The Detroit Eight Mile Wall, also referred to as Detroit's Wailing Wall, Berlin Wall or The
Birwood Wall; is a 1 foot (0.30 m) thick, 6 feet (1.8 m) high wall
that stretches about .5 miles (0.80 km) in length. At the time of its
construction in 1940, it was intended to serve as a wall of racial separation
as a physical barrier between white and black homeowners in northwest Detroit.
The neighborhoods on both sides of the wall have been predominantly black since
the early 1970s.
Starting from 1930 Detroit started to develop very
fast and it affected in immigration of the people to the city. This immigration
caused the lack of the houses in the city for newcomers. To solve problem The Federal
Housing Administration started to build houses, which took out from city
borders in a short time. At last they reached to the West Outer Drive, Palmer Woods and Sherwood Forest were the all-white neighborhoods in
close proximity to this African American enclave. The area was mostly vacant
and unattractive to contractors due to its residents as it violated FHA's
policy of racially homogeneous neighborhoods. When the FHA was approached by a
developer wanting to build an all-white subdivision west of the site, funding
was refused because the area was too risky for investment. In a compromise with
the FHA, the developer erected the wall that was to divide the "slum"
from his new construction project .
source: wikipedia
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