“We didn’t have to drive downtown for anything,” she said. “There was every ethnicity. It was just beautiful.”
In her memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou described the Fillmore in its pre-urban renewal days.
“The street contained two day and night restaurants, two billiards halls, four Chinese restaurants, two gambling dens, as well as taverns, shoe shine shops, beauty parlors, barber shops, and at least four churches.” These two blocks, Angelou wrote, were in the eight to ten square block range been duplicated many times.
“San Francisco was the first time I saw myself as something,” she wrote.
The glorious memories of suburban renewal in Fillmore are part of what made the eventual loss all the more devastating.
“Seeing all these people blossom and thrive,” Scott said. “And then losing all of that.”
