I've been thinking about this tweet all day, so: The Vista is a made up place that was only possible due to the desolation of two Black communities in Columbia. https://twitter.com/AveryGWilks/status/1267091227930959881

Prior to the 1970s, Black communities made up most of the area between Main Street and the river downtown in Columbia. Ward One was a working class district which was razed to make way for UofSC expansion.

Here's a video from 1961 praising the destruction of the neighborhood and how it benefitted the school.
https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A53049

On the other side of Gervais Street was the Washington business district that included, among other notable institutions, the black-owned Victory Savings Bank and a former NAACP headquarters.

It also still prominently features Zion Baptist Church, where, from at least the 1940s through the 1970s Black civil rights advocates have met, organized, begun marches, and reconvened after being arrested. My favorite photo of it. The State collection @accessfreely

In videos of the protests from yesterday, you can see police standing on one side of the church and firing at the crowd up Washington Street. The area called the Vista today has been a place of civil rights activism by Black people for much longer than it has been the Vista.

Everything I know comes from @uofsccrc, @ColumbiaSC63, and the Ward One organization.