Racial segregation shaped even which side of town held reunions

Evidence

What is less obvious is that these local boundary lines, very often, are purely artificial; they perpetuate racial and class segregation. The federal government, to its discredit, once discouraged integration in public housing, in mortgage policy, and in other ways. These policies were eventually outlawed, but lines drawn around certain areas contin­ ued to preserve residential segregation. The social and economic disadvantages between these racially identified spaces become compounded because local entities tax their own people, and spend for their benefit. And those invisible boundary lines—​along with zoning policies and land use policies that keep out the poor—​serve to preserve the “cul­ ture” and “ambience” of the place, and exclude “undesirables” from the town. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1349 (#expands, via linked claim)

In 1950 there were no central cities in the US that were overwhelmingly or even largely black. No city with a population larger than 100,000 had a majority black population. Forty years later there were 14 such cities including Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Gary, New Orleans, and Washington. Eleven more cities had black populations between 40 and 50 percent, including Cleveland, St. Louis, and Oakland. Among cities larger than 25,000 in 1950 just two had majority black populations, a number that had exploded to 40 by 1990. Interestingly, the increase in segregation after mid-century is characteristic only of larger cities with large black populations. There was a noticeable decline in segregation in small cities with small black populations. In the latter cases African Americans found themselves assimilated into dominant white space with little if any noticeable effect on prevailing urban arrangements or culture. By the end of the Civil Rights era, in contrast, geographic isolation of blacks in larger urban settings – the overwhelming majority of black folk – was nearly complete. The occasional resident of color in white residential space, when they could afford it, or of white residents in “nonwhite” space, when they couldn’t “do better,” or of the even more pointedly noticeable “mixed neighborhoods” are simply the exceptions proving the race-as-class, class-in-race rule. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 382 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-1950 segregation deepened only where black populations were large — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 382; Segregation functioned as ongoing racial control rather than total separation; Municipal boundary lines perpetuate racial and class segregation — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1349 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Metropolitan Detroit’s racial segregation made nearby towns feel like the Jim Crow South #exemplifies (0.85)
• Municipal boundary lines perpetuate racial and class segregation #expands (0.82) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1349
• Post-1950 segregation deepened only where black populations were large #qualifies (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 382
• Segregation functioned as ongoing racial control rather than total separation #expands (0.75)
• US urban black segregation increased sharply after 1950 but only in larger cities #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 382