 1958 urban renewal and freeway project took down houses and businesses in 200 acres of the community and split it with a freeway, which led to the untimely demise of the Hayti District.

Sources (ibiblio.org; Wikipedia.com)