How highways destroyed Black neighborhoods in the ’60s, as told by elders who were there – The Columbus Dispatch

Born in 1949 in Hanford Village, an African American neighborhoodon the Near East Side, Shirley Mixon had a childhood right out of a book about 1950s suburbia.

No one worried about leaving doors unlocked or bikes unattended. People took pride in their homes and even had contests for the best-kept lawn. Children played outside and neighbors shared plates of food at dinnertime.

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It was just a close-knit community, said Mixon, 71, who eventually bought her own house in Hanford, where she still lives. When one person hurt, we all hurt.

Hanford was founded as a village in 1909, and was originally bordered by Main Street on the north, Alum Creek on the east, Livingston Avenue on the south and Lilley Avenue on the west. It became a predominantly Black municipality by the 1920sand had its own mayor and police department. (It was annexed to Columbus in 1955.)

Black Out: Shirley Mixon describes the neighborhood she grew up in, divided by the highway

Shirley Mixon describes how Hanford Village was cut by I-70, but survives. She grew up in the mostly Black community.

Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch

Beginning in 1946, the Federal Housing Administration financed the construction of 146 Cape Cod homes in the middle class area, marketed to Black veterans as the Hanford Village George Washington Carver Addition. A number of Tuskegee Airmen lived in the community.

Mixons former street, Bowman Avenue, was lined with homes and a storethat housed both a beautician and barber, who gave all the Hanford boys their first haircut, Mixon said.

Shirley Mixon, 71, grew up in the predominantly Black neighborhood Hanford Village and saw it divided by the construction of I-70 in the 1960s.Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch

Then, in the 1960s, the I-70 interstate cut off Bowman Avenue, eradicated 60 homes and split the community.

Mixons old house, now inhabited by her sister, is one of only four remaining on the street. From their windows, residents can see the highway not only an eyesore and an inconvenience, but,according to residents, scholars government officials and others, a concrete and colossal example of institutional racism and its harm to Black communities.

Most Hanford Village houses are west of the highway; twoare isolated at Alum Creek Drive and Kent Street on the other side.

I lost a lot of friends, Mixon recalled. They couldve gone through Bexley. Why didnt they go through there?

Bexley, the predominantly white, affluent citynortheast of Hanford Village, remained unscathed by I-70, I-71 and I-670, which destroyed large parts of the predominantly Black Near East Side following the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Numerous reports have chronicled the deliberate destruction of Black neighborhoods throughout the U.S. via the interstate system.

Its just a tragic story, said Jason Reece, an assistant professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State University. (It) played out across many different neighborhoods all the way up the East Side to Milo-Grogan and then to Linden. I-670 wiped out the Flytown neighborhood. And if you look at the old redlining maps of most cities and Columbus is a good example you can pretty much trace the highways right through those areas that were redlined.

In addition to redlining the practice of denying home loans and other resources to Black neighborhoods during segregation the government also targeted the communities for urban renewal. But plans for slum clearance were rarely followed with promised affordable housing, Reece said.

That, combined with the interstate construction, caused many areas to decline.

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You cant imagine that happening to other neighborhoods without the power of prejudice and discrimination, Reece said. It didnt have to be like that. There are many routes you could have taken through the city, but they seemed to almost always exclusively target Black communities.

Mixon said some of her neighbors took drastic measures to stay in Hanford.

One friend of my dads said they werent giving him enough money for his house, she said. Sohe lifted his house and moved it.

According to the application to put the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places by local historian Rory Krupp approved in 2014 another person was so enraged that he set fire to his home.

Segregation and discriminatory housing policies limited where displaced residents could move. Ultimately, they chose Linden, Driving Park and Southfield, Krupp reported.

According to Mixon, things arent the same at the Hanford neighborhoodpark, now considerably smaller and managed by the city.

You find more people from Bexley and other neighborhoods coming down there, she said. One time, we were having a Hanford reunion, and somebody had already bought and paid for the park, so we had to cancel.

With original residents getting older, new people moving in and crime rates creeping up, Mixon said Hanford isnt the same as it used to be. But now that the neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places, Mixon feels some relief.

I used to think the freeway would come out here and take the rest of the houses, Mixon said. (But) as long as people can maintain their houses, I think its going to be OK.

Black Out: Ann Walker's home razed for highway

Ann Walker and her husband were raising two children in a Jefferson Avenue home on the North Side when it was razed to make way for Interstate 71. She believes minority communities were targeted for the highway construction.

Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch

A few miles away on Jefferson Avenue, Ann B. Walker wasnt so lucky.

Back in the 1960s, she and her husband, Linwood, owned a two-family brick home in the present-day King-Lincoln District, currently bounded by I-71 on the west, Atcheson Street on the north, 20th Street on the east, and East Broad Street on the south. Similar to other, thriving African American hubs in Chicago, Los Angeles and Milwaukee, the neighborhood was nicknamed Bronzeville in the 1920s.

