Black Bottom Neighborhood
Black Bottom became a predominantly black neighborhood in Detroit, demolished for redevelopment in the early 1960s and replaced with Lafayette Park and I-275 freeway, In the early twentieth century, African-American residents became concentrated in Blackbottom during the first wave of the Great Migration from the South to northern industrial cities for a . Informal segregation operated in the city to keep them in this area of better way of live and decent paying jobs. It was located in the lower East Side and was bounded by, I-75 Freeway east to McDougal Street, South of Gratiot to the Detroit River and the Grand Trunk railroad tracks. Historically, this area was the source of the River Savoyard now known as the Dequindre Cut which was buried as a sewer in 1827. Its “bottom” and rich marsh soils are the source of the name “Black Bottom.” Southern Blacks populated the area as well as Jews, and other European ethnicities. Strict segregation and housing laws restricted Blacks to the area and Blacks were prohibited to live elsewhere. The Strict Segregation of the day fostered camaraderie, trust and self-sufficiency among blacks. Some well-known blacks that lived in Black Bottom were Detroit’s Mayor Coleman A. Young, U.S. Ambassador Ralph J. Bunch, Boxer Joe Louis and Members of Infamous Purple Gang. The Purple Gang was Detroit’s most notorious organized crime gang in the 1920s and 1930s. The Purple Gang was made up of immigrants from Detroit’s lower east side. In the early 1960s, the City of Detroit conducted an Urban Renewal program to combat what it called “Slum Clearance.” The program razed the entire Black Bottom district and replaced it with the Chrysler Freeway and Lafayette Park, a mixed-income development designed as a model neighborhood combining residential townhouses, apartments and high-rises with commercial areas.
KIds from Blackbottom
