The Detroit Wall

[whell]

Who knows if this is truly accurate or not - I don't think it is - but from the article:

In the 1940s, this part of Detroit was largely African-American, Horner says. In those days, the city was growing, and white residents sought to build houses next to black neighborhoods like this one. But first, developers needed to get financing — usually secured by the Federal Housing Administration.

"And the developer who wanted to develop in this area was told no by the FHA," Horner says. "Because it was considered to be too close to an African-American neighborhood. And so the solution that the developer came up with was to build a 6-foot-high wall that runs for about three long city blocks."

If this is true, then the FHA of the 1940's - the Roosevelt and Truman FHA - were promoting racial segragation of urban neighborhoods. Interesting.