The Role of Race in Historical Context of Economic Insecurity

1
The Role of Race in Historical Context of
Economic Insecurity

• Scott Allen
• Sara Brown
• Trent Cooksley
• Kristi Kuhl
• Lane Peercy
• Wendy Sasaki

2
Intro

• People fled to areas where there appeared to be
  jobs
• Arrived with virtually nothing, hoping for a
  better life
• One of the largest populations affected was the
  African-American population

3
History

• Turn of 20th Century
• Right to vote
• Right to be on juries
• Right to hold many jobs
• Right to attend integrated schools
• In short, African Americans were not equal
• Politically
• Economically
• Socially

4
History

• Industrial Revolution
• World War I
• World War II
• North began to African-Americans from the south
• The Great Migration
• This led to the Civil Rights Movement

5

• Pressure on the U.S Government to Reform
• Governmental reasons for Reform
• The U.S. was engaged in a anti-racist war
• The U.S. needed full mobilization of wartime
  production in order to win the war.
• The people in office were concerned about their
  own survival.

6

• Supreme Court
• Disabling of the Jim Crowe System of racial
  subordination
• However, at the same time supreme court was also
  establishing American Apartheid
• racial segregation re-inscribed in
  jurisdictional boundaries

7

• 1950s
• 60 of population in central cities
• Central cities still regional hub for
• Strong Tax Base
• Decent Housing
• Retail
• Opportunity
• Good schools
• Late 1950s-70s
• Suburban Population began to double

8

• 1990s
• Suburbs combined for 2/3 of metropolitan
  population
• Jobs relocated to suburbs
• Strong Tax Base relocated

9

• Why did this Happen?
• Racial Segregation
• Suburbs attracted whites
• Excluded minorities, mainly African-Americans

10

• How was this done?
• Incentives to whites
• Barriers to minorities
• Redlining
• Racial Stemming
• Discriminatory zoning practices

11
Video Excerpt from PBS Video In This Affluent
SocietyAmericas War on Poverty
12
Migration

• People moved to more urban areas
• Seemed to be more opportunity for jobs
• Hope for more jobs, better paying jobs, and a
  better way of life
• So many migrated, there were not enough jobs for
  all

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The Issue of Sprawl

• Definition Racism through institutional
  cultural segregation
• Problems
• Attention
• Suburban minorities only
• Loss of political power

14
Sprawling problems cont.

• Sources
• Federal Government spending on jurisdictional
  segregation
• Real Estate Industry FHA and VA mortgage
  insurance
• State and Local Zoning Boards urban
  construction projects

15
Sprawling cont.

• Examples
• Minority shift to Chicago
• Dodge Street
• Real Estate prices

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The Role of the Courts

• Supreme Court ended de jure segregation
• Still supported segregation through local
  control
• local control became primary enforcement for
  segregation in the USA
• local control has undermined civil rights.
  (examples include school desegregation
  litigation)

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The Role of the Courts cont.

• Millikan case
• Involved Detroits discriminatory school district
  that included Detroits suburbs.
• Fair-Housing Act1968
• Helped push concentrated poverty for blacks in
  urban areas.
• Kept whites on the outside of the region.

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The Role of the Courts cont.

• We still have many of the negative racial
  conditions formally held by Jim Crow laws.
• Frustrating civil rights goals of 50s and 60s

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Disparity in the Workforce

• White vs. Minority condition
• Historically, white people have higher
  employment rates
• White people are more likely to hold managerial
  positions
• Decline in white-collar employment gap between
  blacks and whites, further widening of gap for
  Hispanics

20

21
Workforce Disparity cont.
37
34
27
26
12
10
9
8
3
Professional
22
US Families in Poverty Racial Differences

• White families are less likely than other groups
  to be poor
• Black and Hispanic families are about three times
  more likely to live in poverty than white
  families
• In 1998, the Census Bureau defined thresholds as
  16,660 for family of four, and 13,003 for
  families of three

23
Distribution of Families in Poverty by
Race/Ethnicity, 1998
Hispanic 23
White 45
Asian 4
Other 1
Black 27
httpwww.prb.org/AmeristatTemplate.cfm
24
US families in Poverty Racial Differences
Available ltlthttp//www.prb.org/AmeristatTemplate.
cfm
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Poverty Statistics

• U.S. Poverty Rate drops in 2000
• Dropped 0.5 to 11.3
• 31.1 million people poor

26
Poverty Statistics cont.

• Geographically Speaking
• Metropolitan Areas drop 0.5
• lthttp//www.census.gov/c2ss/www/Products/Rank/Pove
  rtyG.htmgt

27
Poverty Statistics cont.

• Age
• 65 years and older unchanged
• 18-24 year olds drop significantly
• 18 years old and under drop 0.7
• Race
• Poverty Rates between blacks white
  non-Hispanics narrow
• Other racial groups near record lows

28
Poverty Statistics cont.
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Sources

• http//www1.umn.edu/irp/
• University of Minnesotas Institute on Race and
  Poverty Homepage
• http//www.census.gov/
• US Census Bureau (US Dept. of Commerce) Homepage
• http//www.prb.org/
• Population Reference Bureau Homepage
• http//www.prrac.org/
• Poverty Race Research Action Council Homepage