Southeast Newport News

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Location and History

Map of Newport with the C&O Coal Terminal
American Publishing Co., Map of Newport News, Milwaukee, 1891. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Southeast Newport News, also known as East End, is located on the northern shore of the James River near the harbor of Hampton Roads. Records from the 1600s place "Newportes Newes" near the mouth of the James River soon after the founding of Jamestown,[1] the first permanent English settlement in what would become the U.S.

The area drew many displaced African Americans whose farms and homes had been repossessed by the Commonwealth following the Civil War.

Newport News remained a small riverside community until the late 1800s when industrialist Collis P. Huntington extended the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railway down the Virginia Peninsula to a deep-water pier on the James River in Southeast Newport News.[2] In 1881, the railroad extension connected a new coal pier in the small unincorporated community that would become Southeast Newport News with previously isolated bituminous coal fields in near the New River and Kanawha River in West Virginia.[3] Huntington also founded a shipyard in 1886,[2][4] which became Newport News Shipbuilding that operates today, building naval and commercial ships and submarines.[5] Newport News transformed into a busy port city.

The U.S army used Southeast Newport News as a Port of Embarkation in both World War I and World War II, with nearby Camp Patrick Henry serving as a troop-staging area.[6] In World War II, over a million service members passed through the region on their way overseas. The population of Newport News and local industries grew to meet wartime demands.

Large parts of Southeast Newport News were redlined in the 1930s by the Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC). Redlining limited residents opportunities to access mortgage loans and led to significant financial and institutional disinvestment in Southeast Newport News[7] and in redlined neighborhoods across the U.S. Redlining has been associated with environmental degradation and pollution in U.S. cities today, with formerly redlined neighborhoods having measurably worse air quality,[8] more sources of air and water pollution, and worse health outcomes[9] than other neighborhoods, despite housing discrimination being illegal since 1968.

Map of the Powhatan paramount chiefdom in 1607. Retrieved 2026 from Nansemond Indian Nation.

Indigenous Nations

In the early 1600s, there was an Algonquian town named Kecoughtan in present-day Hampton, Virginia.[10][11][12] At this time there were over 30 tribes speaking the same Algonquian language in the Tidewater region.[13] The area of Kecoughtan was annexed by the City of Newport News in 1927. The land along the Elizabeth River, and across much of south-eastern Virginia, is still known to the Indigenous people who live there as Tsenacommacah or Tsenacomaco, which can be translated as meaning "land of many villages" in the Eastern-Algonquian dialect.[13][14]

Consolidation with Warwick

In 1958, the urban and industrial City of Newport News consolidated with rural Warwick, creating a city with the boundaries of what is now known as Newport News. Newport News was racially segregated by housing, school, and zoning policies and practices. White Newport News residents and businesses moved into the northern areas that were formerly Warwick, and Black residents were forced to remain near downtown Newport News, including Southeast Newport News, which began to decline from disinvestment. Today, the former areas of Warwick are largely middle-class suburbs, while residents of Southeast Newport News have experienced limited economic opportunities, crime, poverty, pollution, and lack of development in the area.[15]

Today

Southeast Newport News is a predominantly African American (80%) with a median household income of $36,420, which is below that of the City of Newport News ($64,962).[16][17][18][19][20] The neighborhood is currently undergoing several redevelopment projects, the Marshall-Ridley Choice Neighborhood Initiative and projects as part of the City's Southeast Community Comprehensive Plan.[21]

Coal Dust Pollution

Residents of Southeast Newport News are exposed to air, water, and soil pollution from multiple industrial sources near the neighborhood including two major coal export terminals, Dominion Terminal Associates and KinderMorgan Bulk Terminals, Newport News Shipbuilding, and Interstate 664 (I-664), which encloses Southeast Newport News on two sides and is heavy trafficked by diesel freight trucks. Pollution from Newport News Shipbuilding and I-664 has been cited in addition to residents’ specific concerns about coal dust.[22]

