The Rambler’s Four Quadrants, One City series continues.
Roanoke’s four quadrants reveal a deep and persistent divide. The city’s legacy of segregation continues to cast a long shadow, with access to education, job opportunities and even life expectancy varying widely depending on zip code.
In our recurring Q&A series, Four Quadrants, One City, The Rambler invites members of the community to reflect on what it means to live in a city shaped by a history of division. By sharing perspectives across generations, backgrounds and quadrants, we hope to spark honest conversations that are too often left unspoken.
This month we spoke with Brittney Flowers, resident genealogist and public historian at Roanoke’s Harrison Museum of African American Culture. Originally from Prince George County, Virginia, Flowers first came to the Roanoke area to attend Hollins University. As a senior, she undertook an independent project to document the history of the enslaved people who built her university’s campus — a process that called her to a career in public history…