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Just when I thought I would never come up with a good transition from my first story dealing with housing, a complete stranger did everything but write it for me.

This person approached me while I was visiting City Hall. Out of the clear blue sky, this stranger says, "Why don't you stop digging up the past and embarrassing people?"

I looked at the person and said, "Why did those so-called embarrassed people do unto others as they would not want it done unto them?"

Lost for words, the stranger turned and walked away.

Rebecca Falls said, "One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is to listen to each other's stories."

Once we learn the truth about each other, we begin to understand each other better, but you must be willing to listen with an open mind and accept the truth.

In this case, the truth lies in the fact that the city of High Point and financial institutions used and abused the core community since its beginning. Why is it so hard for people to apologize when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar?

In 1936, when Thomas B. Smith, black reporter for the local newspaper's "News of Interest to Colored People" wrote about deplorable conditions in the core community, I am sure he had no idea some members of the white community would read what he said.

His challenge to both white and colored businessmen to invest money in building houses and apartments brought forth some action from the private sector. Whether these houses could be classified as decent cannot be determined, but they did help with the burden of overcrowding.

Headline in the local paper July 1936 -- "Ten New Houses Will Be Erected." E.C. Cridlebaugh, a real estate developer, decided to construct 10 four-room rental houses on Leonard Street and Beamon Alley. The cost of the project was $7,500, or $750 per house, and the contract was awarded to contractor L.F. Cassell. The plan called for building five rental houses on Leonard Street, between Price and Beamon Streets, and, five on Beamon Alley, between Price and Beamon Streets. Five months after Smith's article appeared in the Colored News, we find one businessman who must have read his story and decided this was a good business opportunity.

Around December 1936, thanks to the FHA and some blacks who were able to obtain mortgage money, the problems of crowding were finally being addressed. This sudden building boom within the black community consisted of 25 new homes, duplex houses and apartments. Smith's column back in February opened some people's eyes to the color of money.

Not only was money available for new home building, but the FHA got involved, which made possible the renovation and remodeling of older homes. This sudden infusion of federal funds made it possible for folks in the core community to add needed rooms, put in new windows, doors, replace leaky roofs and paint their homes.

In 1936, the eastside black community, around the core city, had lots of vacant land waiting to be developed. Most of the new development took place in that area during the summer of 1936. Of the 25 new properties developed in the area, only seven were private homes built by blacks. The builders and addresses were: Henry Smith, 131 Underhill Ave.; Dr. Murray Brooks Davis, 135 Underhill Ave.; T.S. Bennett, 208 Underhill Ave.; the Rev. G.F. Sutton, 500 block of Underhill Ave.; Claud Lee Hill, 1108 Alder Street; the Rev. Peter James Cooke, 1000 block of Leonard Street; and Alonzo Holmes on Hay Street.

Rental units built during the same period were two apartment houses in the 1500 block of West Street; two duplex houses in the 1200 block of Downing Street; five duplex houses in the 1200 block of Hoover Street; five single rental houses in the 800 block of Leonard Street; and five single homes in the 300 block of Beamon Alley.

The rental units on Leonard and Beamon Alley were the ones that I mentioned earlier, built by Cridlebaugh. To a poor community such as the core city, this was a blessing. Though this combination of private and rental units helped ease crowding, it also fed that rental monster that would one day drag the core city down.

If the discrepancy between home ownership, duplexes, flats and apartments had been controlled in some way by our city government, we wouldn't be paying such a high cost today.

My people heard and read stories about the American dream of working hard and owning a home one day, but instead most found themselves the victims of people who wanted to exclude them from that dream. You can't build unless you have capital and mortgage money. Loans were not openly extended to those in the core city. To blame those in the core city for the lack of decent housing is to ignore the facts.

Our city leaders could have done something to help, but instead they looked the other way. If they had listened to Mark Twain who said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

One hundred years later, we can only hope that our exploration of the core city has helped us discover and bring to fruition the American dream.

Let's hope the Core City Plan can undo more than 100 years of damage. We still have many miles to go before we sleep!

Contact Glenn Chavis at Storytime40@aol.com