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Clip: Season 11 Episode 4 | 1m | Video has closed captioning.
In Augusta, Georgia's Black neighborhood, Chinese-owned grocery stores once lined the streets. Black residents talk about the stores they used to shop at when they were younger, sharing how each business supplied essentials and more for the community. For the Chinese, owning a small business provided an economic means to move up socially...but only to a point.
Aired: 05/25/23
- 11th and Florence Street.
Mhm.
PK Zhou.
- On the corner of 15th Street and Tutt's Avenue.
- Hopkin and CS Hamilton.
- Wu's was on 12th Street.
- There was a Chinese guy, his name was Charles.
He had a grocery store.
- We had Charles Sang on 9th Street.
- Now when I was growing up, this expression, we had a Chinese grocery store on every corner.
(laughs) - Okay.
Yeah.
They're all over the place.
- You know, the laws at that time were so limited, but not applying to the Chinese.
So they filled this wonderful, wonderful void because you go back and forth between the curtain coming down, and the curtain being lifted through segregation policies.
- How did they end up in the Black neighborhood?
- Well, keeping in mind also, too, that they are still people of color.
They see you as a person of color really almost regardless of what your economic status is.
- Right.
- You're still- you can only go so high.
Then there's that socioeconomic glass ceiling.
