Urban Displacement in Charleston, SC

“Black communities were impacted because they were Black communities [...] they were impacted to remove Black people. They were impacted because people wanted to lock in segregation.” Deborah N. Archer, NYU School of Law, author of "‘White Men’s Roads Through Black Men’s Homes’: Advancing Racial Equity Through Highway Reconstruction" The Legacy of Urban Renewal Among the beautifully preserved buildings and streetscapes that make Charleston so iconic, one can still see the scars of the Urban Renewal programs of the early to mid twentieth century—if you know where to look. The legacy of these programs was the displacement of entire communities of color, fraying the community fabric of the Charleston Peninsula forever. The term " Urban Renewal" refers to a set of Federal programs implemented from the 1940s- 1970s that provided funding for cities across the country to raze undesirable neighborhoods. By 1966, Over 400,000 housing units were cleared, displacing over 300,000 residents, over half of whom were nonwhite ( whites made up 88.6% of U.S. population in 1960 ).