Migration
Freeways bring change
Roadways carved up city and facilitated white flight
By Cameron McWhirter / The Detroit News
DETROIT — The construction of Detroit’s freeways starting in the 1950s had a huge impact on population migrations in Detroit.
In the early 1950s, the Lodge Freeway cut Elmhurst in half to the east of the 1900 block.
Interstate 75 led to the destruction of the main black neighborhood, Black Bottom, increasing the housing pressures from the burgeoning black population.
Moreover, the expressways made suburban housing developments and suburban shopping malls economically viable.
Northland Mall in Southfield opened in 1954, drawing shoppers away from the city. Tract after tract of former farmland was developed for new modern homes with large garages.
The suburbs offered white homebuyers modern amenities, huge lawns — and no integration.
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