WRAL documentary 'Ghosts in the Stadium' examines unknown past of four iconic football stadiums in the Carolinas

WRAL Investigative Documentary Producer Cristin Severance and WRAL Sports Anchor Chris Lea set out to uncover who these stadiums were named after, where they were built and what communities they displaced.

“When Chris pitched doing a WRAL Doc and WRAL Sports collaboration, I had no idea the secrets we’d uncover at these sites,” said Severance. “It’s important to tell these stories because they’re true. While some of these events happened more than 100 years ago, the impacts are still seen today.”

Stadiums are built to bring people together. While these four sports complexes exist on sites of violence against Black people, burial sites of the formerly enslaved, and Black communities displaced in the name of progress, there is opportunity in the unity of sports to celebrate the citizens forgotten by the existence of these massive structures.

“Some think these painful histories only serve to further divide us. That’s wrong,” said WRAL Sports Anchor Chris Lea. “Knowing real, local American history that helped to shape our communities will help us understand and empathize with each other, while also starting a healing process for everyone to move forward with,” said Lea.

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