Ann Walker was living in the present-day King-Lincoln District when the house was razed to make way for I-71.Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch

It was a self-contained community, said Walker, 97, who now lives in Olde Towne East. We elected our own mayor. … People who live on the East Side still think of it as Bronzeville.

There were successful businesses, bars and music venues on Mount Vernon Avenue and Long Street. There also was a sense of camaraderie; Walker said her backyard was a recreational hub for the neighborhood kids.

A wedding day photograph of Ann and Linwood Walker, who had a home together on Jefferson Avenue, which was later razed.Family photograph

But then the construction of I-71 divided and destroyed much of Bronzeville, and the Walkers were forced to give up their home.

We didnt have a choice, she said. We had to either sell or let the city take it. Many of us felt we were not getting the full value for our home.

The Walkers sold for just a couple thousand more than they paid.

The once-bustling Mount Vernon Avenue was cut off at Hamilton Avenue, and Mount Vernonnow feeds into Spring Street, which travels one way over the highway and Downtown to Columbus Community College.

It was deliberate, Walker said. They should have gone through Bexley and they did not. … The businesses had to look for a new location. The doctors and lawyers had to look for a new location. Our schools changed. The population was reduced.

Growing up in the neighborhood, William Richardson also witnessed the devastation firsthand. His father, Marion, owned a bowling alley on Mount Vernon Avenue.

Communities lost: How highways destroyed Black neighborhoods in the 60s

It got pretty clear for community folks that youre doing this to spite us, said Richardson, 76, of the East Side. Why would you take an insignificant street like Spring Street and put a bridge over it and take a thoroughfare such as Mount Vernon Avenue and dead end it unless you were just intent on driving the East Side community under? he said.

Richardsons family moved from Georgia to Columbus in the 1920s as part of the Great Migration of Southern Black families to the North. His mothers family helped construct Shiloh Baptist Churchs building on Mount Vernon Avenue; the congregation had moved a couple times since forming in the 1860s.

This historical photo of the I-71 and I-670 interchange shows where Ann Walker had a Jefferson Avenue home before it was destroyed for freeway construction.Columbus Dispatch

The church sits right at the point where the street was cut off, and Richardson said the city originally wanted to take the building as part of the highway construction.

Shiloh refused to sell, he said of the church, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They saw themselves as being critical to the community.

The highway also reduced traffic into Bronzeville. Prior to its construction, Reita Smith remembers traveling to the neighborhood from her home in the Hilltop.

I would take the trolley car and go to Shiloh for church and Sunday school, said Smith, 84, of the Northwest Side. And then, of course, we spent all our afternoons on Long Street and Mount Vernon.

Richardson spoke fondly of the bowling alley, shops, nightclubs and movie theaters. She said that, overall, the area was safe and friendly.

You lost easy access to the Black community, Smith said. It was like cutting off the blood supply.

According to residents and scholars such as Reece, Bronzeville also was devastated by urban renewal policies. Buildings were demolished, driving both people and businesses out of the neighborhood. The population also was reduced during integration, whenresidents were suddenly free to movethroughout the city.

Today, with development of the area ramping up, residents are worried about retaining the culturalidentity of King-Lincoln/Bronzeville amid the risk of more displacement

A current view of Hanford Village, which was divided by the construction of I-70 in the 1960s.Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch

Gentrification is occurring throughout all of our African American communities, Smith said. Were right back where we started then, needing affordable housing.

One of the most recent blows to the neighborhood was the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority'sdemolition in 2013 of most of Poindexter Village, which opened in 1940 as one of the countrys first public-housing developments. Two of the 35 buildings were sparedand will be turned in to a museum and cultural learning center.

It was policies, not people, said Smith, who lived in the development in the 1960sand advocated for its preservation. The residents wanted to be there.

Walker is glad there will be some remnant of Poindexter.

I think that is very important because you still have a high percentage of Black people living on the East Side, Walker said. They need to be aware of the history.

@miss_ethompson

ethompson@dispatch.com

This is part of a nine-story series that exploresthe ways in which prejudice and systemic racism impact Black Americans.

The creation of The Dispatch Black Out seriesstarted with a simple conversation between reporters Erica Thompson and Mike Wagner, who are part of the newspapers Heart of Columbus team. They wanted to show that the agony, frustration and pain felt by Black people in America wasnt just connected to recent killings of Black people by police.

Along with photographer/videographer Doral Chenoweth, the journalists spent months interviewing dozens of Black people throughout central Ohio, and a few beyond, about their personal experiences with racism, prejudice and discrimination.

Their stories are raw and personal. The intent of the stories, photos and videos is to help others understand why Black people often live in fear for their safety andtheir livelihoods, and why they worry about being looked down upon as being inferior to white people. And hopefully that understanding leads to more equality.

If you have a story to tell, about your own experiences with racism, please fill out the form below.

See the rest here:
How highways destroyed Black neighborhoods in the '60s, as told by elders who were there - The Columbus Dispatch