Title: Race, real estate, and uneven development : the Kansas City experience, 1900-2000 /
Authors: Gotham, Kevin Fox.
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 2002
Subjects: Housing Missouri Kansas City History; Kansas City (Mo.) Economic conditions.; Kansas City (Mo.) Race relations.
Abstract: "In Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2000, Kevin Fox Gotham reexamines the assumptions behind explanations and offers a new thesis. Using the Kansas City metropolitan area as a case study, Gotham provides both quantitative and qualitative documentation of the role of the real estate industry and the Federal Housing Administration, demonstrating how these institutions have promulgated racial residential segregation and uneven development. Gotham challenges contemporary explanations while providing fresh insights into the racialization of metropolitan space, the interlocking dimensions of class and race in metropolitan development, and the importance of analyzing housing as a system of social stratification."--Jacket.
Contents: Race, real estate, and uneven development : an introduction. Housing as a system of social stratification -- Race, racism, and racialization -- Metropolitan Kansas City : an overview -- Constructing a segregated metropolis -- The racialization of space : restrictive covenants and the origins of racial residential segregation. Great migration and the rise of the modern real estate industry -- Racial restrictive covenants and the real estate industry ; Role of community builders ; Role of homeowner associations -- Legacy of racial restrictive covenants -- Federal government, community builders, and the development of the modern mortgage system. Housing Act of 1934 and the creation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) -- Community builders and the FHA -- Racial conflict and the defense of racial space -- Urban renewal, public housing, and downtown redevelopment. Housing program for slum clearance -- Local implementation and dislocating effects -- Explaining postwar urban redevelopment -- Building the Troost wall : school segregation, blockbusting, and the racial transition of the southeast area. Racial population change in southeast Kansas City, 1950-1975 -- School segregation and neighborhood racial transition -- Blockbusting and panic selling ; Role of the real estate board ; Reflections and experiences with blockbusting -- Legacy of school desegregation and blockbusting -- The struggle for fair housing. Fair housing and the conflict over "rights" -- Housing Act of 1968 and the Section 235 program ; Local implementation and segregative effects ; Neighborhood response and disinvestment -- Federal housing policy retrenchment in the post-civil rights era -- Fair housing in retrospect -- Conclusions. Race, housing, and the "new racism" -- Privatism, real estate, and the future of uneven development.