In 2005, the Peninsula Health District Virginia Department of Health reported that Southeast Community residents visited the emergency room for asthma at a rate double that of both Newport News and Virginia. However, while this study continues to be cited in the media,[23] the document appears to be lost.[24] Residents have identified coal dust pollution as among their most important concerns[25] and want action taken to mitigate coal dust and its effects on their health and well-being.[26] Residents have expressed frustration with the lack of opportunities for meaningful participation in decision-making processes and hopelessness around the coal dust issue, sharing stories of politicians and other decision makers refusing to act.[26]

Community organizing around the coal dust issue has been led by Garden-Shores Civic League in the 1950s, the Tenant Councils of Dickerson Courts and Harbor Homes and Ridley Circle in the 1980s, the Southeast CARE Coalition, and most recently through a collaboration of organizations including the Repair Lab, EmPower All, and the Virginia Black Leadership Organizing Collaborative (VA BLOC) under the slogan of Coal Dust Kills.

Community

Landmarks

King-Lincoln Park: King-Lincoln Park is a water-front park with playgrounds, a beach, fishing pier, and stage. In the summer, outdoor events and performances are held here. The park is named after Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln and features two sculptures, The Dream, a statue of Dr. King by Antonio Tobias Mendez of Hampton, Virginia and "The Emancipation Oak," a statue of President Lincoln by Richard Hollant of Newport News.[27] In 1945, King-Lincoln Park was created as the first public park in Newport News open to African Americans during segregation, an effort led by local community leaders Reverend W. W. Finlator and Reverend Lawrence Henry.[27] The park has been a place for community events including Black civil rights actions. In 1960, more than 2,000 people marched from King-Lincoln Park to City Hall to demand an end to racial segregation and discrimination in housing, education, and employment.[27]
Newport News Victory Arch: The Victory Arch was originally built in 1919 with wood and plaster by volunteers to greet soldiers returning from World War I, who would arrive and march through the arch in victory parades. Black soldiers were not allowed to pass through the Victory Arch because of racial segregation. The Victory Arch was later reconstructed in 1962 to its current version and an eternal flame added on Memorial Day in 1969.

Famous Residents

Ella Fitzgerald: Known as the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald was a singer, songwriter, and composer. She was born in Southeast Newport News on April 25, 1917. She got her start performing at amateur night at the Apollo. The City of Newport News commemorates Fitzgerald with a mural downtown, named the Downing-Gross Cultural Center theater in her honor, and hosts an annual Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival. In 2008, the City of Newport News renamed 24th Street (the street of her childhood home) to Ella Fitzgerald Way.
Pearl Bailey: Pearl Bailey was an actress, singer, author, and comedian. She was born in Southeast Newport News on March 29, 1918. She appeared on Broadway, movies, and her own television show, called the Pearl Bailey Show (1971).[28]
Michael Vick: Michael Vick is a former professional football player, who was born and raised in Southeast Newport News. Vick is currently the head football coach of the Norfolk State University Spartans. Vick donated to the Boys & Girls Club, crediting the organization's role in his life growing up, to open the renovated and renamed Michael Vick Teen Center. In a press release, Vick said: "My time at the Boys and Girls Club was so pivotal at a crucial point in my life when I had to learn people skills, and learn to communicate, and learn discipline, and learn what trust was all about. [...] It happened for me, so I wanna do it for them."[29]

Events

Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival: The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is a two-day festival at the Downing-Gross Cultural Center featuring jazz, soul and blues musicians in honor of Ella Fitzgerald.
Southeast Community Day: Southeast Community Day is an annual parade in September celebrating the community's strengths and unity. The parade features local school marching bands and dance troupes, community leaders, politicians, and business owners, and community organizations. There is also festival with vendors, food, music, and other activities.

