 They call it progress. But for the 1,600 African American communities that were bulldozed, the urban renewal projects that swept America starting in 1949 were nothing short of assault. Newark, New Jersey fell under this wrecking ball.  Urban Renewal is People Removal  brings uprooted residents together to weave a people s history of Newark starting in the forties and continuing up until today. Urban renewal is not a thing of the past. Many large housing projects, whose construction displaced thousands, are now being torn down under the same banners that brought them into being less than 50 years ago.