An exposed stretch of the wall with no homes to the east runs through Alfonso Wells Memorial Playground, between Chippewa Avenue and Norfolk Street.

Paintings have depicted, for example, neighborhood children blowing bubbles, a group of a cappella singers, Rosa Parks's boarding the bus signifying her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement, and citizens protesting for equitable housing policy.

[2] The World War I industrial economy of Detroit afforded opportunities for women and black men to become more active participants in the labor force of the city.

A large percentage of white men were drafted to fight in the war, leaving many of their jobs vacant and needing to be filled.

This allowed black citizens to fill empty job positions, causing a large demographic shift in the makeup of the Detroit workforce.

In light of more job opportunities, the city experienced an increase in the population of black people seeking economic and social mobility.

This trend was known nationwide as the Great Migration, as more than six million black people moved from the southern to the northern areas of the United States.

[3] But as white men were returning from war and more black citizens entered the city, competition for scarce housing increased tensions between the two groups.

Yet according to Thomas J. Sugrue, a Detroit scholar and historian, black residents did not benefit from the New Deal era of legislation because "local governments had the final say over the expenditure over the federal funds, the location of projects, and the type constructed.

Local policies allowed for the prevention of black "infiltration" into white neighborhoods due in part to the HOLC members serving as federal appraisers.

In the case of the Detroit Wall, most of the kids on the west side attended MacDowell Elementary School, which was majority white.

Sugrue reports, "the developer worked out a compromise with the FHA, garnering loans and mortgage guarantees in exchange for the construction of a foot-thick, six-foot-high wall, running for a half-mile on the property line separating the black and white neighborhoods.

By the following year, houses on the west side of the wall, inside the Blackstone Park subdivision, appeared on the market, intended for black buyers.

[8] In 2021, the wall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil Rights Movement and the African American Experience in 20th Century Detroit Multiple Property Submission.