Detroit's 'Eight Mile Wall' Built to Satisfy FHA Racial Segregation Requirements

In 1941, Detroit developer James Groesbeck built a concrete wall six feet high along Eight Mile Road to physically separate a new white subdivision from an adjacent Black neighborhood. The FHA had refused to guarantee mortgages in the area unless a physical barrier separated white homebuyers from Black residents. The wall, still partially standing, is a concrete embodiment of federal housing policy's racial segregation mandate. It is among the most documented physical manifestations of FHA redlining practices that prevented Black wealth accumulation through homeownership.