“We’re Walking Proud and Talking Loud Because We’re the New Black Joes!”: Community Leadership and Tenants Rights in Asheville’s 1968 Rent Strike

Abstract

In 1967, black residents of Asheville’s public housing complexes issued a challenge to the Asheville Housing Authority. Proclaiming “we are human and we want our freedom,” tenants demanded a new relationship to the institution that governed their lives in this southern Appalachian city. The Asheville rent strike began in 1967, and with this campaign, low-income black residents punctured the oppressive political and social dynamics of the city that had rendered them invisible. With this strike, tenants articulated claims for justice based on a recognition of their dignity and a correction to unfair treatment. Despite the power of institutionalized racism and the dynamics of paternalism, black tenants flipped the script to challenge the deeply ingrained system of white paternalism that structured their daily lives. Ultimately, tenants at Hillcrest and Lee Walker Heights challenged the very nature of black leadership in Asheville, North Carolina, by taking on the city government.