Massey & Denton Mapping
How did suburbanization maintain the color line?
Suburbanization gave whites an alternative to the defense of threatened inner city neighborhoods. The combination of rapid white suburbanization and black in-migration greatly expanded the size of the ghetto.
How were immigrant enclaves different from Black ghettos?
A. Immigrant enclaves were never homogeneous and always contained a wide variety of nationalities, even if they were associated with a particular group. In no immigrant "ghetto" did the group make up even a bare majority, as opposed to black ghettos where they would make up over 80% of the population. B. The majority of European ethnics did not live in the so-called immigrant "ghettos". Irish ghetto only contained 3% of Chicago's Irish population, Italian ghetto only 50% of Chicago Italians, with only Polish ghettos containing a majority of their only ghetto at 61%. Black ghettos contained 93% of the city's black population. This meant that European ethnic groups were not particularly isolated from American society, and likely had cordial, frequent, and intimate relationships with native white Americans. C. Ghettos became a permanent fixture of black residential life, whereas ethnic enclaves tended to be a temporary stage in the process of assimilation. Succeeding generations of immigrants experienced less and less segregation, and as they accrued wealth they were experienced less isolation. Enclaves served as springboard for assimilation into American life, whereas blacks were trapped within the ghetto.
What were neighborhood improvement associations and the restrictive covenants they implemented?
After the 1920s, middle-class whites worried that violence was destabilizing to property values in a neighborhood. Improvement associations were the white middle-class institutional solution to continue construction and containing the ghetto without direct violence. They lobbied city councils for zoning restrictions, closing of traditionally black rooming houses, boycotted black-friendly real estate agents. Restrictive covenants were one of the most effective ways that these associations kept blacks out of the neighborhoods. Often established by real estate boards, they were contractual agreement by property owners in neighborhoods that collectively excluded blacks from owning or renting their property. After 1910, restrictive covenants spread nationwide and were frequently employed, until they were declared unenforceable in 1948.
Discuss local real estate boards & blockbusting
As black migration into confined ghettos increased, the increased demand for housing inflated home and rent prices. This created an opportunity for massive profit for white real estate agents to expand the ghetto, which they did slowly and deliberately through a process called Blockbusting. Blockbusting agents would slowly expand the walls of the ghetto, literally one block at a time, making sure to fill one block entirely before moving on to the next. Blocks were selected that contained poor families and older housing, and a few homes would be purchased and then filled with carefully chosen black families, often the poorest southern families. The agents would go door-to-door, stoking racial fear and buying whites' property, and then subdivide homes into multiple units which they would rent to blacks at high rates. The initial occupants of these neighborhoods were often middle- and upper-class families trying to attain a better life. Because banks wouldn't loan to them, the realtors took advantage of this and charged significantly higher interest rates, and demanded much higher down payments often in cash.
Draw on key data that illustrates the overall pattern
Blacks before 1900 rarely made up over 30% of the residents of the immediate area, and the clusters were scattered. From 1860-1910, dissimilarity sores went up 10-15 points, and stayed in the moderate range. From 1910-1940, they moved to the upper high range, approaching full segregation.
Explain the FHA and HOLC
Both the Federal Housing Administration and the Home Owners' Loan Corporation were part of a series of programs created in the 1930s to create construction jobs and make home ownership widely available. HOLC, the first one of these programs, handed out an unprecedented amount of loans for people who wanted to buy homes or were in danger of losing theirs. The HOLC created 4 categories of neighborhood quality, and would only issue loans to the top two categories. Segregated black neighborhoods were well established by this period, and would always get the lowest rating, therefore becoming "redlined". The HOLC initiated this practice of redlining, which would serve as a model for countless future plans and institutions. The Federal Housing Administration was created as part of the National Housing Act in 1937. The FHA was a loan program that completely reshaped postwar residential housing market, and was largely responsible for the rapid suburbanization after 45. The FHA backed loans made by private banks, and changed a typical downpayment for a house from 50% to 10%. It quickly became cheaper to buy a home in the suburbs than to rent in the inner city, so this accelerated the process of the deterioration of the inner city. The FHA recommended the use of restrictive covenants until 1950, and used the same maps as the HOLC to determine what neighborhood would receive loans.
