Annotated Bibliography 1

In “Chocolate City, Vanilla Suburbs”, investigators for the 1976 Detroit Area Study of the University of Michigan began intensive research to fully understand the residential segregation in the city of Detroit. Their research concluded that while blacks prefer to live in a neighborhood with a mixture of people with black and white descent, whites are not as accepting of integration into their neighborhoods. Similar to Detroit, many of Atlanta’s neighborhoods are predominately all black or all white. The cause of this segregation is likely similar to the reasons the DAS investigators revealed while studying the Detroit residential segregation.

I chose to use this article because it offers a closer look into the detail of certain segregation caused by the environment and why it is caused. This article is very well written and is unbiased in its research methods. One weakness of this journal is that the investigators looked exclusively at Detroit while conducting their research, ignoring all other cities in the United States. Their theories on segregation may not hold true when applied in other cities across the country. This journal is similar to “Race and the Tourist Bubble in Downtown Atlanta”, in that both works examine racism and segregation to a certain degree. This piece looks more in depth at what causes the segregation, while the other journal examines how segregation affects the development of Atlanta (5).

 

Annotated Bibliography 2

“Race and the Tourist Bubble in Downtown Atlanta” was written by Harvey K. Newman, a retired professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. This journal explains the evolution of downtown Atlanta from a central business district to a popular tourist destination. This piece examines the multiple projects put in motion to bring in more visitors and stimulate the economy, a majority of which uprooted historically black areas in order to make room for more attractions. In “Architectural Exclusion:  Discrimination and Segregation through Physical Design of the Built Environment” the author explains different methods of using environmental factors as segregation tools. This journal goes into more detail on how certain methods, such as building highways, are used to block access of certain places to particular groups of people.

This article is very well written and credible, but it mainly only focuses on the pro-tourism side of the city’s history. To make this piece more well-rounded, additional arguments on the cons of developing for tourism could have been included. While this article explains where and when racial segregation took place, the previous bibliography, “Chocolate City, Vanilla Suburbs” examines what causes this segregation (3).

 

Annotated Bibliography 3

“Transit-Related Crime in Suburban Areas” was written by professor of Public Administration at Georgia State University, Dr. Theodore Poister. This journal discusses the relationship between high crime rates and public transportation. Looking at Atlanta’s MARTA, research showed crime to initially increase, but was followed by a decrease in crime rates. Still, the fear of increasing crime because of public transportation continues to prevent the extension of public transit rail lines, preventing economic expansion and growth in cities. Because there was no strong correlation between expanding public transit and crime rates increasing, it is likely that there are other factors that influence the rise of crime rates, concluding that the data found in Poister’s research cannot be used to blame public transit directly for higher crime rates. This journal entry debunks the myth that public transportation in downtown Atlanta and surrounding areas increases the crime rate.

This source aids in better understanding the history of public transportation and it’s role in shaping the city of Atlanta. In “Architectural Exclusion:  Discrimination and Segregation through Physical Design of the Built Environment”, transportation was listed as a method of architectural exclusion used to aid in segregation. This journal gives additional information on public transportation to help gain a larger understanding on the subject. This journal is well put together, but it is very inconclusive. There is no strong, solid data to back up the accusations and possible theories mentioned in the article. To make this journal a strong piece of evidence in an analysis, Poister needs to gather more data. This article adds information to the subject of segregation in Atlanta, as public transit was historically used to help segregate, as well as explaining how different aspects of the city, such as transportation, help shape Atlanta (4).

 

Annotated Bibliography 4

Sherman, a student at University of Pennsylvania, used a mapping software called ArcMap to examine special relations of highway tracts and their relation to separation of whites and non-whites. The results found that in southern states had more white people near the highways, while northern states had fewer white people. This can be explained by the southern and northern opposition during the Civil War.

For example, the construction of Interstate 74 created a clear racial boundary through Peoria, Illinois, which created neighborhood decay and high crime. The data from Illinois could easily be compared to Georgia’s interstate highway system and how it created different boundaries in Atlanta. This journal gives a more detailed explanation on how the construction of highways can lead to segregation in cities, intentional or not. This journal was written by an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, so it may not be perfect, although it is published to the public and backed my multiple professors, so it is safe to assume the journal is accurate. This source adds to the multiple examples collected from other sources of the ways that architecture has the ability to create segregation (7).

 

Annotated Bibliography 5

In this piece of writing, Holliman began research to answer why Atlanta contained so much poverty. Holliman discovered that opposing postwar renewal programs only benefited the politically powerful or wealthy and ignored antipoverty projects, which led to failing of federal programs and more private development in the city. This led to an increase of private spaces and decrease of public space and a larger and more apparent upper class whites and lower class disadvantage who are mostly African American.

