The Map that Destroyed a Neighborhood
How have geographic decisions impacted the shape of Lansing?
A map that moved 2,000 people
The American housing landscape has undergone many changes in history. Lansing's boundaries have changed, its citizens undertaken large projects, and its neighborhoods built and stored generational wealth.
How to Solve a Housing Crisis
During the Great Depression, millions of Americans faced foreclosure as the wealthy pulled their investments and money from banks in a panic and the world economy faced spiraling deflation. Americans desperate for shelter started creating homes out of loose lumber, cardboard and scrap metal. Shantytowns started appearing all over the United States.
Faced with this economic collapse of the 1930s, President Roosevelt signed the Home Owners’ Loan Act into law. This allowed the government to purchase and refinance loans thus permitting many Americans to stay in their homes or purchase new ones. This was both a boon to the housing sector and a force for racial segregation. The newly created Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) graded neighborhoods all over the country on their desirability and stability, determining who could qualify for relief.
https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/home-owners-loan-act-1933/
HOLC created neighborhood maps for a total of eleven Michigan cities: Bay City, Saginaw, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Pontiac, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson, and Detroit.
Below is the map that the HOLC created for Lansing, Michigan.
Digitized HOLC Rating Map of Lansing from 1940; National Archives, Public Domain
The "grading scale" for HOLC residential areas included four steps, from "Best lending area" to "Hazardous". Areas that had documented "negroes and low type of white" residents would be marked in lower categories.
Residents in lower categories often had difficulty doing home repairs and improvements, locking home values in place. Studies have indicated of the neighborhoods marked as "hazardous", 76% today are still low income and 64% are still racial minorities.
"Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A"—colored green on the maps—were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should received loans and which areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous."-Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
https://ncrc.org/holc/
Here is an interactive map of modern-day Lansing with the HOLC designations superimposed on top:
Lansing HOLC Areas
Where should we build this highway?
While banks used the HOLC maps to determine who was eligible for home improvement loans and mortgages, Lansing planners used the HOLC maps to determine areas of so-called urban renewal. Two of those projects locally were the creation of I-496 (Ransom E Olds Highway), which cuts through the middle of the city, and the expansion of the GM plant.
Both of these projects primarily cut through "declining" and "hazardous" neighborhoods. In fact, planners cleared out one of the so-called "hazardous" areas. These projects cleared the REO Street neighborhood and commercial areas and split the West Side neighborhood in half by dead-ending dozens of streets to place the highway down the middle.
Evicted homeowners received 25% of their home value before moving and eventually got the entire payment later. Those residents who rented or who bought their home on contract (a common occurrence for African Americans, who could often not qualify for financing) were not given remuneration to relocate.
Lansing evicted approximately 900 families during this time.
REO Street Neighborhood
Let's look at the area that coincides with the present day I-496 and the neighborhood just south of it. In dark grey are the approximate locations of homes that were demolished during the construction of the highway and urban renewal project that expanded GM's footprint.
The REO Street neighborhood: Formerly residential areas, now large open pavements for the GM plant and the I-496 passthrough.
The Green Books
The Green Books were a series of travel guides written by and for African Americans in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Many places were hostile to black travelers and it could be difficult to find accommodations. The North did not adopt Jim Crow laws, but black Americans still faced prejudice or danger because of their skin color, so these books gave the addresses of "tourist homes"—i.e., residents who could open their home to a traveler who wouldn't be able to make it out of the city before dark.
“There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.”-Green Book, 1963
https://www.history.com/news/the-green-book-the-black-travelers-guide-to-jim-crow-america
Lansing's Green Book listings in 1962.
Even in the 1960s, the Green Books still advised black travelers of safe locations in Lansing, Michigan. You can see all of the locations for Green Book safe houses were demolished in the urban renewal projects of the 1960s.
This map shows an approximation of the buildings that were demolished (shown in black) and the Green Book tourist homes (shown in green).
The Commercial Corridor
It was not only residences that were flattened in Lansing's urban renewal programs: the I-496 corridor was home to a large number of businesses and churches that were owned by and patronized by the locals.
Residents describe the Bethlehem Temple--in the path of I-496--as a community of people who "walked to church and socialized easily and readily as neighbors".
This map shows a small selection of businesses that advertised in a local magazine, the Lansing Post (1963)
Lansing was not the only city that deliberately bisected mostly African American neighborhoods seeking to provide a way through the city: hundred of cities did it in the 1960s. Some cities have begun to tear them down to revitalize their downtowns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/highways-destroyed-americas-cities/417789/
The urban renewal projects nationwide created wealth for the government and millions of Americans, but it was a major contribution to wealth inequality in Lansing and barrier to building generational wealth for black Americans. Lansing's historical society is planning a projected called Pave The Way which will collect the stories of those who lived during Lansing's urban renewal projects.
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