Read these indepth articles about In the Name of Progress Newfoundland's Lost Outports Thousands are moved from tiny fishing villages and a way of life ends Victims of the Times Halifax's oldest black neighbourhood is demolished and a beloved community destroyed East Coast Exodus Young people must choose between unemployment and exile as tough times hit the Atlantic provinces

During the 1960s and 1970s, progress became a religion in Canada that lay waste to traditional ways.

Around the country, people were pushed aside in the name of progress. In Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, whole neighbourhoods, mostly working class, were razed and tight-knit communities destroyed to satisfy government's appetite for development and renewal.

The derelict area was called Africville, located in the northern end of the Halifax peninsula. Africville was the ramshackle home to some of the descendants of the American slaves who had fled to Canada more than 150 years earlier.

In 1964, the city decided that Africville must be razed and the 70 families moved to housing elsewhere in the city. At the time, Halifax was intent on developing the area as part of some ambitious post-war renewal projects.

Between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s, the Newfoundland government led by Premier Joey Smallwood closed 250 coastal villages. Thirty thousand people were uprooted and relocated to larger villages and towns.

Smallwood argued that resettlement in larger communities would reduce government expenditures on education, health care and social service. Smallwood also wanted to wean Newfoundlanders from the cyclical and risky business of fishing, to retrain them for other work.

Young people were forced to choose between unemployment and exile as their homeland failed to enjoy the prosperity of the era. Between 1956 and 1973 almost one million people left the Atlantic provinces.