New downtown in Port Wentworth may violate civil rights

PORT WENTWORTH - The U.S. Justice Department is examining whether plans to create a new downtown in the coastal city of Port Wentworth would force out black residents who already live there. <br> <br> City planners say developing the new downtown in the largely wooded area of northern Port Wentworth is the only way to save the city, which shrank more than 18 percent during the 1990s. The town is down to just under 3,300 residents. <br> <br> But black families who have lived there since before the Civil War are afraid they&#39;ll be pushed out by encroaching utility lines and roads and escalating property values.