There was a smile on Gary Knight’s face as bright as Saturday afternoon’s sunshine.

Greeting friends and neighbors, the ecstatic Knight was happy to be back home finally.

“Look at this place, man,” Knight said, pointing to his former neighborhood on Dunn Street. “It feels so great to be back here and to see everyone again.”

Close to 300 former and current residents of the Around the “Y” neighborhood gathered at Thelonius Monk Park located near Dunn Street for the neighborhood’s 22nd annual homecoming. The afternoon was filled with funk and rhythm and blues music, the beats of African drums, prize drawings, grilled foods and children playing in the park.

Elders of the “Y” neighborhood spent the afternoon reminiscing on the days of raising their own families during segregation.

The gathering served not only as a way to educate the younger crowd about the neighborhood’s history, but for residents to converse about how to combat crime, drugs and high poverty levels.

For Knight, 43, getting back to his old childhood neighborhood was a “blessing.”

“To see a lot of friends and family is overwhelming,” Knight said.

Knight moved back to Rocky Mount from Charlotte more than a month ago and said that he was more than proud to see how the area has been redeveloped. But he said he would like to see community pride and investment happen again throughout his street blocks.

“There’s a reason God brought me back here,” he said. “We all lived through the struggles. But we stuck together, and this community stayed close knit.”

The “Y” neighborhood, originally dubbed as “Around the Wire,” is outlined by Arlington, South Washington, Dunn and South streets and is named for its location between converging tracks of the Atlantic Coast Railroad. Many of the homes in the neighborhood developed in the early 20th century were demolished in the mid-1970s due to federal redevelopment plans.

Long-time “Y” neighborhood resident Henry Davis, 82, a retired Wilson County Schools educator, said growing up in the Y neighborhood meant sticking together and taking pride in education.

“There was no such thing as not being an achiever or not being able to leave your door open at night,” Davis said. “But it’s like those elements have been erased over time. We have to do our very best to encourage our young people to rekindle those lights the community once had.”

Arlington Street resident Shirley Avent-Johnson was at the celebration. After college, she moved back to the Y neighborhood during the 1960s to be close to her family.

She said she has seen changes in the neighborhood, both good and bad.

“It’s about trying to keep the positives and turn the negatives into positives,” she said.