Recurrent flooding may mean the end of a historic black town: Princeville, N.C.

... This is where a freed slave, Turner Prince, established Freedom Hill in 1865, which became Princeville 20 years later, a town where extended families have proudly lived for generations. And many of them are determined to rebuild.

This stretch along the Tar River is no stranger to flooding, and some say that it is probably the reason that African-Americans were able to settle the land in the first place. White landowners in the 19th century did not want it.

“Their existence in this space was not a matter of chance or choice, but instead the discarded and unwanted space was what former slaveholders allowed them to occupy,” Richard M. Mizelle, Jr., an associate professor of history at the University of Houston, wrote earlier this year, tying Princeville’s location to environmental racism — the relegation of black people to flood-prone land and hazardous areas that expose them to greater levels of pollution.

But many people are proud of what they have built here, and how it has endured. “The freed slaves made it what it is,” said Mayor Bobbie Jones, 55, who wants the levee improved and opposes the buyouts and hopes residents who want to leave will first seek private buyers, perhaps like himself.