Suburbanization - Lecture Notes

Racial Zoning Recap

  • Prior to 1917, racial zoning ordinances were common.
  • Buchanan v. Warley (Louisville) ended de jure zoning based on race but endorsed segregation in the "private" marketplace.

Racial Covenants

  • Definition: Agreements prohibiting occupancy based on race, included in property deeds.
  • Impact: Prevalent in developing suburbs, like those of Los Angeles.
  • Corrigan v. Buckley (1926): Verified legal binding, leading to proliferation.

Enforcing Segregation

  • Corrigan v Buckley (1926): Covenants upheld, exclusion of non-white homeowners permitted based on "separate but equal".
  • Anti-miscegenation laws prevented interracial marriage.
  • Local groups and committees enforced racial hegemony.

Redlining

  • Government redlining policies supported/supplanted racial covenants.
  • FHA's Home Owners Loan Corporation: Mapped urban neighborhoods, categorized them.
  • Majority-minority neighborhoods classified as "D" or "red", lacking investment.

Shelley v. Kraemer

  • 1948: State cannot enforce racial housing covenants under 14th Amendment.
  • Covenants themselves permissible under “private” agreements.
  • De jure vs. de facto: Government not enforcing racism, but not reversing entrenched conditions.

Suburbs

  • Historically, people lived close to work.
  • Trains/streetcars: Allowed living further from urban centers.

G.I. Bill

  • Passed in 1944: Gave WWII veterans benefits (tuition, low-interest loans/mortgages).
  • Boom in homeownership, uplift to middle-class.
  • Benefits could be denied based on race/sexuality.

Car-Centered Planning

  • Car lobbies: Called for divestment in public transit (1920s).
  • Federal Highway Act of 1956: Largest public works program.
  • Eminent domain: Used to build highways in downtown over "blighted" neighborhoods.

White Flight

  • 20th century: White communities moved from inner cities to suburbs.
  • Reasons:
    • Push: Redlining, divestments, desegregation.
    • Pull: New housing, more open space, job opportunities.

Outcome of Urbanization

  • 1950: 1/4 of U.S. population in suburbs; 1960: 1/3; 2000: 1/2.
  • ‘50s/’60s: Suburbanites were white.
  • Movement of non-white residents faced hostility/violence.