For 70+ years segregation in our cities was sought and designed. How are we working to undo that design? [blockquote type=”center”]”During the Depression the federal government…set up at least seven towns…that explicitly kept out African Americans. At the same time, and for three more decades, the Federal Housing Administration – a government agency –…
Posts Tagged
Sundown Towns
An Integrated Life – Restrictive Covenants and Governments
[blockquote type=”left”]”After 1917, most sundown suburbs resorted to restrictive covenants…[they] first targeted Chinese Americans in the West, originating in California in the 1890s, and then spread to the East, where Jews and blacks were targeted for exclusion.” (257)[/blockquote] [blockquote type=”center”]”Across the United States, exclusionary covenants were the rule rather than the exception.” (258)[/blockquote] Where have…
An Integrated Life – Social Exclusion
[blockquote type=”center”]”By the end of World War II, the housing pressure in African American neighborhoods in inner cities was enormous, greater even than the pent-up postwar demand among white families. A 1943 memo of the Illinois Interracial Commission pointed out that 80% of the black population of Chicago was packed into less than 5 square…
An Integrated Life – Gravitating Towards the Comfortable
[blockquote type=”center”]”Asking ‘Why?’ with quiet astonishment when acquaintances announce that they are thinking of moving to a town or suburb known to be overwhelmingly white invites people to explain their decision – suddenly no longer obvious – to live in such places and may make them think. So do questions such as ‘But don’t you…
An Integrated Life – What Makes You Stay Silent?
[blockquote type=”center”]”On July 4, 1910, for example, black heavyweight Jack Johnson defeated Jim Jeffries, the ‘Great White Hope,’ in Reno, Nevada. African Americans rejoiced in the victory of one of their own, until they came up against the response of white Americans to Jeffrie’s defeat. Whites attacked African Americans in at least 30 American cities….
An Integrated Life – What Are You Known For Supporting?
[blockquote type=”left”]”Many white liberals in sundown towns and suburbs worry about social ostracism, so their anti-racism never gets voiced beyond the confines of home….Many residents of sundown towns expressed displeasure with their town’s anti-black policies when they talked with me. Their disapproval seemed sincere, but they never mentioned voicing such sentiments to their fellow…
An Integrated Life – All Whites Are Responsible
[blockquote type=”left”]”When one member of the black community was lynched, all African Americans took that as a threat to their continued well-being. Often they were right…..A lynching by definition is a public murder. Those who carry it out do not bother to act in private, since they believe the community will support them. Thus…
An Integrated Life – What Are We Taught Is Normal?
[blockquote type=”center”]In Harrison, Arkansas, in 1905, white “rioters swept through Harrison‘s black neighborhood with terrible intent. The mob of 20 or 30 men, armed with guns and clubs, reportedly tied men to trees and whipped them, tied men and women together and threw them in a 4-foot hole in Crooked Creek, burned several homes, and…
An Integrated Life – Our Racist Foundations
I’m starting a new series for a month or so based on the book Sundown Towns, and how we can use it to inspect the whiteness of our lives. It will feature several short posts, and hopefully it will give you a good feel for the book, especially for the people who don’t have time to…
An Integrated Life – A Series
I’m starting a new series for a month or so based on the book Sundown Towns, and how we can use it to inspect the whiteness of our lives. It will feature several short posts, and hopefully it will give you a good feel for the book, especially for the people who don’t have time to…