CityMetric Article Details How New York City Destroyed a Village Full of African-American Landowners to Create Central Park

From CityMetric:

By the time the decision to create a park was made, there wasn’t enough empty space left in Manhattan. So the city chose a stretch of land where the largest settlement was Seneca Village, population 264, and seized the land under the law of eminent domain, through which the government can take private land for public purposes. Residents protested to the courts many times, against both the order and the level of compensation being offered for their land; eventually, though, all were forced to leave.

Check out the fascinating full article for more history on the eviction, and how artifacts from a recent excavation led to more knowledge about the people residing in that area before the park.