A Highway Runs Through The Bronze People Of Ohio 

And by contrast, a proposed road and bridge connecting Morse & Bethel Roads to alleviate heavy traffic on Columbus's North Side was allowed to come to a vote and was defeated. Of course, the residents of the Near East Side & Hanford Village were given no such choice- and we all know why.

Thanks for your stand on these issues Jeff. Dissecting the reality of racism down to the simplest conmon factors like, roads, schools and business development opens eyes and minds to the truth.💪🏻

You can see this all over the country. They blew up so many neighborhoods and thriving communities.

We also can't expect anything different from an organization that was in part descended from slave patrolling.

In my city (Windsor Ontario Canada) right across from Detroit, we have a lot of historical underground railroad museums as this was one of the final stops. Originally this area was called Walkerville, named for Hiram Walker -the guy who built the Canadian Club whisky distillery here. over 200 years ago he designed the housing and build the infrastructure (railroads and ship yards) around supporting his business with his mansion Willistead Manor, which still stands in one of the nicest neightbourhoods (and has secret tunnels) surrounded immediately by the mansions of his top workers, elites and friends, then farther out from that was the different level of workers and the farther out you got was the poor people then eventually the worst housing meant for transient workers and new immigrants who had not gotten a job and permanent housing yet.over 200 years later the classism he designed into the structure of the city he built still exists. Even though the area has become part of Windsor, it is still known as Walkerville but the people who live in the nicest area where the mansions are will adamantly deny that the boundaries of Walkerville include anything past certain streets where the nicests houses are. I lived in that area for years in the more run down area but near the Detroit river and someone asked where I lived. I said in Walkerville. they asked which street and I told them Gladstone Avenue and they scowled and "informed me that was NOT part of walkerville, and that the boundary ended the street before me. I chuckled and informed them that I had completed a research project in my undergrad about classism build into walkerville and how it hadn't changed in over 200 years and about the the gentrification of poor areas since the 1990s. then I pulled up a map from the City of Windsor official website that outlined the boundaries of Walkerville which horrified them because not only did it include my crummy area, but also what is left of the geared to income housing projects that weren't torn down to make room for the casino. then they chimed in with the further clarification that the richest area just around Willistead Manor IS it's own walkerville area called Old Walkerville.. but it's all Old Walkerville, that's just the think that they've always believed and didn't like the evidence and official map and historical research I was able to provide that created cognitive dissonance

The same thing happened to the Tenth Street District in Dallas and Stop Six in Ft Worth.

That cruiser is hideous. Like when cops use the Punisher Skull. They obviously don’t know how many of them he wacked…🤦‍♂️

I’m from Chicago and went to HS in our Bronzeville neighborhood which was also the epicenter of Black greatness due to redlining. It’s so interesting to hear about another great Bronzeville in Columbus. Sadly, both have been toyed with and are going through gentrification. This was a very eye-opening video.

The exact same plan was executed in Indy when I-65 was built through the heart of a thriving black community.

Detroit neighborhoods went through the same thing. I learned about the effect on black communities via the elders of friends who are black. Someone wrote a book about this very racial system of decision making that occurred through the US. White flight, which was based on stupid unrealistic fear decimated my neighborhood. East side of Detroit still looks like hurricane Katrina went through it. Thanks for the local history of Columbus, given with a touch of humor. And WTF is up with that police car? I’m white and I’m offended and ashamed by that vehicle . Damn!

same in detroit (and all over US I guess) - thanks for great info and presentation

Damn. I was born in Cbus and never knew any of this. The lack of actual history being taught in schools is awful

Also your architect speaks Japanese.

The US highway system divided and changed so many cities, I typed that before your conclusion. Also, nothing wrong with having a fluffy calico as a best friend.

Thank you, today I learned something I didn't know. This is very important and you are doing good work sir.💯👍

My grandfather lived there and a lot of his friends. I would visit on Friday night and everybody was out on Mt. Vernon. My great aunt and uncle lived where the freeway was coming through. They stayed until the very last minute. It was sad.

The midwest needs more public transpo, so we can convince people to get rid of the highways.

Delilah is beautiful, thanks for teaching me about how roads can be racist.

My parents experienced the same thing in Cincinnati. Both grew up in the West End. A neighborhood where I-75 took both their parents' homes. After they were married, I-71 took their home in Evanston. The displacement and low compensation by imminent domain was a hardship. My parents then moved to Kennedy Heights where I grew up. When I was a toddler, a major league ball player lived in the neighborhood. BTW, the same thing occurred all across the USA.

yeah i only learned about this a couple weeks ago when i did an essay about modern day segregation in schools. thanks for making this video!

