Urban renewal destroyed a Black neighborhood. Now, former residents are keeping its memory alive

Nearly 20,000 residents– mostly Black – were forced out of their homes in a neighborhood called Mill Creek Valley, where people had at that point been living for decades. The first wrecking ball smashed into the neighborhood in 1959. It was still the height of Jim Crow, a period marked by violence, sometimes at the hands of local, state and federal governments. Uprooting happened across the country, whether it was because a city wanted to build new developments or expand a highway. In Mill Creek, both, unfortunately, were true. By the late 1960s, the once bustling community was unidentifiable. Some 5,600 housing units, 800 businesses and 40 churches were destroyed, spanning 54 city blocks.

This year, more than 60 years after demolition first began, St. Louis officials and community stakeholders are recognizing the destructive consequences of the government’s demolition of the neighborhood, a history former residents have spent years preserving.

The PBS NewsHour's Nicole Ellis spoke to NewsHour communities correspondent in St. Louis, Gabrielle Hays about the Mill Creek Valley community that once was.

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