Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development

Kevin Fox Gotham is Professor of Sociology at Tulane University.

Praise for the First Edition"This work challenges the notion that demographic change and residential patterns are 'natural' or products of free market choices … [it] contributes greatly to our understanding of how real estate interests shaped the hyper-segregation of American cities, and how government agencies[,] including school districts, worked in tandem to further demark the separate and unequal worlds in metropolitan life." — H-Net Reviews (H-Education)"A hallmark of this book is its fine-grained analysis of just how specific activities of realtors, the FHA program, and members of the local school board contributed to the residential segregation of blacks in twentieth century urban America. A process Gotham labels the 'racialization of urban space'—the social construction of urban neighborhoods that links race, place, behavior, culture, and economic factors—has led white residents, realtors, businessmen, bankers, land developers, and school board members to act in ways that restricted housing for blacks to specific neighborhoods in Kansas City, as well as in other cities." — Philip Olson, University of Missouri–Kansas City"This is a book which is greatly needed in the field. Gotham integrates, using historical data, the involvement of the real estate industry and the collusion of the federal government in the manufacturing of racially biased housing practices. His work advances the struggle for civil rights by showing that solving the problem of racism is not as simple as banning legal discrimination, but rather needs to address the institutional practices at all levels of the real estate industry." — Talmadge Wright, author of Out of Place: Homeless Mobilizations, Subcities, and Contested Landscapes

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: An Introduction Housing as a System of Social StratificationRace, Racism, and RacializationMetropolitan Kansas City: An OverviewConstructing a Segregated Metropolis2. The Racialization of Space: Restrictive Covenants and the Origins of Racial Residential Segregation The Great Migration and the Rise of the Modern Real Estate IndustryRacial Restrictive Covenants and the Real Estate IndustryThe Role of Community BuildersThe Role of Homeowner AssociationsThe Legacy of Racial Restrictive Covenants3. The Federal Government, Community Builders, and the Development of the Modern Mortgage System The Housing Act of 1934 and the Creation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)Community Builders and the FHARacial Conflict and the Defense of Racial Space4. Urban Renewal, Public Housing, and Downtown Redevelopment A Housing Program for Slum ClearanceLocal Implementation and Dislocating EffectsExplaining Postwar Urban Redevelopment5. Building the Troost Wall: School Segregation, Blockbusting, and the Racial Transitions of the Southeast Area Racial Population Change in Southeast Kansas City, 1950–1975School Segregation and Neighborhood Racial TransitionBlockbusting and Panic SellingThe Role of the Real Estate BoardReflections and Experiences with BlockbustingThe Legacy of School Desegregation and Blockbusting6. The Struggle for Fair Housing Fair Housing and the Conflict over "Rights"Housing Act of 1968 and the FHA’s Section 235 ProgramLocal Implementation and Segregative EffectsNeighborhood Response and DisinvestmentFederal Housing Policy Retrenchment in the Post-Civil Rights EraFair Housing in RetrospectConclusions Old Customs Die Hard: Racialization of Space and the Global Real Estate CrisisRace, Housing, and the "New Racism"Privatism, Real Estate, and the Future of Uneven DevelopmentNotesReferencesIndex