Africville was a Black community on the north shore of Halifax harbour founded in the nineteenth century by descendants of Black Loyalists and Black Refugees. Its residents paid municipal taxes but were never provided with water, sewers or paved roads, while the city placed a prison, an infectious-diseases hospital, a slaughterhouse and finally the municipal dump nearby; the area was then designated a slum. Between 1964 and 1967 the city expropriated the land for industrial and port development and for approaches to a new harbour bridge, moving residents and their possessions in municipal garbage trucks, an image that survivors have said summed up the manner of the removal. Households without registered title were offered 500 dollars, a furniture allowance and public housing; the last house was demolished on 2 January 1970 and the church was bulldozed at night. Halifax Regional Council formally apologised on 24 February 2010 and agreed a package including 4.5 million dollars and land for a replica church and heritage trust. Former residents and their descendants have continued to seek individual compensation and the return of land.
The City of Halifax expropriated and demolished a long-established Black community on the shore of Bedford Basin and relocated its residents
Africville held about 400 people in roughly 80 families when Halifax City Council approved relocation in 1964; all were removed and the settlement demolished by 1970. The figure comes from the city's own relocation records and later commemorative and apology documentation.
There was no death toll. The harm was dispossession, the destruction of homes, a church and a community, and the long-term social consequences for those relocated.
The expropriation and demolition of homes and of Seaview United Baptist Church is documented in the City of Halifax's relocation records and acknowledged in the city's 2010 apology.
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