The Black Community & Urban Renewal
In many American cities, Urban Renewal projects disproportionately affected African-American communities. In Rockville, the Mid-City Project area included the historically Black streets of Middle Lane and Cairo and Sarah Streets. Middle Lane and the portions of North Washington Street had been the center of Rockville’s Black community since the 1880s, comprised of both residential and commercial buildings. In the 1950s, redevelopment had already begun buying out Black owners of both homes and businesses along Middle Lane and North Washington Street, making this area much more racially-mixed and transitioning to retail by the 1960s.
Cairo and Sarah Streets off of Middle Lane had developed in the 1920s and largely consisted of boarding houses and apartments with lower income Black residents next to light industrial and commercial areas. This area had been the subject of complaints and described as slums in the local newspapers; various failed plans and proposals to relocate the population rather than address the poverty and conditions had been suggested for decades. The economic struggles of downtown Rockville were often blamed on this area and its proximity to the town's business district. At this time, it was well-known that most Black workers, even if they earned a comparatively good salary, could not find housing in segregated Rockville outside of the historically Black neighborhoods of Haiti, Lincoln Park, and East Middle Lane. Fair Housing advocates argued that the situation could be changed if Blacks were allowed to purchase property or rent in more places, rather than deal with racist housing covenants that severely limited their housing options in Montgomery County and Rockville. The "problem" area ceased to exist when the City purchased and demolished these lots as part of Urban Renewal.
While the Mid-City Urban Renewal Project demolished Rockville’s main business district and replaced them with the Rockville Mall, East Middle Lane, Cairo, and Sarah Streets were located behind the mall’s footprint. These residents were displaced, rather than replaced. Few of these residents owned their homes - most were renters, so they were not reimbursed and had to find some place else to live. Black workers employed by any of the many businesses bought out and closed may have lost their jobs. Residents whose homes or places of employment vanished continued to face segregated housing and discriminatory hiring practices.
In Rockville, Urban Renewal was another severe blow to this Black community that had been experiencing redevelopment since the 1950s.
Read more about the impact on the Black community in the blog post linked below