White Flight
White Flight (noun): the departure of Whites from places (such as urban neighborhoods or schools) increasingly or predominantly populated by minorities
Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, in 1961 the
Oklahoma City school system was sued when Black students were barred from
attending all-White schools. After a 1963 U.S. District Court ruling, Oklahoma
City Public Schools were forced to desegregate and in 1972 forced busing was
implemented. The causes and consequences of the exodus of White families to
more racially homogeneous suburban areas are more multi-faceted than the forced
integration of public schools. Practices like redlining and blockbusting implemented
by the Federal Housing Administration perpetuated residential segregation.
Redlining originated from 1930s-era New Deal programs offering government-insured
mortgages. Neighborhoods were ranked with areas mostly dominated by Black
residents being deemed too risky to insure and thus the least worthy of inclusion
in lending programs.
Blockbusting was a practice in real estate to provoke fear in White homeowners. Agents would convince White homeowners that Black people moving into their neighborhood would lead to a decline in their property value and an increase in crime. Frightened White homeowners sold their homes at a loss and agents would then sell to Black homeowners at inflated costs. Racial covenants were another tactic inserted into property deeds to prevent people who were non-White from buying or occupying land. In some cities the construction of highway systems to connect suburbanites to their urban jobs were deliberately built through majority-Black neighborhoods. This further isolated Black neighborhoods from essential resources and aided in the decline of these communities. These practices and other forms of systemic racism perpetuated inequalities still present decades later.
Additional Resources
https://youtu.be/DZZ_5OC6TaA
Blockbusting in Baltimore
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2004/02/25/neighborhood-unites-races/62001495007/
Neighborhood Unites Races
https://www.edmondhistory.org/edmonds-african-american-history/
Edmond's African American History: Land Run to Integration
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1991/11/28/groups-seek-development-to-counter-white-flights-effects/62509707007/ "Groups Seek Development to Counter White Flight's Effects" The Oklahoman.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-07-mn-1675-story.html
"Seeking a New Road to Equality : A split develops among blacks as many question whether integration can bridge the gap with white America. Is the strategy of the '60s outdated and ineffective in the '90s?" Los Angeles Times.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1991/09/oklahoma-city-separate-and-equal/668942/ "Oklahoma City: Separate and Equal" The Atlantic.
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-city-man-revisits-childhood-neighborhood/39194109
"Oklahoma City man revisits childhood neighborhood, relics of historic time" KOCO.
https://catalog.metrolibrary.org/?section=resource&resourceid=239747351
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein, available through the Metropolitan Library System.