Documentary shines light on historic Black neighbourhood in B.C.

A local filmmaker's documentary chronicles the decline of a once thriving Black neighbourhood in Vancouver and the ongoing efforts to revive it.

Union Street, a feature-length documentary by writer-director Jamila Pomeroy, looks back onHogan's Alley athree-block stretch at the edge of the Strathconaneighbourhood thatwas once home to much of Vancouver's Black community.

The Vancouver filmmakersays she always wanted to tell the story of the neighbourhood.

"It really starts back as achild growing up, wondering why there aren't a lot of Black people inVancouver and seeing how my family were treated and it really created this sense oflonging for belonging andsearching for a Black community,"she told CBC's North by Northwest hostMargaret Gallagher.

WATCH |Hogan's Alley: Why a thriving Black community in Vancouver was demolished

Hogan's Alley: Why a thriving Black community in Vancouver was demolished

4 years ago

Duration 5:59

The area around Vancouver's Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts was once the heart of a thriving Black community established in the early 1900s known as Hogan's Alley.

For decades, Hogan's Alley served as a hub for Vancouver's Black community before city planning in the 1970s led to the displacement of a once-vibrant neighbourhood.

"[It] wasquite a vibrant Black community. We had incredible restaurants, there were a lot of speakeasies and informal businesses," said Pomeroy.

Black settlement in the area dates back to 1858, when governor James Douglas introduced a policy welcoming Black Californians to British Columbia. The Great Northern Railway station nearby also meant many Black porters chose Hogan's Alley as a home in the 1920s.

At one point, the neighbourhood was home to more than 800 Black community members and featured the African Methodist Episcopal Chapel, a residence for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as well as the legendary Vie's Chicken and Steak House where Jimi Hendrix's grandmother Nora, a vaudevillian performer and choir singer, worked as a cook.

Pomeroy says gentrification and urban renewal "to build a better city"led to the displacementof the Black community from theStrathcona neighbourhood.

Much of the area was razed to make way for the Georgia and Dunsmuirstreet viaducts, whichopened in 1972.

"Black folks were denied business licences and liquor licences and mortgages. They were denied basic services like garbage pickup," Pomeroy said.

"The actual destruction of the community was through racist city planning."

Steps underway to revivethe old neighbourhood

The City of Vancouver has acknowledgedit implemented a series of actions between 1931 to 1971 to pressure people into leaving Hogan's Alley.

The city says it is committed to addressing historical discrimination and redress efforts with Vancouver's Black and African diaspora communities.

Part of its commitment has been the Northeast False Creek Plan (NEFC), which the city says aims to replace the Georgia and Dunsmuirviaductswith a new street network.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, the city said the NEFC plan, approved in 2018, is the first official city document to publicly recognize historic discrimination toward the Black community and their displacementfrom Hogan's Alley.

North by Northwest15:20"Union Street" documentary explores history of Vancouver's Black Community

Award-winning writer/director Jamila Pomeroy walks us through Union Street, a new documentary that explores three generations of cultural erasure and reclamation of African Canadian history in the Lower Mainland. 

Almost six years since its approval, the project hasn't made much headway, however.

"These projects have not progressed as quickly as envisaged when the plan was adopted," the city wrote. "The timing of delivery is also dependent on rezoning enactments and other development conditions, so more exact timelines are not available at this time."

The plan is anticipated to be implemented over approximately 20 years.

In 2022, Vancouver council also reached an agreementwith the Hogan's Alley Society (HAS) to deliver housing, public benefits and amenities on Hogan's Alley.

The society's executive director,Djaka Blais,said in an email to CBC News thatthe deal specifies that HAS will work with the cityto develop rental housing, a cultural centre, child-care spaces and space for small businesses.

The agreement will provide a community land trust andmixed-use redevelopment to the society, for the land bordered by Main and Gore streets to the west and east, and Union and Prior streets to the north and south.

In return, HASwill providehousing, amenitiesand acultural centre.

Pomeroy saysUnion Street not only takes anostalgic look at the past, but alsohighlights a new generation of "Black Vancouver change-makers" trying to bring the neighbourhood back to its former glory.

"We have everyone from incredible business owners, chefs, artists, local DJs and musicians ... Black folks are taking up space in the city, and it's been really beautiful to witness."

Union Streetis streaming on Telus and is also screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival Centre on selected dates until March8.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check outBeing Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.