Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis Illustrates the Racism of the City

Post World War Two, St. Louis’s population peaked in the 1950’s with a population of 856,796 people, and with an influx of black southerners St. Louis expected its total to amount to a staggering one million residents (The Myth of Pruitt-Igoe). In order to deal with its overcrowding issue, a large 33-building public housing complex by the name of Pruitt-Igoe was made in 1954. However, just a few years after it was built, Pruitt-Igoe was under maintained and began to resemble the slums it once replaced, ultimately resulting to its demolition by 1972. Was an “architectural problem” really at the heart of Pruitt-Igoe’s failure’? Is all public housing doomed for destruction, or is Pruitt-Igoe just one of the many examples of mistreatments towards African Americans which were seen so dominantly in the United States during this time period? As the film The Myth of Pruitt-Igoe¬ clearly states, as St. Louis was losing half of its mid-century population through white working class citizens segregating themselves into suburbs which were now made affordable through the 1949 Housing Act, poor African Americans were forced to cover the rent and basic city services due to the same housing act. Thus, the failure of Pruitt-Igoe serves as an illustration of the infiltration of racism on both a social and institutional level as well.
On an institutional level, the failure Pruitt-Igoe is a clear depiction of the racism in play on a federal level as well. To understand the reasoning behind Pruitt-Igoe’s failure one must first identify the circumstances under which Pruitt Igoe was made. To begin with, Pruitt-Igoe’s high rising and beautiful architecture was made in order to replace the slums which were an “eyesore which blinded downtown interests” (...

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...icans, such as in Blackjack, diminished any hope of African Americans prospering. Meanwhile, African Americans were treated like prisoners and left without jobs in the city. Unfortunately, this was not just occurring in St. Louis, but throughout the U.S by 1960 over half of all African American lived in largely poor segregated cities. Furthermore, they would pay more than whites for worse housing (Present Tense). Evidently, with racism controlling St. Louis just like many other segregated parts of the world Pruitt-Igoe illustrated that discrimination towards African Americans were still alive in the hearts of many in power within government agencies and ordinary citizens. Ultimately, until all levels of government and society were cleared of racism, African Americans would never have a chance to thrive and public housing projects like Pruitt-Igoe would never stand.