“Uprooted": An Update

In 2023, award-winning investigative journalist Brandi Kellam published "Uprooted,” a collaboration between ProPublica and the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO. The series revealed how American universities expanded campuses while systematically displacing Black and marginalized communities. It exposed historic injustices as well as the present-day consequences of university-led displacement. The investigation helped spur the creation of a Virginia legislative commission now exploring potential redress. It also sparked the creation of a local Newport News task force to examine the role Christopher Newport University played in displacing dismantling a historic Black community over the last 60 years. Kellam updates us on the state and local investigations and what steps will be taken to right a wrong.