Pruitt-Igoe Failure

572 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial inequality in society

St. Louis, Missouri is where the Pruitt-Igoe urban housing complexes were built in the year of 1954. Originally the plan was that public housing would liberate people who were living in poor and dangerous slums. Little did they know that the Pruitt-Igoe would be just as bad, if not even worse. All considered, Pruitt-Igoe was a massive failure. Unfortunately, from the beginning segregation was included in the process of the building. As the Guardian states “Pruitt-Igoe became an economic and racial ghetto soon after it opened. The design, drawn up when Missouri law still mandated the segregation of public facilities, originally designated the Pruitt half of the complex (named after second world war fighter pilot Wendell O Pruitt) for black residents only, and the Igoe half (after former US Congressman William L Igoe) as white only.” Next, the rules that people had to abide by were demeaning and unbelievable. Examples of a couple rules included televisions being prohibited along with phones as well as husbands not being allowed to live with their wives and children then they had to literally leave the state. Men not being allowed to live in the homes made the women depend …show more content…

Not to mention that Americans at the time believed that public housing was “Un-American” and “Communist” in nature. Also Pruitt-Igoe can teach that while public housing might not be the answer, there still needs to be a solution to the housing issues connected with the poor and even the homeless. America should not overlook people on the streets that are struggling to afford shelter. In the end, while Pruitt-Igoe may have been a failure it is a reminder that people need help and America must learn how to create affordable housing for every person in the

Show More
Related

  • Gentrification and White Preference in the Rhode Island Housing Market

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    The loss of public housing and the expanse of the wealth gap throughout the state of Rhode Island has been a rising issue between the critics and supporters of gentrification, in both urban areas such as Providence and wealthy areas such as the island of Newport, among other examples. With the cities under a monopoly headed by the wealth of each neighborhood, one is left to wonder how such a system is fair to all groups. Relatively speaking, it isn’t, and the only ones who benefit from such a system are white-skinned. With the deterioration of the economic status of Rhode Island, and especially in the city of Providence, more and more educated Caucasians are leaving to seek a more fertile economic environment.

    Read More

  • Civil War Reconstruction Dbq

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.

    Read More

  • Essay About The 19th Amendment

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    The changes that happened were women have taken on responsibilities instead of staying home and watching kids and doing laundry. Also having supper done for the husbands when they get home (some still do). But now women are half of the workers in the United States. When the nineteenth amendment was passed they were finally able to vote and started to take action as a republican or a democrat. The democratic and republican opened leadership jobs for women within their area(What

    Read More

  • School Segregation, The Continuing Tragedy Of Ferguson By Richard Ferguson

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rothstein (2014) states “long before the shooting of Michael Brown, official racial-isolation policies primed Ferguson for this summer’s events” (p. 1). Rothstein writes how African-Americans were denied access to better jobs, housing, education, and were placed into areas that eventually became slums. Blacks were relocated several times, which eventually “converted towns like Ferguson into new segregated enclaves” (Rothstein, 2014, p. 9). Government policies were a catalyst that caused what is known as white flight, or the movement of white residents to more private residential, upscale areas, in which blacks could not afford or were not permitted to reside. Some neighborhoods used eminent domain laws to keep blacks from moving into white developments. Blacks were targeted with unethical lending rates by banks. Deceptive real estate practices were the norm when it came to selling houses to African American families. Before 1980, laws allowed boundary and redevelopment policies to keep blacks from white neighborhoods. However, in 1980, the federal courts ordered all forms of government to create plans on school and housing integration. Rothstein (2014) adds “public officials ignored the order” and only “devised a busing plan to integrate schools” (p. 4). The housing market collapse, along with exploding interest rates, left the black neighborhoods devastated, as stated by Rosenbaum (2014, p. 9). Ferguson was less that 1% black in 1970, however by the time Michael Brown was killed in 2014, the community was nearly 70% black, with its schools nearly 90% black. In review, Hannah-Jones (2014) relays how the white flight from St. Louis caused businesses and jobs to leave along with the residents. With their departure, the schools also suffered. Schools

    Read More

  • American Womanhood Dbq Analysis

    686 Words  | 2 Pages

    For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.

    Read More

  • Race And Housing In The Postwar City: An Explosive History?

