Housing Segregation Lingers 50
Years After the Civil Rights Act[1]
Conditions for African Americans are different and immeasurably better
than they were before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. At the
present, it is almost difficult to imagine the extreme oppression African
Americans endured under Jim Crow. In the Southern states, schools, restaurants,
hotels, theaters, and public transportation, were segregated. The separation
included elevators, parks, public restrooms, hospitals, drinking fountains,
prisons, and places of worship. Whites and blacks were born in separate
hospitals, educated in segregated schools, and buried in separate graveyards.
Blacks were not allowed to vote in elections.
There were, in effect, two
criminal justice systems: one for whites and another for blacks. The system was codified in state and local laws and
enforced by intimidation and violence. When the color line was breached,
violence was unleashed against offenders by the Ku Klux Klan and local whites,
often in concert with local law enforcement officials.
Lynching and other forms of violence and intimidation were routine. In
the north and south, blacks lived in segregated neighborhoods and were
relegated to the lowest paying, least desirable occupations.
In the decades that followed the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the black middle-class has grown rapidly. Levels of educational
attainment are higher. Employment opportunities are greater. Family incomes are
higher. The election of Barack Obama as President in 2008 signaled an
unprecedented advance in race relations in America.
However, an examination of the status of African American families
reveals a mixed picture; the best of times for some, the worst of times for
others. For those in a position to take advantage of the opportunities created
by the Civil Rights revolution, the gains over the last generation have been
remarkable. For those left behind in America's impoverished communities, the
obstacles to advancement are more daunting today than they were a generation
ago.
A significant impediment to African American progress is the high
levels of discrimination and segregation that persist in the nation's housing
markets. Most people believe that families live wherever they can afford to
purchase a home or rent an apartment; that residential patterns reflect the private
choices of individuals. This widely held assumption is simply not accurate. Year
after year, studies have consistently shown that discriminatory practices are alive and well in the nation's housing
markets. African-American families do not enjoy the range of residential
options that are available to white families with similar incomes and credit
histories.
Racial segregation began at the beginning of
the twentieth century. In housing it was perpetuated by the federal government
in the 1940s and '50s when suburban communities were constructed with federally-insured
mortgages. To be eligible for mortgage insurance, the federal government
required property deeds to contain racially-restrictive covenants that excluded
African American families from suburban communities.
Despite being outlawed in 1968, housing
discrimination persists. In "matched pair" tests, (using whites and
black testers with identical income and credit histories), white homebuyers
were favored over blacks in 17.0 percent of the cases. White homebuyers were
more likely to be allowed to inspect houses and to be shown homes in more
predominantly white neighborhoods than similarly situated blacks. White home
seekers also received more information about financing than comparable black
homebuyers.
Social scientists use a measure known as the
"dissimilarity index" to determine levels of residential segregation.
Cities are categorized as highly segregated, moderately segregated and
integrated. These measures show that the 50 largest American cities are all highly segregated. http://www.censusscope.org
The continuing high levels of segregation in public schools reflect the
racial composition of the neighborhoods where they are located. Public schools
in segregated neighborhoods almost invariably lack the quality of schools in
suburban communities. They often have high drop-out rates and other educational
deficits. As April is Fair Housing month, it is important to understand the
societal effects of neighborhoods that are lingering vestiges of a segregated
past.
[1] Leland
Ware, Louis L. Redding Professor, University of Delaware
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