Ferguson, Karen. “Kruse, Kevin M. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.”Urban History Review 35.1 (2006): 61. Web.
This article covers the redistribution of blacks and whites in Atlanta throughout the 1950’s-1970’s caused by a shortage of housing in traditionally black neighborhoods after World War II, resulting a diaspora of these people into what was then considered “White Territory”. Resistance from the white community came in two forms: blatant support for segregationist policies and a more inconspicuous concern for the condition of property values in the areas that many black families were moving into. Many church and local community leaders would urge home owners to refuse to sell to black families, as once one house sold, the rest of the neighborhood would scramble to sell their property as well in preparation for the anticipated drop in housing values. Kirkwood was one of these neighborhoods significantly affected. Kirkwood was originally majority white and soon became majority black in a couple of years as a result of this phenomenon. The ultimate conclusion is that instead of integrating, most white citizens fled to the suburbs which greatly influenced the demographic makeup of the metropolitan community to this day. This article would be useful to anybody seeking to demonstrate how the built environment has changed where people are “allowed” to live based on racist and classist ideals and how those ideals have survived into modernity. I chose this article because it also ties in very nicely with Cities and Inequalities in a Global and Neoliberal World in discussing changes in Kirkwood’s racial demographics and this article uses Kirkwood as a specific example much more extensively than the other two articles I researched.