As 2020 with its turbulent election season and COVID pandemic draws to a close, I thought I’d highlight another aspect of the year, lest we lose track. Walnut Hills joined the rest of the country in declaring Black Lives Matter. Today we see a sign on a house at a curve in Victory Parkway. In the late 1920s the parkway cut a bold path separating the heart of the Black community to the north and west from the largely white community to the south and east. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were updated by pasting small correction sheets over streets and buildings demolished to make way for new construction. In many maps the old features bleed through the new. The detail shown here, with colors adjusted to enhance the bleed-through reveal that before the construction on the Parkway, the house was mid-block on a quiet residential street. The BLM sign for all the commuters rushing by the home is a reminder that the community is still besieged.
