Whitehaven is the tale of two cities. While a solid middle class Black community with the highest number of Black homeowners, businesses, and registered Black voters as well as the highest Black median income in Memphis. Whitehaven also has a 30 percent poverty rate, 47 percent of our students are designated as economically disadvantaged and 13 percent of our population does not have a high school diploma. Whitehaven also has a history of being disinvested and underserved since the demographics of the community changed from white to black after annexation into the city of Memphis in 1970. Despite it all, the level of pride and love we have for our community shows through our mantra RESPECT The Haven which began at Whitehaven High School, the Black educational powerhouse where in the last 10 years Black students have earned over 1.7 billion dollars in scholarships. We took this long standing mantra and turned it into a place based organization to serve our community- RESPECT The Haven CDC.
RESPECT The Haven CDC is a grassroots Community Development Corporation founded in 2021 serving the predominantly Black (95 percent) disinvested and underserved Community of Whitehaven located in South Memphis, Tennessee.