In the early 1960s, when Newport News, Virginia, remained a largely segregated city, longtime Black residents wanted to expand their neighborhood, offering former farmland as plots to other Black middle-class families looking to build homes, to build a future. In a deliberate attempt to halt that growth, white city officials selected that same land as the location for a new college — and wielded the power of eminent domain to make it happen. When almost all the landowners refused to sell, the city seized and demolished their homes.

What happened in Newport News is by no means unique. In Chicago, Philadelphia, and other cities across the nation, colleges and universities took advantage of federal funding and court rulings to uproot Black communities. It is a legacy the country is only beginning to confront.

In “Uprooted,” a documentary short, James and Barbara Johnson tell the story of their beloved neighborhood on Shoe Lane, which was destroyed by the creation and expansion of what is now Christopher Newport University. Weaving the Johnsons’ story in with the wider history of Newport News and other universities, the film examines the legacy of racism and Black land loss that still reverberates today.