Our Story
Kendall & Erin Dooley
BLK South was born out of a journey—one that began in Phoenix, Arizona but ultimately led us back to the South, and specifically to Durham, North Carolina.
In May 2025, we made our reverse migration from Phoenix to Durham as an intentional act of remembrance and return. But the story begins years earlier through the communities and relationships that formed us.
Formation in Phoenix
We met in Phoenix in 2020 and were married in 2021. During those early years together, we were both deeply shaped by ministries rooted in justice, faith, and community development.
Kendall served with Neighborhood Ministries, a long-standing Christian community development organization working alongside distressed families in urban Phoenix. Through that work, he was formed in the conviction that God stands with the oppressed and that meaningful change happens when communities are resourced to lead their own flourishing.
Erin served as a pastor at Kaleo Phoenix, where she was formed through preaching, shared leadership, and a growing commitment to interrogating the ways faith can both harm and heal. The events of 2020 sparked a deep desire in her to unlearn the theology of white supremacy and rediscover the liberating witness of Scripture and a justice-centered Jesus.
Around the same time, we were introduced to the philosophy of Christian Community Development through the CCDA network and the work of leaders such as Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould, Sandra Van Opstal, Mark Charles, Soong-Chan Rah, and Rene August. Their voices helped us imagine a future rooted in community, justice, and collective flourishing.
It was during this season that we began to ask deeper questions about our own story.
Remembering Where We Come From
In 2021, during a dinner with a Black matriarch in Phoenix named Linda Morris, we were encouraged to explore our family histories and consider the power of remembering where we come from. She said, “Knowing your ancestry story is worth more than gold! The blood cries out in the soil from all the injustice done to our ancestors.”
What began as curiosity soon became revelation.
As we traced our genealogies, we began to understand how both of our families had participated in the broader story of the Great Migration. Like millions of Black families in the twentieth century, our parents’ generations moved away from the South in search of opportunity and safety, raising families in places like Chicago, Iowa, and other parts of the Midwest.
But learning our histories awakened a deeper question: what might it look like to return?
Around this time Erin encountered the concept of reverse migration through Charles M. Blow’s book The Devil You Know, which calls Black Americans to consider moving back to the South to concentrate their gifts, resources, and leadership in historically Black communities.
The idea resonated immediately—but soon it became more than a theory.
Discovering Durham
While researching Kendall’s ancestry, we discovered that his second-great-grandmother, Fannie Enoch McCoullough Latta, once lived in Durham’s historic Hayti District before her community was displaced through Urban Renewal—often referred to by residents as “Negro Removal.”
We were stunned.
What began as a conceptual return to the South suddenly became a literal return home.
When we first visited Durham and walked the street where she once lived, something in us shifted. Standing on that block felt less like visiting a new place and more like stepping back into a story that had been interrupted generations before.
Durham claimed us.
Returning to Hayti
In May 2025, we moved to Durham, bought a house, and now live on the same block where Fannie once lived in the Historic Hayti District.
For us, reverse migration is not simply relocation—it is an act of remembrance, repair, and responsibility.
Hayti is a place shaped by Black ingenuity, resistance, entrepreneurship, and faith. Once known as “Black Wall Street,” the neighborhood has endured displacement and disinvestment but continues to carry a powerful legacy of community leadership and cultural brilliance.
Returning here meant committing ourselves to the ongoing story of this neighborhood.
Today we serve as Social Justice and Outreach Ministers at Monument of Faith Church, and we are active members of the Grant Street Community, where Erin serves as Secretary. Together with longtime residents and neighborhood leaders, we are helping steward a 15-year neighborhood vision focused on cultural preservation, youth development, and community wellness.
Our work is rooted in listening first and joining the leadership that has already been present here for generations.
The Work of BLK South
BLK South exists to support the development, vibrancy, and well-being of underserved historically Black neighborhoods across the South through:
Community development
Cultural preservation
Spiritual formation
Our work in Durham is only the beginning.
We believe the South holds deep cultural memory, spiritual wisdom, and community leadership that can shape the future of the nation. By returning, investing, and building alongside local residents, we hope to contribute to the flourishing of these communities for generations to come.
Phoenix will always remain part of our story. The communities that formed us there continue to be partners and friends in this journey.
But Durham—and Hayti in particular—is now home.
And the story that was once interrupted is continuing.
Kendall & Erin Dooley
Co-Founders, BLK South
Organizations that shaped and launched us.
