ABSTRACT
By the 1930s, sections of Detroit were rapidly deteriorating, particularly in the segregated neighborhoods African Americans called home. Urban planners and public health experts promoted “slum clearance” as the solution for the poor living conditions and the diseases like tuberculosis that thrived in crowded and decaying neighborhoods. African American organizations like the Detroit Urban League supported slum clearance in certain situations, but preferred “neighborhood conservation” programs to improve living conditions and to avoid the bulldozing of black homes. Nevertheless, until the late 1950s, African Americans were generally powerless to resist the elimination of their neighborhoods. Construction of highways required bulldozing African American neighborhoods, thrusting displaced black residents into a tightly segregated housing market.
