Court-ordered removal of segregation barricades triggered immediate white abandonment of the neighborhood

Evidence

In spite of the movement to insure its permanence, the “Peyton Wall” was short-lived. Local courts quickly ruled against the roadblocks and the mayor, relieved to find a way out of the public relations nightmare, had them immediately removed. But as the barricades were destroyed, so was whites’ confidence in the neighborhood. In less than a month, most homes in Peyton Forest—including that of Virgil Copeland, the head of the homeowners’ resistance movement—were listed for sale with black real-estate agents. “When the barricades came down, everything collapsed,” he told a reporter. “It’s all over out there for us.” Indeed, by the end of July 1963 all but fifteen white families had sold their homes to black buyers and abandoned the neighborhood. They were not simply fleeing Peyton Forest, Copeland pointed out, but the city itself. “We are trying to find some area outside the city limits where we can buy homes and get away from the problem” of desegregation, he noted. “Everybody I know is definitely leaving the city of Atlanta.” — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 23

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White residents who could not remove a black neighbor instead sold and fled — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 150; White barricades to stop black expansion actually triggered nearby integration — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 22; Neighborhoods isolated from city and white support could not sustain segregation — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 222 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• White racial egalitarianism rose while residential segregation simultaneously hardened #exemplifies (0.84)
• Residential segregation deepened even as expressed racial prejudice declined #exemplifies (0.82)
• Racism persists even where formal segregation laws have been abolished #exemplifies (0.80)
• Residential transition fractured white communities along proximity-based lines of flight versus fight. #expands (0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 210
• Blockbusting panic drove white homeowners and civic institutions to mobilize for neighborhood stabilization #exemplifies (0.76) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 196
• Neighborhoods isolated from city and white support could not sustain segregation #qualifies (0.75) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 222
• Abandonment configured as emergency is accomplished as a racial project #expands (0.73)
• White homeowners performed community solidarity as a defensive strategy against desegregation #complicates (0.72) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 190