If I remember when I was in high school in the late 80s early 90s they use Columbus as a guinea pig for some potato chips that gave everybody the runs.

Only halfway through watching this video, but it reminding me of a few years ago, I was talking to Larenz Tate's brother, who was working on a podcast called Bronzeville, told me to listen to it. I believe Laurence Fishburn and Larenz were starring in it. I never got around to listening to it, but I think I might just make time now.

Yep I grew up on Monroe Avenue in Mount Vernon Plaza from the first grade to the 12th grade and we always called it the Near East Side.

Wish this was taught in our schools!

Being from Indy… I legit thought it was about driving.. all these damn lane changes you have to do in a short stretch, and hopefully not get smacked

There's a community near me that has a police trailer with the slogan, "Chillin' with the community" decaled on the side...

Same for Pittsburgh's Hill District. It was a vibrant cultural economically mixed neighborhood for blacks in Pittsburgh. This area had many entertainment areas which attracted the very best of black jazz groups. I remember, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and others coming every year. Then instead of an interstate, "urban renewal" put a sports Arena (Civic Auditorium) right smack in the middle of the lower Hill District, essentially wiping it out. What followed was poverty (only the poorest could not move out) and crime. They are just now coming out of this manmade disaster. Edit for clarity about poor moving.

In Cleveland, Ohio, they built a freeway system called the "Opportunity Corridor" meant to connect the westside and eastside of the cities and specifically for the employees of the hospital systems, so they can bypass the hood, even though of course they tore up a lot of the hood to build it. Nonsensically, they originally wanted to pave the corridor through the Wade Park area which is the neighborhood directly behind Case Western Reserve University. This area is about 90% Black down from 100% BP and gradually decreasing with every real estate transaction. Back in the day white people lived in the area, but WP fled to the burbs and BP moved into the stately former residences of college faculty, and now WP want back into the neighborhood due to it's close proximity to the University, the hospital systems (3 in the same area) and with gentrification they will force BP out of the area. Anytime I see a large scale highway project, my first thought is how is this going to effect the BP in that area. It's generally if not always a negative for us as BP.

AA veteran here! Been loving in Ohio since I left the military in 2004. I'm from Cali. Everything I learn something new about Ohio.....smdh

Thank you again for your insight, research and humor, not to mention an awesome kitty. Let's stay strong!

Wow, I didn't know there was a Bronzeville outside of Chicago. Larenz Tate and Laurence Fishborne did an amazing Podcast on Bronzeville, IL

I admit to following you to hear an accent like my own, expressing informed progressive views. I grew up mostly in rural Southwestern Ohio, but spent the 1970s in Columbus. I organized a group of musicians and artists to cooperatively rent a home across from Oldfield's at North 4th & Chittenden, that's an empty grass field now. I left Ohio 2006, after finding no family or community support as a Black Trans Woman. I tried to return in 2016, and found it actually worse culturally and legally.

Holy shit, that's the most tone deaf thing I've ever seen. WTF? Columbus government is not sending their best.

There was a promising boxer in the 1930s and 1940s from Columbus (Bronzeville) named Buddy Walker. He was dubbed the "Bronzeville Bomber." He fought locally at Haft's Acre, an outdoor arena on the northeast corner of Goodale and Park, the site now underneath I-670--so much history paved over by the interstates.

Glad to see you back, young man!! Now,..We Gon Be Alright!! And so much to talk about too!

That's not even a real Martin Luther King Jr. quote on that stupid cop cruiser! That's some lazy cop who searched on Google and picked one that's not even right.

That section of 71 is a death trap. If you’re not being passed by a young person going 90, you’re behind someone going 70 while looking at their phone. We used to assume elderly drivers were to most dangerous, but smart phones flipped the script on that. The most dangerous driver now is anyone addicted to their phone.

Untold history.......thanks Jeff

What black community didn't go through redlining though? Ijs.. Chicago & its surrounding area is pretty much the same. The differences between the black community & the white community is appalling... People in these redlined communities were left with bare minimal opportunities.. it's still pretty much the same to this day. Idk about other cities/ states but around Chicago -- if an area is "closed in"/ "sandwiched" in between eways -- then it's most likely a redlined zone. And rest is (small portion) suburbs & then huge farmlands everywhere else. 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 People forget -- southern Illinois still has sundown towns too... 🤦🏻‍♀️

What cat ? They won’t perform for you they got you performing for them. Got a love them. great video. Well done.

🤔 😲 History One is WILD! ✌🏾

they weren't gonna be alright.

Damn this is deep.

Thank you.

