Black homeowners deployed property-values rhetoric to win zoning protection
Evidence
In a coordinated protest, busloads of homeowners were shuttled to city hall, where they presented city planners with a petition. “The fifteen acre tract of land is in the heart of a brand new Negro residential community,” they noted. Construction of such a large project “would tend to lower property values of the existing home owners” and “would increase the population density, a major factor in the development of a slum.” On this one occasion at least, their protests succeeded. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 177
Categorization
- XREF: Shows blacks appropriating the exact suburban property-values language whites used against them, evidence for how the color-blind conservatism frame gets universalized across both races. — connects to: Professional real-estate doctrine convinced white homeowners that black entry destroyed property values — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 148; City officials lowered zoning standards once black residents took over neighborhoods — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 176; White homeowners performed community solidarity as a defensive strategy against desegregation — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 190 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Black homeownership actually raised property values in Mozley Park
#corroborates(0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 179 - Homeownership fails as a wealth-building tool for Black Americans due to structural discrimination
#complicates(0.76) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1376 - Federal housing policy institutionalized the equation of black occupancy with falling property values
#qualifies(0.75) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 144 - Housing discrimination creates a negative feedback loop harming Black property values
#complicates(0.74) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 451 - White homeowners performed community solidarity as a defensive strategy against desegregation
#qualifies(0.72) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 190