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Colorful new signs dot street corners near downtown Raleigh’s performing arts center, declaring the area the “Fourth Ward Entertainment District.”
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Community activist and historian Octavia Rainey said she sees the signs as an important step in Raleigh recognizing its turbulent history with the Fourth Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood destroyed in the 1970s in the name of “urban renewal.”
For her, it’s a big victory after 47 years of asking local and state officials to recognize the area’s history.
The new signs mark a designation the city is giving the area, with a total of 44 planned around the city’s convention center and performing arts center, according to city spokesperson Julia Milstead.
“It is intended to recognize its history, but there is no official planning overlay or other legal distinction for the area,” Milstead said.
The City Council also did not take a specific vote to name the area, but council members supported it during a meeting in early September.
Installing the new signs is projected to cost less than $5,000, Milstead said. The signs — orange, red, green and purple — were designed by city staff.
But they don’t include a website link or QR code to explain what the Fourth Ward is.
Vannessa Mailard, who works downtown, hadn’t seen the signs when asked on Friday. She also said she’d never heard of the Fourth Ward.
Rainey said she hopes the signs get more people asking “what is the Fourth Ward?”
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People should look online to learn more. A website, fourthwardhistory.org, details much of the history behind the destruction of the old community and what used to be there.
Rainey said that at one point, the memorial auditorium inside the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts was a central part of Black culture in the area. Prominent musicians graced its stage, including James Brown and Ray Charles.
Earlier this year, an exhibit with photos and videos opened inside the performing arts center detailing much of the Fourth Ward’s history.
The exhibit and greater Fourth Ward history project were conceived by local historians and members of the Fourth Ward Neighborhood Association, a group of former residents who remember it.
Rainey advocated for recognition a long time.
She said she spoke with city council members, and when that didn’t create results, she went to state legislators. It became clear there wasn’t support in the legislature for her efforts, she said.
It wasn’t until the election of City Council Member Jane Harrison, who represents the area where the Fourth Ward used to lie, in 2022 that the ball started rolling, Rainey said.
“You need a councilman from the district to help lead” the effort within the city government, Rainey said.
But recognition efforts are far from done.
Rainey said she visited 25 different neighborhoods to speak with local residents about the signage and recognition efforts.
Now, as the entertainment district grows, she’s trying to talk with developers to see how they can also recognize the district in their projects.
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“The end is not the end, it’s just the beginning,” she said.
This story was originally published September 15, 2026 at 3:56 PM.