Place is a geographic location. Over time humans have migrated, claimed, named, and inhabited to form what we know as societies. Different influences including but not limited to, nature, trade, politics, race, and even war have shaped the places in which we live. For the purposes of this thesis, I’ll be correlating some definitions and periods of significance to the evolution urban centers and metropolitan areas with emphasis on the areas connected to me person story (Detroit, Mi and Atlanta, Ga). By deliberate design, the built urban environment in America has a long history of policy and race. More interestingly, research suggests that the evolution of cities had much to do with socio-economic pressures that have bloomed from the thoughts and ideas since the creation of our nation.
Along came the Colonizer
Colonialism is derived from the Latin word “colon,” which refers to “farmer, tiller, or planter.” Colonialism is best described as the practice of settlement in a newly conquered country forming a community subject to or connected with their parent land. Policy is also formed under the parent lands and exploited economically. Usually acquired by hostility, friction between new settlers and native dwellers was inevitable. This practice became central in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The term "colonies" was implemented to refer to the territory of new communities for themselves and their descendants while remaining dependent on the mother country for political and economic means and control.
Similarly, all the ideas of creating geographical space after the origination of colonialism, colonization disregarded agency of the indigenous people and their practices to the areas in which they seek to colonize. Colonists usually saw them as “underdeveloped” or “uncivilized” in need of political and economic rule. This process began for North America with Spanish colonizers in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida and then the British in 1587 in Virginia.
War was often the process of determination to divide territories amongst the colonial rulers. The map in figure ___ shows the distribution of land to the original 13 colonies in North America known as the United Colonies. Figure ___ shows a map of the United States post the Revolutionary War in 1783.
Colonialism did very little to influence the current urban physical landscape. Although, it’s important to understand the motives and implications colonization had on individual’s, specifically ones in power, perception, and attitude. Colonialism mimics loosely the temperament and attitude of “gentrifiers” as it pertains to claiming new space in the name of displacement for others, cultural shift in neighborhoods, and exclusionary policy reform.
Since the creation of the of these United States government officials and housing agencies have perpetuated the racial stigmas produced by colonization and interlaced it into the laws that invented de facto segregated[1] communities and neighborhoods. If you investigate the history of any metropolitan area, you will find proof of how federal, state, and local governments unconstitutionally used housing policy to reinforce the segregation of our cities in ways that still survive today.
How race shaped our cities
Our American society has continued to utilize the philosophy of racism pass down through the years of slavery to shape the way we conduct business, educate our people, and even down to where we live. Our government has always desired a free nation with all the frills and joys of life for citizens to enjoy. Although historically, people of color have not often been a part of that vision. Heather McGhee, a lifelong scholar and creative activist that designs and promotes solutions to inequality, explains this further in her book, “The Sum of Us”:
“A functioning society rests on a web of mutuality, a willingness among all involved to share enough with one another to accomplish what no one person can do alone. In a sense, that’s what government is. I can’t create my own electric grid, school system, internet, or healthcare system – and the most efficient way to ensure that those things are created and available to all on a fair and open basis is to fund and provide them publicly…
For most of the twentieth century, leaders of both parties agreed on the wisdom of those investments... Yet almost every clause of the American social contract had and asterisk. For most of our history, the beneficiaries of America’s free public investments were whites only.”
At the conclusion of the Civil war there were serval attempts to “even the playing field” in terms of opportunity to all. However, contracts signed into law, even the very one[2] that was supposed to grant freedom to the enslaved in 1863, was more concentrated on the economic strife for the poor white farmer and less the of the inhuman conditions in which slaves had to endure.
During the Reconstruction period, newly liberated African Americans had to make difficult life decisions as options were few and daunting. Like my ancestors on my mother’s side of the family, some African Americans stayed on plantations converting to sharecroppers to remain safe from the campaign of violence that spread across southern states. However, sharecropping was vaguely different from the conditions of slavery. Others migrated as far as they could, found work, land and began to build a life of their own for their families, like my great, great grandfather on my father’s side of the family. We still have a family farm in Virginia where the Edmonds family reunion commences every other year.[3] Though as you can imagine, the road to economic freedom outside of the plantation for African Americans was not an easy experience.