Discuss the public opinion data presented regarding racial segregation in this period
In 1942, 84% of whites agreed that there should be separate residential neighborhoods for whites/blacks. In 1962, 61% of whites said they have a right to keep blacks out of neighborhoods, and in 1970 it was still 47%. In other words, there was widespread support during this period for racial segregation and exclusion. Whites resisted black entry into their neighborhoods, and if they failed, whites would avoid and move from the neighborhood.
Note what this meant for social contact between different groups
Low levels of segregation meant that blacks and whites had substantial social contact, and in the upper classes blacks and whites had contact that was frequent cordial, and often times intimate. Even the lower classes had frequent contact, on the streets as their neighbors or at work, even though they would not have the same degree of cordiality. Blacks tended to support integration, and didn't want separate black community institutions.
How did the Great Depression impact segregation and social isolation?
New residential construction was completely stopped starting in the Great Depression, and as record numbers of migrants continued to pour into northern ghettos, blacks first took the place of the remaining whites as they were leaving the ghettos, and then began subdividing apartments. Black isolation therefore increased, as the ghetto density rose.
Explain the state of Black-white segregation in US cities before 1900
Prior to 1900, blacks were not very segregated from whites. They lived in worse housing, and poorer neighborhoods, but this was a result more of their economic standing than of racial segregation. Blacks were excluded from all but the lowest-skill and low paying employment, which accounted for their economic status, but blacks who overcame these obstacles and achieved financial success were able to live in wealthier neighborhoods and better houses. Blacks were more likely to have white neighbors than black.
What role did realtors play in sustaining these attitudes?
Restrictive covenants continued until 1948. After this period, the overwhelming majority of real estate agents continued to refuse to sell or rent to blacks throughout the 50s and 60s, and most of the agents who would, would only do so if the neighborhood was already black majority. Real estate agents and agent boards were more likely to hold exclusionary beliefs and as they were in the position to do, institutionalized this kind of discrimination.
What spurred the increase in segregation after 1900?
Two developments occurred which facilitated a decrease interracial contact and increased segregation- industrialization of America, which moved blacks en masse from farms to cities. This happened at a more rapid pace in the north. As more people worked in large plants with thousands of workers, a new white managerial class emerged, along with developments that allowed for workers to be clustered in skyscrapers and the affluent white class to expand into new suburban residential districts through railway.
What was the most important tool in building the ghetto?
Violence was the most important tool in building the ghetto. Violence came in two stages and had different aims. The first, from about 1900-1920, was in pushing blacks out of white neighborhoods, with the race riots and acts of violence against blacks in integrated neighborhoods. The second, post riots after 1920, was to police the border of the ghetto once it materialized. Angry mobs would surround the houses of blacks that dared to cross the color lines, threatening and acting upon violence. When this didn't work, there were regular waves of bombings to contain blacks within the confines of the ghetto.
What incited racial violence in the 1900-1920 period?
While blacks had been gradually moving to northern cities concurrent to industrialization, during WWI there was a mass migration in response to increased demand for industrial production and the sudden cut off of European immigrants. This migration continued at an increased rate into the 1920s, and whites responded negatively. Middle class whites were appalled by the manners and poverty of the black migrants, only a generation or so removed from slavery. Working class whites felt threatened by the new competitors for jobs. White racial views hardened following the black mass migration, and there were a series of race riots in northern cities. Blacks living in white neighborhoods had their houses burned, and if caught trespassing in white neighborhoods could be beaten or shot. Previously integrated members of the black middle class became unable to find housing that was on par with their social status. This began the type of segregation and increased levels of racial isolation that laid the foundation for the ghetto.