In the neighborhood of Mount Hope, north of Downtown Providence, the primarily African-American area of the neighborhood was entirely redlined in the 30s and entirely destroyed in the 60s. The dense residential community was replaced with a USPS distribution center. The government demolished over 700 homes in the area, offering virtually no relocation assistance. Many people were forced to relocate to newly-constructed, shoddily-built, public high-rise residential projects—built in the shadows of the new freeways.

As the government allowed the newly built suburbs to enforce “restrictive covenants,” which barred people of color from moving in (more on restrictive covenants in future posts), these new “integrated” public housing projects were often African-American residents’ only choice.

(For the #railfans out there, you can see an old-school roundhouse/turntable in the lower left.)