In 1917, the case, Buchanan v. Warley, involved an African American family’s attempt to purchase property in a predominantly white neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. The Supreme Court overturned the racial zoning ordinances that existed as a result of the racial, social, and economic controls of post slavery Black Codes. These laws were later codified most notably as Jim Crow laws with the “separate but equal” decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
Our nation’s city planners that govern neighboring states ignored the Buchanan decision. Robert Whitten, one of those respected city planners, wrote in the Atlanta City Planning Commission in 1922, “racial zoning is essential in the interest of (the) public peace, order, and security and will promote the welfare and prosperity of both the white and colored race.” Atlanta would continue to use racial zoning maps to guide it’s planning for decades.
This widespread attitude inevitably divided our communities and constantly perpetuated a negative stigma towards people of color. So much so, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s our housing authorities in collaboration with banks and insurance companies comprised maps to indicate positive home values with green and risky home investments in red. These “red lines” were drawn around almost every Black neighborhood in our country with a never clearly substantiated assumption that African Americans were bad credit risk. To this day, you will see the evidence that city planners for the expansion of the Interstate Highway System throughout the 1950’s designated minority areas as undesirable. These neighborhoods were either destroyed to make way for the highways or located them in ways that further separated the communities from economically thriving areas.
Throughout the years these policies and “red lines” have broadened the wealth gap between races and classes in America. These clauses also created the “blight” investors and developers today see as opportunity without considering the responsibility our country has had in its origination. Moreover, these maps have given faceless people a name. By knowing the neighborhood, you came from you could be judged and excluded even before you got a chance to introduce yourself. I understood this all to well even years after redlining was implemented.
From my childhood home at 327 Lakewood, my sister and I would ride our bikes down the side street Korte to enjoy the thrills over riding over a bridge that divided Detroit from Gross Pointe. Gross Pointe is a neighboring suburb of Detroit and I was reminded of the difference between the two every time we crossed over that bridge. Figure __ shows the barrier that met us when we crossed over Alter rd. Figure shows the map of the divide. I took those rides almost every break of spring since 2002. The aftermath of segregated neighborhoods in the 1930’s continued to that time. I haven’t taken the ride since I understood that I wasn’t wanted in the neighborhood. I did a google map search to see if the road was still blocked. According to Google Map Street view as of ___, I’m grateful to report the gate that existed when I was a child is gone. Now you are met with shrubbery but still no access to cross over into Gross Pointe from Korte st.
Some of Dr. Martin Luther Kings last speeches addressed this very divide and the economic harm of racism. He gave a speech on March 14th, 1968 in Gross Pointe, MI, (the suburb I was turned away from 5 blocks away from my home) Dr. King gave a speech titled The Other America. He described one America as one of delight and the other of despair to illustrate the stark contrast of living conditions between white neighborhoods and BIPOC communities. He went on to encourage a correction in housing policies in our nation at the time:
“I can see no more dangerous trend in our country, than the constant developing of predominantly Negro-central cities, ringed by white suburbs. This is only inviting social disaster. And the only way this problem will be solved is by the nation taking a strong stand and by state governments taking a strong stand against housing segregation and against discrimination in all of these areas.”
Racism at its core is notion that one race is superior to another, making one innately inferior to the other. The danger in that thought process has manifested in way across our nation, the world even, that has been unfathomable. Gentrification is the distant repercussion to the bubbling up of all that racism has caused. Racism has left us with divided communities, schools, resources etc. Heather McGhee explained the current conditions of our housing market and I could not agree more:
“Because of our deliberately constructed racial wealth gap, most Black and brown families can’t afford to rent or buy in places where white families are, and when white families bring their wealth in Black and brown neighborhoods, it more often leads to gentrification and displacement than enduring integration.”
Dr. King and McGhee offered a similar solution: public policy created this problem, and public policy should solve it. Although Dr. King believed legislation can and should solve racial inequities, he also mentioned matters of the heart. He recognized there is an rational and emotional conglomerate that can address the problems of racism. Design, advertisement, and storytelling deal with the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of the audience that receive them. I wonder, even give the opportunity, could a compelling story experience change the heart of a person? Could it educate them to understand how they fit in the story? Can people be moved to action through story? I believe so! Let’s explore how.
[1] Defacto segragetion [2] Define emancipation proclamation [3] My life completely changed once I learned of the land that my sister and I gained the right to once my father passed on. For years I had lived in Detroit, MI believing my life was that of economic hardship and substance abuse. The land with my name on is gave me a since of pride and dignity that I had never felt until I was 23 years old. It propelled and absolutely changed my confidence, mentality, and trajectory of my life.