....and the making of the TVA water program in Tennessee, Lake Lanier, when you supposed to go to the council meeting?, after the plan was already in effect?, that's amazing....

Great content! 👍

Mad Props for that informative vid... I knew about highways going through black neighborhoods, but not about the one in Columbus, Oh.

Oakland, California was torn apart from the freeway and BART (metro train). BART added an extension to the Oakland airport. The design was to go through residential neighborhoods. The community pointed out the HUGE COMMERCIAL area the went from the closest stop to the airport and forced construction to follow that simple straight line. It took the pressure from several communities and agencies to force that change.

Thank you for this video, for all of the complaining about CRT very few of these stories are known beyond the people whose neighborhood was destroyed. My Grandmother’s predominantly Hispanic neighborhood ended the same way, split by a highway.

The highway segment reminds me of something similar that happened with the Cross Bronx Expressway.

This is SO unfortunate and SO pervasive! Pittsburgh did the same thing to The Hill District! In addition to being a vibrant, diverse place that has been part of the history of Jazz, it's where a lot of Pittsburgh culture, in general, originates!

Really interesting. I am from the UK but now live in France. I am not saying that racism doesn't exist because it does (anywhere you find ignorance you find bigotry), but it is nothing like we see in the US. It has never made sense to me, never. I was always taught that people are people, that's how I live my life and how I taught my children and my grandchildren. Good video, never seen your stuff before.

Please understand that building interstate highways through black neighborhoods was written federal policy and happened all over the U.S. If you lived in the South, you could always expect to have a sewage plant, chemical plant, industrial plant, etc in or near the black areas.

Thanks for another historical perspective that should educate those who are unaware of actual U.S. history. Other than we’re both black, “woke”, and gon be alright; we have something else in common. The end of this video warmed my heart! Your “best friend” is a calico and what appears to be a Persian. So is mine. 🙏🏾🥰

my father was in the Navy during WWII and Hanford Village is where he chose to raise his family and we grew up watching the freeway split our neighborhood apart. I appreciate the convenience the freeway affords me, but I saw what it cost Black families in real time.

That cruiser is certainly an upgrade from the patty wagons. I'll never forget being in the back of one of those to be taken downtown simply because I was at the corner store behind the school during lunch.

❤💙 I like the balloons in your background.

God I hate the highways in Columbus

“I’m requesting an area supervisor and the Black history month cruiser.”

Another excellent video!

❤

👍🏼

Because of Interstate 71 Columbus became the second most segregated city in USA behind Milwaukee.

thank you

Osiyo😊.

I live in Wisconsin we have/had a Bronzeville....SAME THING HAPPENED...SAD

Baltimore Md.,fake highway to nowhere. Displaced black West Baltimore.

I appreciate your take on history and local injustices. Thanks for sharing 👍🏽.... 🙏🏽

Grew up in Dayton. I35 and train tracks were my backyard. Literally. Left in 1990.

I-95 went through majority black neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Fl.

Don’t look at Dayton. Same story: highway came thru & not only razed a chunk of the city by the river, it also split the city in half.

Needful report by high quality reporter...specific evidence where disadvantage is imposed and minority fails.

Hey, Where Have You Been? I Couldn't Remember What, Your New Moniker, Was. I'm Sorry. I Will Always Subscribe. But, For Some Reason, You Just Didn't Come Up. Anyways I'm Grateful to Find You Again cuz I Like people that have a Japanese Gardener Architect. I Just Missed You,Brother. Thank You. Blessings and Truth For All.

Anyone in here from Columbus attend Champion Middle School?

Where have u been bruh

Columbus Ohio only have 260,000 black people.

I grew up in Ohio. My son was born in Columbus. I didn't know this history. Thank you fo making this video.

This happened in EVERY MAJOR AMERICAN CITY

Columbus isn't crap. Actually he's wrong indianapolis is the food test capital.

As a Chicagoan, I would like to thank you for mentioning your Bronzeville's Chicago namesake. (BTW, I may not look it, but I come from an Afro-Latino background.)

Grand Rapids Michigan's US131 HW did the same thing back in the 50s and 60s. We have a section called the "S" curve that cuts though the city like a huge surgery that went horribly wrong. The red lining was obvious.

