For these real estate agents, an artist's images of a now-demolished neighborhood illustrate the dangers of redlining and urban renewal

Alison O’Brien wasn’t even alive when Roanoke began dismantling its once-thriving African American neighborhoods. She didn’t refuse mortgages to Black customers simply because they lived in areas deemed to be a poor financial risk, a practice known as “redlining.” Or steer homebuyers to particular addresses based on the color of their skin. But as an agent with MKB Realtors, she recently joined her colleagues at the Taubman Museum of Art to view the colorful, tragically captivating exhibit “David Ramey: Gainsboro Road and Beyond” that portrays a bygone African American community...