Interstate Highways

Whites continued to move out of the city but did not supplement the city’s loss by patronizing downtown retailers. Between 1950 and 1960, Cleveland lost over twenty percent of the white population and saw its black population increase by over fifty percent.[1] At the same time, Parma’s white population grew by over 180%. Parma’s black population grew from thirty to 132, but still only comprised about 0.001 percent of Parma’s total population.[2] As whites moved west of the Cuyahoga River, blacks tended to remain east of the Cuyahoga; a natural boundary reinforced by the construction of concrete boundaries I-90 and I-77.