The video is good but you are just repeating what they said the probably was also the individual who are speaking doing the same. Bronzville is not the only community that was affect the Urban renewal. Every state has multiple community affected by this. Areas were classified as Blight, slums, unsanitary, not running water, drug havens, red light districts. Roxbury, Jamaica Plains in Boston: West Palms Beach Florida: Coney Island, Philadelphia: St. Louis, Missouri: Portland:even in Canada Windsor, Toronto, Nova Scotia: every highway, Canal, dams, man made like, airports, stadium, public housing were once homes or business owned by black People: universities and schools and their parking lots, parks, nature preserve,: this story of coming are great migration blk people where there: loyalist were blk who they said fought with British and given land in north: South Carolina has rich history of successful blk who were not classified as slaves. Researching is tedious but worth it. There are words to let you know dealing with blk history and destruction of community land was incorporated,

Alright Buckeye Brother......run it down for us.

I heard this on an old device that won't let me comment. Came back to say I clicked on it expecting archaeology. You mean Mound Builders had alloy tools? Not all the copper mine tailings in UP were left by Phoenicians taking metal to the Mediterranean? Did I forget to say "trigger alert" for my indigenous neighbors? I heard this out because I'm also interested in this subject, and feel more folks need to know this. I wasn't in KC (or on earth) when Interstates were built, and I - 435 loop doesn't look so dastardly, but through - town US - 71's expansion to (mostly) freeway does exactly this to East Kansas City. I've been hearing of this on channels promoting bikable and otherwise sustainable cities. Also recommend the deep dive into red lining in Minneapolis from whichever Minnesota university did the study. There! This took the full 12 minutes. Have another thumb's up.

As a Cleveland born 90s kid, it was always the construction going through to Cincy for me, it's always tore up.

Freeway took my Grandparents home located downtown in the 1980's. Did not have to happen. Now that neighborhood is completely rearranged.

I spent about a dozen years in Ohio and have a friend that grew up in Wexley(New Albany). Moving to Denver was the best move of my life. Denver also had interstate highway destruction of communities. Great video! (I’m an old white man who battled with my racist father.)

no, my first thought was I thought black guy broke into a white family’s house while they’re away in Florida on vacation. Just kidding. Love your content.❤

I used to watch you on another channel and I don't see you anymore, and I miss you always loved your commentary. I am from WV and a lot of Hillbillies moved to Columbus and Cleveland. Glad I found you again. Delilah is beautiful, and I guess its true, not all black people can sing!!!!

@2:49 I love that picture of Mount Vernon. The boy and girl walking below the Bowling sign are my dad and aunt!

You know or have heard of other logo's slash euphemisms that identified areas of Black prosperity which were eliminated, i.e., torn down, gutted, demolished, destroyed, etc. and replaced with an, "essential" urban freeway expansion. All proposed, subsidized and built in the early to mid 1950s. Here in Detroit the strikingly similar area of Black prosperity was referred to as, Black Bottom. Amazing was the speed at which the expressway got built affirming the city founders claim of it's necessity. After living my whole life here, except for maybe facilitating traffic getting to the new ballpark, that expressway has been basically abandoned all these years. Also there's been a recent ballot initiative to replace it with a greenspace after decades of minimal use.

The same thing happened in Buffalo NY when the 33 divided the community.

When they built the freeway through the neighborhood, they dug a trench 20 feet deep, 6 lanes of traffic and sloped embankments back to grade. I've seen the city maps of all the blocks and blocks of residences that were demolished to do this. It was hideous. But they bypassed Bexley a half mile east. . ! Good job!

Tuskegee airman was located to lockbourne air base after war world 2 and most move to Eastgate Neighborhood off Nelson Rd.

If those folks that you speak of made a few thousand dollars on their house back in the 70's, that wasn't all that bad. Homes were a lot less expensive in those days. The real crime was busing. All of those great city league teams and rivalries were gutted-no consistency. East High School basketball used to rule the roost, them and Linden, with the occasional South, Walnut Ridge, or some other City League team.

I lived in Pittsburgh as a youth and had relatives in the Columbus area. I hated when we were forced to interact. Nasty hyper crazy town conservatives. They even made my uncles uncomfortable and they were all COPS! Day yum!

This is pretty standard protocol for black neighborhoods around the country. These highways were built through black neighborhoods in case we ever got "out of hand". That way the army could roll directly into our "hoods". There's a video on it on YT...wanna say from the channel Vox. Might be wrong.

Parsons... Feel bad for the poor people living in the tents along the river. It's sad to see. TY so much for your content Jeff. Thanks for the home town love

I grew up in Hanford Village and that freeway did Severe damage 🤬😡😠 to our neighborhood!!!

00:28 _"Come here to learn how to speak more gooder, stay for the restaurants"_ Case in point, I say Rest-raunt with only two clear syllables and the middle almost implied rather than voiced in the same way that "You can't do that" might turn into "You can'(t) do that" with the stop replacing the T sound and producing a very similar effect.