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his article, “Race and Housing in the Postwar City: An Explosive History,” Raymond Mohl focuses on suburbanization and racial segregation in post-World War II America. Due to discriminatory practices in the housing market,

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In William Faulkner's Barbie Doll

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social restrictions have always been placed on women even today. The role of women is much different today than it was in the past. Women were not allowed to make major decisions in the family and were expected to submit in all things to the husband; they could not own anything and they were expected to stay home and do housework.

    Read More

  • Public Housing In Canada

    1800 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper will be predominantly focusing on public housing within Ontario. Not only will it look at the basics of Ontario but examine more directly on Regent Park within Toronto. It will discuss what public housing is and the explanation for why it exists, the government housing programs that are present with regards to public housing and the results of the government programs. The Purpose of this essay is to argue that the problem of public housing will never

    Read More

  • Women in the Second Industrial Revolution

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women were confronted by many social obligation in the late nineteenth century. Women were living lives that reflected their social rank. They were expected to be economically dependent and legally inferior. No matter what class women were in, men were seen as the ones who go to work and make the money. That way, the women would have to be dependent since they were not able to go to work and make a good salary. No matter what class a woman was in, she could own property in her own name. When a woman became married she " lost control of any property she owned, inherited, or earned" ( Kagan et al. 569). A woman's legal identity was given to her husband.

    Read More

  • Unruly Women Analysis

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South by Victoria E. Bynum begins by simply questioning the reader; asking who these “unruly women” would have been in the antebellum South, and what they could have possibly done to mark them in this deviant and disorderly light. Whenever you think of Southern Women during this time a vision of lovely refined yet quieted and weak women come to mind. It’s a time where women were inferior to men in almost every aspect. Women were expected to stay at home raising children. Women were expected to remain in the house, in the private world of home and family. White men wanted control over all dependents in his household; including their wife, children, slaves, and servants. Bynum

    Read More

  • Public Housing Discrimination Essay

    1829 Words  | 4 Pages

    In contrast to popular assumption, discrimination in public housing is becoming more prevalent than ever before. Testing done by the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston has found that today people of color are discriminated against in nearly half of their efforts to buy, sell, finance, or rent property (“1968-Present Housing Discrimination). The statistics are even worse when considering colored people who have families as the testing found that they are discriminated against approximately two thirds of the time (“1968-Present Housing Discrimination”) In addition to facing great difficulty in property affairs, people of color are less likely to be offered residence in desirable locations. 86 percent of revitalized

    Read More

  • 1800-1850

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the first half of the 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, America has taken on yet another revolution. In this time period, the country saw a rapid expansion in territory and economics, as well as the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation’s first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; a rise in abolitionism and reduction in the power of slavery; and radical shifts in the roles and status of women.

    Read More

  • Discrimination towards Minorities When Buying Home

    1472 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sidney, Mara S. 2003. Unfair Housing: How National Policy Shapes Community Action. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.

    Read More

  • Residential Segregation Essay

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The South Bronx

    2346 Words  | 5 Pages

    The South Bronx, New York City: another northern portrait of racial divide that naturally occurred in the span of less than a century, or a gradual, but systematic reformation based on the mistaken ideology of white supremacy? A quick glance through contemporary articles on The Bronx borough convey a continuation of less-than-ideal conditions, though recently politicians and city planners have begun to take a renewed interest in revitalizing the Bronx. (HU, NYT) Some common conceptions of the Bronx remain less than satisfactory—indeed, some will still express fear or disgust, while some others have expressed the fundamentally incorrect racial ideas studied here—but others recall the Bronx with fondness, calling it a once “boring” and “secure” neighborhood.(BRONX HIST JOURNAL, p. 1) What are we to do with such radically different accounts between The Bronx of yesterday, and the impoverished borough of today? If we speak in known, contemporary cultural stereotypes, then segregation is strictly a Southern design, but natural otherwise—but to record this as a natural occurrence, no different than a seasonal change or day turning to night, would be to ignore the underlying problem. The changing role of white Americans from majority to population minority in the Bronx, coupled with the borough’s title of “poorest urban county in America” (as of 2012), is the result of careful orchestration and a repeating story of economic and political gain superseding civil rights. (GONZALES, BRONX) (BRONX HIST JOURN, HARD KNOCKS IN BRONX @ poorest note ) It is not coincidence.

    Read More

More about Pruitt-Igoe Failure

Open Document