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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Destruction of a Black Suburb
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/lincoln-heights-black-suburb/398303/But redlining and other restrictive zoning laws prohibited black families from buying homes in many of the citys neighborhoods. So when developers started selling off lots of unincorporated land north of Cincinnati to black buyers, it seemed like a good opportunity, one of the few paths to homeownership in the segregated North.
The land had no paved roads and no streetlights. Few homes had running water and there was no police or fire protection. Carl Westmoreland, who grew up in this village in the 1940s, remembers watching black men rush over a hill toward a burning home with a small fire cart theyd bought. They didnt save it in time, but the neighborhood banded together and rebuilt the house together. He refers to the community at the time as Americas Soweto for the primitive living conditions there.
When it incorporated in 1947, this village, called Lincoln Heights, was the first primarily black self-governing community north of the Mason-Dixon line. (Today, the city has one of the highest concentrations of African American residents in the state of Ohioaccording to the Census, 95.5 percent.) Lincoln Heights thrived for a while, producing poet Nikki Giovanni, songwriters the Isley Brothers (who wrote Twist and Shout), and scholar Carl Westmoreland, who now helps run the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Hundreds of residents worked at the nearby Wright Aeronautical Plant, manufacturing the B-29 bomber, and at a chemical plant a few blocks away, putting away money to improve their homes and secure their places in the black middle class. So successful was Lincoln Heights in its early days that New Yorks governor, Thomas E. Dewey, invited prominent officials to New York City for a ticker-tape parade to honor the village as one of the only self-governing African American communities in the nation, according to Lincoln Heights, by Carolyn F. Smith....
But today, Lincoln Heights is struggling. Its median household income of $25,568 is less than half that of Blue Ash, a nearby majority-white suburb. About 16 percent of residents are unemployed, and one-third of families earn below the poverty level. The schools are badparents of about 40 percent of students send them to other schools in the area. The towns police and fire departments shut down in October 2014 after an insurance company pulled the villages insurance after balking at the number of lawsuits filed over civil-rights violations, wrongful terminations, and wage disputes. The fire department reopened, but the county sheriff took over for the police department earlier this year. The sense of community and pride that governed the towns early days have all but disappeared.
The land had no paved roads and no streetlights. Few homes had running water and there was no police or fire protection. Carl Westmoreland, who grew up in this village in the 1940s, remembers watching black men rush over a hill toward a burning home with a small fire cart theyd bought. They didnt save it in time, but the neighborhood banded together and rebuilt the house together. He refers to the community at the time as Americas Soweto for the primitive living conditions there.
When it incorporated in 1947, this village, called Lincoln Heights, was the first primarily black self-governing community north of the Mason-Dixon line. (Today, the city has one of the highest concentrations of African American residents in the state of Ohioaccording to the Census, 95.5 percent.) Lincoln Heights thrived for a while, producing poet Nikki Giovanni, songwriters the Isley Brothers (who wrote Twist and Shout), and scholar Carl Westmoreland, who now helps run the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Hundreds of residents worked at the nearby Wright Aeronautical Plant, manufacturing the B-29 bomber, and at a chemical plant a few blocks away, putting away money to improve their homes and secure their places in the black middle class. So successful was Lincoln Heights in its early days that New Yorks governor, Thomas E. Dewey, invited prominent officials to New York City for a ticker-tape parade to honor the village as one of the only self-governing African American communities in the nation, according to Lincoln Heights, by Carolyn F. Smith....
But today, Lincoln Heights is struggling. Its median household income of $25,568 is less than half that of Blue Ash, a nearby majority-white suburb. About 16 percent of residents are unemployed, and one-third of families earn below the poverty level. The schools are badparents of about 40 percent of students send them to other schools in the area. The towns police and fire departments shut down in October 2014 after an insurance company pulled the villages insurance after balking at the number of lawsuits filed over civil-rights violations, wrongful terminations, and wage disputes. The fire department reopened, but the county sheriff took over for the police department earlier this year. The sense of community and pride that governed the towns early days have all but disappeared.
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The Destruction of a Black Suburb (Original Post)
KamaAina
Jul 2015
OP
I wish I could find the quote from Malcolm X ...I have tried so hard to find it...
DemocratSinceBirth
Jul 2015
#2
Euphoria
(448 posts)1. Good article on (yet) another
example of the structural racism of northern segregation.
Thanks for posting this article.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)2. I wish I could find the quote from Malcolm X ...I have tried so hard to find it...
It goes something like this:
"I have never lived in the south. I am the product of northern racism..."