It was winter 2019. Dr. Ken Chilton – formerly of Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies and now a Tennessee State University professor – stood up before a crowded Westside Baptist Church in Alton Park to present a report on the Black exodus out of downtown Chattanooga.
First, he asked a question.
“How many people in the audience are from the mayor’s office?” he asked. “Or the county? Or River City? Or the Enterprise Center?”
For the next 90 minutes, Chilton discussed his new report on the gentrifying economic forces pushing Blacks out of our urban core while attracting whites.
Between 2000 and 2017, more than 2,500 black Chattanoogans moved out of downtown.