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Expropriation and renewal undermined the thick web of community institutions that served Montreal’s black community. One by one, the area’s English elementary schools closed their doors. The most devastating blow was the closure of Royal Arthur in 1981. The Negro Community Centre struggled on, until it too closed in 1989. According to Gordon Butt, a community-organizer interviewed by Dorothy Williams: “You have to see it to understand, the kind of destruction that took place in this community. And where did all those people go?… They took away the gut of the community. Everything was stripped. This community was stripped raw.”

Nancy Oliver Mackenzie drew a parallel with what happened in her home province: “it’s kind of like Africville, Nova Scotia. Africville was a black area down by the water. The city just came one day and bulldozed and people were all relocated to social housing on the Halifax side. People lost their church, their community. It was a bit like that when the highway came through. They took down a lot of places.” The urban renewal of Little Burgundy demolished not only buildings, but neighbourhood connections. This, too, needs to be remembered.

For the full program of commemorative events at Concordia through Feb.16 , see: protestsandpedagogy.ca/

Steven High is a professor in Concordia University’s Department of History and is a co-founder of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.