Geog 350 Project

Abstract

This project uses GIS data and other data to expose in maps, tables, aerial photography, and other pictures, how the Afro-American community in Detroit have been suffered and still suffers the harm of inequities through discriminatory laws and actions in all facets of life, from housing and health to education and employment. This study is based in historical data, but also uses current data to emphasize this still unresolved and shameful issue. Detroit, has historically a special racial signification and Martin Luther King gave a speech here 3 weeks before his assassination. Issues analyzed are: residential racial segregation by urban planning, inaccessibility to bank loans, mortgages and insurance, mass transit problem, home ownership inequity.

Introduction

The racial inequity along with wars, and the global warming of the planet, is one of humanity's greatest challenges. The racial inequity principally is represented by the enormous and persistent wealth gap between races. Economic growth that doesn’t include the minorities can only cause problems. The goal is to increase awareness, and efforts toward racial justice.

Background

Infrastructure transforms communities. During the New Deal the Federal Housing Authority and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation “redlining” housing maps planted the seed of the future ghettos of the U.S. making impossible for the population of the black neighborhoods to secure federally backed mortgages, bank loans and insurance; developers only took these areas to develop infrastructure with the consequence of the disgraceful racial segregation and displacement. So the vast interstate highway system and other infrastructure developed those years and later were so obviously divisive, forcing black families to live in segregated neighborhoods were more likely to be polluted.

Methods

First it is taken the maps made by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation between 1935 and 1940, using data and evaluations from real estate professionals. This maps grade the different neighborhoods in a city based in the racial and ethnic identity and class of its residents, reflecting their mortgage security. Second, is mapped the location of postwar programs for “urban renewal” of those years and extended into the 1950s and 1960s with the creation of the Interstate highway system. Third, is taken current photographs and data exposing the spatial racial segregation and inequity.

Results

Tables, maps, aerial photographs are used to demostrate that there were spatial racial segregation and displacement, also to demostrate there currently is racial inequality in Detroit.

Population	1950	1960	1970
Total	1,849,568	1,670,144	1,511,482
White	not available	70.80%	55.50%
Of color	not available	29.90%	44.50%

Detroit Population in the years of Urban Renewal

It shows de displacement of population in those years

Historic Segregation and Displacement

By the late 1960s, an estimated 8,231 families had been displaced by urban renewal projects in Detroit, 67% of which were families of color

Above: Detroit 1961 Aerial images showing the construction of I-75 & I-375 intersection in the Black Bottom neighborhood, northeast of downtown.

Left: Detroit HOLC redlining map 1939.

Spatial racial segregation, the Fox Canal separates Gross Point Park one of the wealthiest neighborhood from the Jefferson Chalmers an African American community in Detroit.

Analysis

HOLC described D areas (populated mostly by African Americans) as “characterized by detrimental influences in a pronounced degree, under desirable population or an infiltration of it”. They recommended lenders “refuse to make loans in these areas (or) only on a conservative basis” The highway I-75 / I-375 interchange is placed where the African American Black Bottom neighborhood used to be, so a complete black neighborhood was destroyed. By the late 1960s, an estimated 8,231 families had been displaced by urban renewal projects in Detroit, 67% of which were families of color. There still are cases of spatial racial segregation in Detroit.

Conclusions

The HOLC maps and their documentation set the rules for a century of real estate practice. The postwar programs for urban renewal, destroyed black neighborhoods and displaced their residents with such regularity that African-Americans came to believe, in James Baldwin’s memorable phrase, that “urban renewal means Negro removal.” Though residents displaced were meant to get a compensation, it was too little or too late, or never coming. While Interstates were regularly used to destroy black neighborhoods, they were also used to keep black and white neighborhoods apart; as in words of Mayor Bill Hartsfield, as “the boundary between the white and Negro communities” for the I-20 in Atlanta. There still are cases of spatial racial segregation and inequity in different facets of life in Detroit. Being the home ownership a primary way that families build wealth, addressing this is a practical approach to start resolving the racial inequity.

References

Theme. The 1619 Project – The New York Times Magazine, August 18, 2019

HOLC maps. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=10/42.348/-83.432&maps=0&city=detroit-mi

Detroit 1961 aerial images. Wayne State University

Drone maps. https://unequalscenes.com/

Land Use Plan, 1950. https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/3460/rec/15

Poverty and Income. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f62a10091cf84fb0bbde2868e8ec8c11

Homeownership map. https://racialequity.maps.arcgis.com

Population. U.S. Census Block Groups 2010

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