Desegregation of public spaces drove working-class whites to reject civic community and city progress

Evidence

Their withdrawal was physical, of course, as working-class whites abandoned the city for the still-segregated suburbs. But their retreat also took place in a larger sense, as working-class whites withdrew their support—financial, social, and political—from a society that they felt had abandoned them. Just as the desegregation of their neighborhoods had led them to reject the concept of “community,” the desegregation of the public spaces around those neighborhoods led them to rise up against Atlanta’s plans for progress, too. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 252

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Desegregation taught working-class whites that self-interest trumps community loyalty — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 191; Whites’ own abandonment of public spaces caused the tax burden they then resented — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 300; Housing scarcity and residential transition drove working-class whites into organized racism — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 104 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Whites abandoned prized public spaces rather than see them integrated #corroborates (0.92) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 433
• Whites embraced pluralism partly to legitimize abandoning troubled city spaces #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 389
• White racial egalitarianism rose while residential segregation simultaneously hardened #qualifies (0.72)
• Residential segregation deepened even as expressed racial prejudice declined #qualifies (0.72)