Please join the Matthews area churches at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, February 18th at Matthews United Methodist Church (807 S. Trade St., Matthews) for a Community Forum on Racial Bridge Building. The guest speaker is Rev. Greg Jarrell, and the topic is: “Renewal and Redress: A History of US Urban Renewal, and How We Now Repair American Cities”

The US Urban Renewal programs of 1949-1974 destroyed almost 600 square miles of American neighborhoods, leaving enormous social consequences in their wake. Using his unique research and storytelling, author and organizer Greg Jarrell will tell some of the untold history of urban renewal and help audiences imagine ways to repair American cities, starting in their own neighborhoods.

Rev. Greg Jarrell is an author and community organizer in Charlotte, NC. His recent book Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods, examines the influence of white churches and Christians in planning, executing, and profiting from the federal Urban Renewal projects of the 1950s and 60s, in Charlotte and beyond. Greg is Senior Campaign Organizer for The Redress Movement, a national nonprofit organizing local communities for housing justice. Greg is based in west Charlotte’s Enderly Park neighborhood, where he has lived and worked on equitable housing issues since 2005. He is one of the co-founders of QC Family Tree, a cultural organizing group in his neighborhood, and a founding organizer of Charlotte’s West Side Community Land Trust.