"Throughout the 20th century the City of Halifax never extended water or sanitation services to the residents of Africville, even though it collected taxes from property owners there. The City dumped it’s garbage in Africville, poisoning the community with mounds of toxic waste. Hospitals dumped medical waste in Africville. The City even ran a sewer pipe from hospitals into the Africville water supply, silently serving the people a toxic cocktail" [2].

During the "urban renewal" trend of the 1960s that razed similarly racialized neighbourhoods across Canada, Halifax condemned the area, relocating its residents. The area was taken over for industrial development [1]. Between 1962 and 1970, city officials took the land and demolished Africville residents' homes, businesses, and a church in a process city documents called "slum clearance." [3].

Evictions and relocations were resisted, but the resistance became more difficult as residents were forced to take buyouts and their homes were demolished [1]. After relocation to public housing within the city limits, the residents had new problems including increased cost of living, unemployment, debt, anxiety and loss of connection to home. None of the employment or education programs that the city had promised were implemented [1].

The town site of Africville has been continually occupied from 1970 to the present through a one man protest on the grounds.  Eddie Carvery has been living on the Africville site since 1970 in protest of the razing [1]. Carvey had "refused to leave Africville after the City of Halifax destroyed his family home. Since 1970 he has maintained a presence in Africville, signaling his dissent and educating visitors from all over the world about the Africville diaspora. Mr. Carvery’s protest is the longest civil rights protest in Canadian history". Eddie’s protest has kept Africville visible in the 21st century [2].

Africville is now a commemorative site with a museum. The community has become an important symbol of Black Canadian identity and of ongoing environmental racism in Nova Scotia and across Canada [1].

Timeline:

Early 1880s: Africville is founded [1]

1854: A railway extension was cut through the village. Several homes were expropriated and destroyed. Speeding trains posed a danger and polluted the village [4].

1958: The city introduced a waste-treatment facility near Africville [1].

1917: The Halifax Explosion shelved plans to turn Africville into an industrial zone. The disaster levelled much of the north end and damaged Africville [4].

1930s: Residents petitioned the city to provide running water, sewage disposal, paved roads, garbage removal, electricity, street lights, police services and a cemetery, but were largely denied [4].

1940s &50s: During these decades, "in different parts of Canada, the federal, provincial and municipal governments were working together for urban renewal: to redevelop areas classified as slums and relocate the people.The intent was to redevelop some land for "higher" uses with greater economic return: business and industry" [1]

1947: Plans to turn Africville into industrial land were revived and approved by Halifax City Council and the area was rezoned for that purpose [4].

1950s: Halifax built an open-pit dump in Africville.

Late 1960s: Halifax condemned the area, relocating its residents in order to develop the nearby A. Murray MacKay Bridge, related highway construction, and the Port of Halifax facilities at Fairview Cove to the west [1].

1962: Halifax adopted the Africville relocation proposal unanimously [1]. At a public meeting in Africville in 1962, 100 Africvillians voted strongly against relocation, preferring to improve the existing community [4].

The city approved plans for an expressway to downtown Halifax that would run over Africville, but it was never built [4].

1964-67: The formal relocation took place. "The residents were assisted in their move by Halifax transporting them and their goods using the city's dump trucks. This image forever stuck in the minds and hearts of people; they took it to represent the degrading way they were treated before, during, and after the move"[1]. The city quickly demolished each house as soon as residents moved out. Occasionally the city would demolish a house whenever an opportunity presented itself – such as when a resident was in the hospital" [1]. The first land was expropriated in 1964, and homes were bulldozed lot by lot over the next five years [4].

November 1967: The church at Africville was demolished at night to avoid controversy, on 20 November 1967, a year before the city officially possessed the building [1].

1969: The final property was expropriated and demolished, and the last of Africville’s 400 residents left [4]. Residents formed the Africville Action Committee in order to seek redress and to keep the community alive [4].

1970: One resident, Eddie Carvery, returned to the site of Africville and pitched a tent in protest. He remains in Africville [4].

1980s &90s: Former Africville residents carried out periodic protests at the park throughout the 1980s and 1990s.[

Eddie Carvery has been living on the Africville site since 1970 in protest of the razing [1]. Carvey had "refused to leave Africville after the City of Halifax destroyed his family home. Since 1970 he has maintained a presence in Africville, signaling his dissent and educating visitors from all over the world about the Africville diaspora. Mr. Carvery’s protest is the longest civil rights protest in Canadian history". Eddie’s protest has kept Africville visible in the 21st century [2].

1996: The site was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. The citation called it “a site of pilgrimage for people honouring the struggle against racism [4].

2004: The United Nations sent a representative  to Canada to report on race relations.  The report stated that “After 150 years of collusion between the provincial government and the business community, including through abuse of power, neglect, encroachment and invasion of hazardous industrial materials, in 1970 all of the community [of Africville] was forcefully removed without proper compensation" [2].

2005:  New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia  introduced a bill calling for a formal apology from the Nova Scotia government, a series of public hearings on the destruction of Africville, and the establishment of a development fund to go towards historical preservation of Africville lands and social development in benefit of former residents and their descendants [1].

February 2010: The Halifax Council ratified a proposed "Africville apology".  Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly made the Africville Apology, apologizing for the eviction as part of a $4.5 million compensation deal. The City restored the name Africville to Seaview Park [1].

2010: Former residents "slammed the city with a lawsuit, the two sides reached a settlement. But individual compensation was not included in the settlement. People who grew up in Africville are split on whether the 2010 settlement was adequate, or whether individual compensation is necessary" [3].