This journal helps readers understand why there are more private development in the city and how that has affected both the upper and lower class people of Atlanta. This gives us more of a why all of the segregation in Atlanta came to be and is a good addition to all of the examples of segregation in the city. This was written and published by a student at the University of Georgia with direction of Paul S. Sutter, a history professor at the University of Colorado, so it is safe to call this source reputable. This piece also gives solutions to fix the problems stated and gives different viewpoints which are useful (2).

 

Annotated Bibliography 6

In this journal, Paul Trudeau states that historic preservation has been used as an important tool to preserve urban neighborhoods, and has the potential to be successful in Atlanta as well. Atlanta’s CBD became mostly black after the whites fled to the suburbs in response to the highway construction and commercial expansion following WWII. Wealthy white males used their influence to modify federal programs to promote private investment, which in turn created a barrier between the two communities. Atlanta wanted to expand and did so without thinking of the “slums”, by demolishing them for the good of the commercial activities. Historical designation is proven to impact property values, taxes, rental rates, the well-being of residents, and development in low income areas.

This article goes into the most detailed examples of barriers used in the city of Atlanta to segregate the two communities. This article can be used to back up previous annotated bibliography evidence. This source is reliable, although it gives a fairly one sided argument (8).

 

Annotated Bibliography 7

This report by Bullard, Johnson, and Torres show statistics on how the city of Atlanta has become more populated with white citizens, as well as how there is an increasingly large gap of poorer and unemployed black citizens compared to white citizens. This report helps show the effects and differences in black and white neighborhoods in Atlanta. I choose this article because it goes into detail in quality of life which can be tied into looking at predominately white and black neighborhoods. This article is full of statistics and facts and come from a trustworthy place. It gives a good two sided story that talks about lacks in poverty and the richest blacks in Atlanta (1).

 

 

Annotated Bibliography 8

This photograph shows how whites and blacks were strongly encouraged to live within their own separate communities. This picture helps support the facts that whites did not wat blacks moving into their “white” communities. Because this is only a photograph, we do not know the details surrounding this sign and can only make assumptions on what the author meant by it (9).

 

Annotated Bibliography 9

 

This bar graph shows the African American population in 200 and 2010 and the breakdown of how the population settled in Atlanta. This image can be used to support the argument that more blacks live where other blacks do and less live where whites are heavily populated. This image goes along to support the previous image as well (6).

 

Annotated Bibliography 10

This article was on the KKK and their involvement in the city of Atlanta. It went into detail on the horrors of the attacks on African Americans and the extreme of the racism during that time. I plan to use this article to further my argument on why African Americans do not feel welcome to live in white communities. I am also going to use this article to explain why a large number of African Americans moved out of the city of Atlanta and went further into the suburbs. This piece was written by someone enrolled in Coker College in South Carolina, meaning there is a very good chance the information is valid and usable in my analysis. It is unlike any of the other annotated bibliographies in this section so far and pulls ethos into the paper with the demonstrations of the brutal attacks on African Americans.

Works Cited

1. “{Complete Report} The State of Black Atlanta 2010.” Atlanta Tribune The Magazine. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
2. Holliman, Irene V. “From ‘Crackertown’ to the ‘ATL’: Race, Urban Renewal, and the Re-making of Downtown Atlanta, 1945-2000.”University of Georgia (2010). n. pag. Web. 1 March 2016.
3. Newman, Harvey K. “Race and the Tourist Bubble in Downtown Atlanta.”Urban Affairs Review3 (2002): 301-21. Web.
4. Poister, Theodore H. “Transit-Related Crime In Suburban Areas.”Journal of Urban Affairs 1 (1996): 63-75. Web.
5. Reynolds Farley, Howard Schuman, Suzanne Bianchi, Diane Colasanto, and Shirley Hatchett. “Chocolate City, Vanilla Suburbs: Will the Trend toward Racially Separate Communities Continue?”Social Science Research 4 (1978): 319-44. Web.
6. “Segregation’s New Geography: The Atlanta Metro Region, Race, and the Declining Prospects for Upward Mobility.” Southern Spaces. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
7. Sherman, Bradford P. “Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach.”College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal (2014): n. pag. Web. 1 March 2016.
8. Trudeau, Paul J. “Friend Or Foe: The Viability Of Local Designation In The Peoplestown Neighborhood, Atlanta, Georgia.”University of Georgia (1998): n. pag. Web. 1 March 2016.
9. “10 Ways Segregation and Economic Depravity Defined Chicago – Atlanta Black Star.” Atlanta Black Star. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
10. Lay, Shawn. “Ku Klux Klan in the 20^th Century.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. 15 October 2015. Web. 25 April 2016.