Birwood Wall/Eight Mile-Wyoming Neighborhood - Detroit, MI - Michigan Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Detroit Eight Mile Wall, also referred to as Detroit's Wailing Wall, Berlin Wall or The Birwood Wall, is a one-foot-thick (0.30 m), six-foot-high (1.8 m) separation wall that stretches about 1/2 mile (0.80 km) 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. -Detroit Wall

Historical Date: 01/01/1941 Description: Birwood Wall Constructed in 1941, the Birwood Wall divided the existing Black community in the Eight Mile-Wyoming area from Blackstone Park. a newly built White subdivision. The wall is a reminder of institutionalized racial segregation in the United States. For example the 1936 Federal Housing Administration under- writing manual stated that artificial barriers could protect a neighborhood's value from "adverse influences.” such as "inharmonious racial groups.” Maps provided by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation labeled Black neighbor- hoods and other ethnic or low-income communities as "hazardous” for home loans, a process known as redlining. The Reverend Horace White, the first Black member of the Detroit Housing Commission. denounced the wall and led protests against its construction. By the 1950s Black families lived on both sides of the wall. Eight Mile-Wyoming Neighborhood After World War I the Great Migration brought thousands of southern Blacks to northern industrial cities including Detroit. Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, the city's segregated Black neighborhoods, became severely over- crowded. The Detroit Urban League responded by helping settle Black families on land near the edge of the city, one of the few places in Detroit where Blacks could buy and build their own homes in the 1920s. During World War II the city tried to build temporary defense housing in the area. Burniece Avery, the Carver Progressive Club, and the Eight Mile Road Improvement Association persuaded the Federal Housing Administration to limit war housing and, a rarity for the time, offer home loans in the area. Their success reinforced Black homeownership here. Parking nearby?: yes D/T ratings: website: [Web Link] Registered Site #: S762 Historical Name: Not listed

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