Of the 2,219 families displaced in the Ellicott District Redevelopment Project (approximately 7,850 individuals), 1,483 of them--or 67%--were families of color. Much of the rest were recent European immigrants. The 1936 redlining map describes the neighborhood as “an extremely old section which has been taken over by Negros and Italians of a poor type.” The area’s African-American population grew rapidly during the first half of the 20th century from those fleeing the Jim Crow south (African-Americans left the south for northern cities in massive numbers during this period, known as the “Second Great Migration”).

Then, in 1957, the government sacked Ellicott. The Redevelopment Project demolished the majority of the neighborhood, displacing thousands and offering them little in return. Monotonous, high-rise, cruciform housing projects replaced what had been a thriving, mixed-use neighborhood (images from on the ground coming in future posts). The intercity train station at Exchange St was massively downsized and had a freeway built over and around it.