Race and Redlining

This wall was erected in 1940 in Northwest Detroit to divide white and African American neighborhoods.

African Americans were drawn by the abundance of fairly well-paying jobs in northern manufacturing cities like Detroit but also by the lack of legalized segregation. They found de facto segregation instead.

One of the Chrysler Freeway's spurs was built on top of the African American neighborhoods, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.

The Jeffries Projects, which opened in 1953, were demolished between 2001 and 2008. 

Beginning in the 1920s, African Americans as well as whites living in southern states and Appalachia began moving to Detroit to work in its booming manufacturing sector. When African Americans arrived, however, they found white-only housing covenants that restricted them to certain neighborhoods. In one area, a concrete wall actually divided white and African American neighborhoods.

The practice of "redlining" made it difficult to get favorable loans for homes in African American or racially mixed neighborhoods. This resulted in disinvestment and the lowering of property values, which were exacerbated by white flight.

The same freeways that allowed whites living in the suburbs to work in the cities were often built on top of existing African American neighborhoods. Public housing, such as the Jeffries Projects, were meant to replace these neighborhoods but instead isolated people and concentrated poverty.