Historical Records

African American Historical Society of Newport News (AAHSNN): The mission of AAHSNN is: "to research, preserve, protect, and pass on the history of African Americans in Newport News, Virginia." The AAHSNN is: "dedicated to sharing our rich history on to the youth and uncovering it so that it is accessible to future generations."
Downing Gross Cultural Center: This is a multi-purpose cultural space run by the City of Newport News Parks and Recreation Department. The center serves as an event venue and hosts permanent and rotating exhibits, often about local history and issues. The center is home to the Ella Fitzgerald Theater and Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival.
Hampton Roads Oral History Project (HROHP): This collection is an audio-based history project, documenting the impact of the civil rights movement on area residents. It was established in the fall of 2012 by Christopher Newport University Prof. Laura Puaca in collaboration with the Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center and the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. Most of the interviews were carried out by students.
Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century: Created by Prof. Johnny Finn and students at Christopher Newport University, this resource focused on racial segregation in U.S. cities and features maps of redlining, race, poverty, pollution, heat, and tree canopy in Hampton Roads.
Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center: The Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center hosts exhibitions, special events, and community functions in Southeast Newport News. The building is the former residence of prominent African-American lawyer J. Thomas Newsome and his wife Mary Winfield Newsome. Mr. Newsome was a Black civil rights leader and his home was a hub of community and social justice organizing.

Documents

References

  1. ↑ Quarstein, Hampton Roads History: The Founding of Newport News, The Mariners' Museum and Park, 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Webb, Newport News, Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
  3. ↑ Peninsula Extension. Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. N.d.
  4. ↑ Blewett Jr., A History of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Journal of the American Society for Naval Engineers, 73, 2, 1961.
  5. ↑ Erickson, M. The completion of the C&O Railway tracks on Oct. 16, 1881 connected the Peninsula to the world. The Virginian-Pilot. October 16, 2018.
  6. ↑ The Mariners Museum. Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation During World War I. January 21, 2021
  7. ↑ Hankerson, Decades Of Housing Discrimination Still Ripple Through Black Communities In Hampton Roads, WHRO, June 18, 2020.
  8. ↑ Wamsley, L. Even many decades later, redlined areas see higher levels of air pollution. NPR. March 10, 2022.
  9. ↑ Pittman, L. His-tory of Redlining and the Environmental Legacy Inherited. Americanbar.org. October 30, 2024.
  10. ↑ History, Hampton, Virginia Official Website, 2023.
  11. ↑ Uncovering Traces of Historic Kecoughtan, William & Mary, 1997.
  12. ↑ Warwick County Historical Society, 2022.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kecoughtan Indians in Virginia, City of Hampton, 2020.
  14. ↑ Tribal History, Nansemond Indian Nation, 2023.
  15. ↑ Le Moal, Consolidation: Race, Politics, and Suburbanization in the Newport News-Warwick Merger, James Madison University, Masters Thesis, 2018.
  16. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census Tract 305, Norfolk, Virginia, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census Reporter Profile, 2023.
  17. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census Tract 306, Norfolk, Virginia, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census Reporter Profile, 2023.
  18. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census Tract 303, Norfolk, Virginia, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census Reporter Profile, 2023.
  19. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census Tract 304, Norfolk, Virginia, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census Reporter Profile, 2023.
  20. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census Tract 301, Norfolk, Virginia, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Census Reporter Profile, 2023.
  21. ↑ NewportNewsChoice.Com. Newport News Marshall-Ridley Choice Neighborhood. 2019.
  22. ↑ EPA. A Collaborative Effort to Assess Environmental Health in Newport News, Virginia. August 2017.
  23. ↑ Daily Press. Coal dust, piles an issue for southeast Newport News. July 16, 2011.
  24. ↑ Hertz, J., Correspondence with VDH about lost study, February 17, 2026.
  25. ↑ Mansyur et al., Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Identify Environmental Justice Issues in an Inner-City Community and Inform Urban Planning, Family and Community Health, 39, 3, 169–77, 2016.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Fields et al., Practicing Repair: Advancing Community-Based Solutions on Coal Dust Pollution in Hampton Roads, Virginia through a Practitioner-in-Residence Program, Environmental Justice, 0, 0, 1–11, 2024.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 King-Lincoln Park, Morrison Dental Group, 2026.
  28. ↑ The Pearl Bailey Show, IMDb, 1971.
  29. ↑ Arevalo et al., Michael Vick Teen Center Unveiled at Newport News Native’s Former Boys and Girls Club, Boys and Girls Club of the Virginia Penninsula, press release, April 12, 2019.
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