The Detroit Eight Mile Wall, also referred to as Detroit's Wailing Wall, Berlin Wall or The Birwood Wall, is a , separation wall that stretches about in length. 1 foot (0.30 m) is buried in the ground and the remaining 5 feet (1.5 m) is visible to the community. It was constructed in 1941 to physically separate black and white homeowners on the sole basis of race. The wall no longer serves to racially segregate homeowners and, as of 1971, both sides of the barrier have been predominantly black.
The wall begins across the street from the northern boundary of Van Antwerp Park, on Pembroke Avenue between Birwood and Mendota streets. It extends north until just south of 8 Mile Road. An exposed stretch of the wall with no homes to the east runs through Alfonso Wells Memorial Playground, between Chippewa Avenue and Norfolk Street. Community activists and Detroit residents collaborated in 2006 to turn this portion of the wall into a mural. Paintings have depicted, for example, neighborhood children blowing bubbles, a group of a cappella singers, Rosa Parks's boarding the bus signifying her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement, and citizens protesting for equitable housing policy.
Background
The World War I industrial economy of Detroit afforded opportunities for women and black men to become more active participants in the labor force of the city. A large percentage of white men were drafted to fight in the war, leaving many of their jobs vacant and needing to be filled. This allowed black citizens to fill empty job positions, causing a large demographic shift in the makeup of the Detroit workforce. In light of more job opportunities, the city experienced an increase in the population of black people seeking economic and social mobility. This trend was known nationwide as the Great Migration, as more than six million black people moved from the southern to the northern areas of the United States. But as white men were returning from war and more black citizens entered the city, competition for scarce housing increased tensions between the two groups. White residents took over most private-sector housing, pushing black residents to less desirable areas of the city. The Great Depression furthered the scarcity of housing as the population continued to soar.
The New Deal legislation implemented under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt intended to make private housing more accessible to citizens. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) was created in 1933, followed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). In short, these programs reduced barriers to housing by offering discounted payment plans spread out over 20–30 years. These policies significantly improved home-ownership accessibility for working-class white Detroit residents and promoted single-family units. Yet according to Thomas J. Sugrue, a Detroit scholar and historian, black residents did not benefit from the New Deal era of legislation because "local governments had the final say over the expenditure over the federal funds, the location of projects, and the type constructed." As a result of local government bodies being composed of white politicians, white residents received federal funding, while black residents were left to seek housing with no aid.