Suburban Segregation In The South
Suburban communities began at the turn of the century as affluent families sought refuge from “densely packed neighborhoods of the industrial cities (Judd and Swanstrom 2015, 136). “The great migration” of southern Blacks, and poverty stricken Appalachian White families flooded the industrial cities of the north. At the same time Mexican immigrant also filtered into the Southwest in large number, fueling an anti-immigrant backlash.
The early days of suburban development can be credited to the street car. It increased the distance that people were able to commute prior to the availability of the automobile. The 1890s ushered in the electric trolley, which increased the amount of land available for residential use by an incredible 900 percent …show more content…
Black flight from the segregated South created slums and crime in the segregated urban areas of large cities. Upwardly mobile Blacks attempting to integrate White areas of urban cities became the impetus for “White flight” to the suburbs. Yet racism and crime wasn’t the only reason for looking to the suburbs. Middle-class prosperity created desires for a higher standard of living, attributes of larger homes better schools and open spaces could all be found in the suburbs.
Katz and Bradley attribute the rapid population growth of Denver’s suburbs to White flight due to the large percentage of African Americans and Hispanics and the Denver School Boards policy of deliberately concentrating Black students in a few schools. This prompted “the courts insisted on desegregation, and the school board implemented an unpopular plan to bus students to achieve a different racial mix in schools” (Katz and Bradley 2013). Denver countered this by annexing adjacent unincorporated areas, bringing suburbia under its …show more content…
This policy became abused and “over the years almost all of the government’s resources were devoted to promoting suburban housing development” (Judd and Swanstrom 2015, 186). Policies of the FHA and the VA also influenced the expansion of the suburbs. Judd and Swanstrom wrote that “virtually all new homes bought with FHA/VA loans were built in the suburbs. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the FHA displayed an overwhelming bias in favor of the suburbs” (Judd and Swanstrom 2015,
The early days of suburban development can be credited to the street car. It increased the distance that people were able to commute prior to the availability of the automobile. The 1890s ushered in the electric trolley, which increased the amount of land available for residential use by an incredible 900 percent …show more content…
Black flight from the segregated South created slums and crime in the segregated urban areas of large cities. Upwardly mobile Blacks attempting to integrate White areas of urban cities became the impetus for “White flight” to the suburbs. Yet racism and crime wasn’t the only reason for looking to the suburbs. Middle-class prosperity created desires for a higher standard of living, attributes of larger homes better schools and open spaces could all be found in the suburbs.
Katz and Bradley attribute the rapid population growth of Denver’s suburbs to White flight due to the large percentage of African Americans and Hispanics and the Denver School Boards policy of deliberately concentrating Black students in a few schools. This prompted “the courts insisted on desegregation, and the school board implemented an unpopular plan to bus students to achieve a different racial mix in schools” (Katz and Bradley 2013). Denver countered this by annexing adjacent unincorporated areas, bringing suburbia under its …show more content…
This policy became abused and “over the years almost all of the government’s resources were devoted to promoting suburban housing development” (Judd and Swanstrom 2015, 186). Policies of the FHA and the VA also influenced the expansion of the suburbs. Judd and Swanstrom wrote that “virtually all new homes bought with FHA/VA loans were built in the suburbs. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the FHA displayed an overwhelming bias in favor of the suburbs” (Judd and Swanstrom 2015,