Hayti Reborn founder leaves Durham and NCCU for post in the Biden administration

Laura Brache
·4 min read

Less than a year after the Durham Housing Authority rejected his group’s proposal to redevelop the long vacant Fayette Place property in Durham, Henry McKoy has taken a job in the Biden administration.

McKoy, founder and leader of Hayti Reborn, has also left his faculty position in the School of Business at N.C. Central University.

Henry C McKoy Jr.
Henry C McKoy Jr.

McKoy will oversee “nearly $10 billion in capital” as the inaugural director of the Office of State and Community Energy Programs for the U.S. Department of Energy, according to a press release from Hayti Reborn.

“The work that I will be doing nationally is what I had hoped that I could point to Durham for, as a model,’‘ McKoy said in the press release. “Unfortunately we are not there yet. But I am hopeful that we can get there. I have always felt that Durham has the potential to be a model equitable city for racial and economic equity.”

Revitalizing Hayti

Hayti Reborn is a revitalization project looking to bring “equitable development” to the long overlooked Hayti community, a historically Black neighborhood in Durham’s Southside.

Its members include past and current Hayti residents who want accountability for the urban renewal project that wiped out hundreds of Black businesses and homes to build the Durham Freeway in the 1960s.

At the center of Hayti Reborn’s efforts is the future of Fayette Place, a 20-acre rubble-ridden lot located just off the Fayetteville Street corridor owned by the housing authority.

The crumbling foundations of former residences can be seen from outside the fence surrounding ÔFayette Place,Õ the 22-acre former site of the Fayetteville St. Apartments, which is owned by Durham Housing Authority, and is the focus of a $20 million grant application for economic redevelopment of the Hayti neighborhood from the Kellogg Foundation, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in Durham, N.C.

Under McKoy’s leadership, Hayti Reborn reimagined Fayette Place, a former public housing site, as a $1 billion “equity education research and development park.” The proposal — one of five DHA received — included a residential tower, Innovation Academy, an office, grocery, retail, and surface parking totaling 266,6000 square feet, The N&O previously.

But the housing authority did not pick their proposal.

Instead, DHA awarded the redevelopment project to the “Durham Development Partners,” a joint venture team of F7 International Development, Greystone Affordable Development, and Gilbane Development Company. Its nearly $189 million plan includes 774 housing units and 21,600 square feet of commercial space.

In February, Hayti Reborn protested the decision and asked DHA to rescind those plans and reconsider the proposal it rejected. The housing authority rejected the group’s protest and is moving forward with the project as planned.

Hayti Reborn’s new chapter

McKoy’s new role is part of the White House’s “Justice 40 Initiative” meant to ensure 40% of federal investments go into “communities that are historically “disadvantaged, marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.”

The Biden administration reached out to McKoy in January to gauge his interest in taking the role right before DHA announced its plans for Fayette Place, the press release said.

His new job started Tuesday and he has already moved to Washington, D.C., McKoy told The News & Observer in an email.

Anthony Scott, DHA’s chief executive officer, told The N&O in an email that he is “very happy and excited for [McKoy’s] appointment.” He added that this position “is great for [McKoy] and hopefully Durham as well.”

“I am sure he will bring great creativity to that role,” Scott said.

Despite his departure, McKoy said the fight will continue to ensure redevelopment in Hayti “doesn’t displace its residents” and that “their needs are at the core of all development plans.”

Anita Scott Neville, a lifelong Durham resident and Hayti native, will take over as the group’s leader as a member of the Hayti Reborn Community Action Council.

”The leadership and footprints of Dr. Henry McKoy have exalted the heart’s desire of the Hayti Community and citizens of Durham to save and restore the last remnants of an historic district in Durham,” Neville said in the press release. “This activism in Durham will neither wane nor cease; rather we will continue to fight the good fight that Dr. McKoy set in motion.”

“Despite what some have tried to claim, Hayti Reborn has never been just about me or a solo act,” McKoy said. “There remains incredible leadership to continue the fight for dignity and justice here in Durham. Anyone who thinks differently is just plain wrong. Many times it has been the fight in the community that has inspired me, not the other way around.”

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