Pittsburgh Hill District Demolished for Civic Arena, 8,000 Displaced

In 1956, Pittsburgh's urban renewal authority demolishes the Lower Hill District, the heart of Black Pittsburgh's cultural life, home to jazz clubs, the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, churches, and 8,000 residents, to build the Civic Arena. Residents receive inadequate compensation and are scattered throughout the city. The arena is built without a single unit of replacement housing. The destruction is dramatized decades later by playwright August Wilson, who set his Pittsburgh Cycle plays in the Hill District.