Abstract

While racial residential segregation in many of America’s largest cities remains near levels seen in apartheid South Africa, not enough is done to understand and combat this problem. This essay traces the public and private institutionalization of racial residential segregation from the late 19th century to the present day. The movement to erect borders preventing black residential expansion was coupled with a warlike response in whites made manifest in language, retreat, and violence. The high costs of this unrest—both in terms of property damage and social unrest—triggered a shift to institutional segregation. To maintain the racial status quo, powerful whites implemented racial zoning and restrictive covenants in the early 1900’s, and shortly thereafter devised comprehensive, legally defensible city plans and other municipal regulations designed to maintain segregation. This study examines pertinent legal and political developments in the twentieth century and argues that public institutions were better able than private institutions to persist under the equal rights regime created by the response of the federal government to the Civil Rights movement.