Racial Segregation & White Flight: Longtime Woes of St. Louis

ST. LOUIS - Dec. 14, 2014 - PRLog -- The pathology of racism in St. Louis, and in particular, North County has long been a product of the unending, systematic segregation of minorities. On the surface, Ferguson, Missouri, seems like any other impoverished fringe suburbs with its crumbling infrastructure, elevated unemployment rates and inadequate and failing educational systems. However, St. Louis has a unique history of segregation that places blame directly on the Caucasian-Americans who chose to flee the city, leaving a dynamic of separation and racism behind.

Despite the fact that much of St. Louis appears to be an antiquated version of mid-century America many would prefer to leave in the past, the segregation of St. Louis’ communities is not simply a residual effect of a bygone era, but instead a process which has endured the test of time, gaining alarming momentum over the past three decades. As early as the 1930s, segregation pervaded every corner of St. Louis with the establishment of discriminatory housing practices such as "residential security maps" This process attempted to identify minority communities as poor credit risks by “red-lining” their neighborhoods on a map for use by mortgage and credit lenders.

The infamous "restrictive covenants" of the 1940s sought to protect established white neighborhoods from “red-lining” by blocking developers, realtors, and residents from selling property to “high risk” buyers (African Americans), making it impossible for minorities to move into or out of more desirable areas in and around St. Louis. As white families moved farther into the undeveloped suburbs of St. Louis in their attempt to escape the growing diversity of St. Louis and its adjacent suburbs, they began establishing discriminatory zoning policies such as large lot requirements and bans on apartment buildings, all but explicitly preventing lower income, minority families from moving into their neighborhoods.

As much of the country made efforts to move past segregation after the Civil Rights movement, St. Louis seemingly doubled its efforts to avoid integration. The rate of "white flight", the phenomenon of white residents moving away from areas with growing minority populations, increased dramatically.

As black populations rose in communities like Ferguson and Berkeley, the white population declined at an equal, often more accelerated rate. In 1980, approximately 85 percent of the population of Ferguson, Missouri was white, while only 14 percent of the community was black. Just 30 years later in 2010, a shift in demographics occurred, showing only 29 percent of the population was white, while 69 percent was black.

Of course, segregated communities are often associated with cultural pride. In many large metropolitan cities, communities naturally segregate along varied cultural lines, seeking out fellow residents who celebrate similar cultural histories, values, and traditions. Investigation of recent migration patterns of both white and black residents of St. Louis, Missouri tells a very different story.

At times when both racial and economic diversity was critical to the success of integrated communities, white residents of St. Louis repeatedly decided to abandoned ship, intentionally alienating black residents and leaving a destructive path of crumbling communities like Ferguson in their wake.

My mother lives in North County (on the Ferguson border). It’s not like “the hood” or anything like that, there’s just a whole lot of black people, and a few too many for those prejudiced tea partying white folks hiding among us.

For me, moving back to St. Louis was always an expectations. Some might think that really strange because having lived in other areas of the country, I had to get used to bigotry of the place all over again. But in St. Louis, the level of separatism only leads to deeper racial hatred and stereotyping. I guess when you have lived in Philadelphia, Nashville, and Minneapolis or in any cosmopolitan city, you forget that there are still bigoted people in the world.

Remember, this is the city that saw over 100,000 people gather under the Gateway Arch to catch a glimpse of Barack Obama before he was elected president. But it’s also the same city that back in the spring of 2009 had a fit when the weekly Riverfront Times ran a cover story with a picture of a black and white couple kissing. Where does all this hatred come from?

In St. Louis, white people run from black people, because black people are very scary, obviously (LOL). I remember the day of an After-Christmas-Sale at the St. Louis Galleria (the high-end mall), a bunch of kids looted cars in the mall parking lot and it made the national nightly news. When I saw this on the television, I got so pissed off when the anchors specified that black males did the stealing. Really? Did they really need to specify the race? What new details does that add to the story, other than turning up the sentiment that “You Need to Grab Your Purse When You See Black People?” And then there were your average mall goers, saying things on-air like, “The Galleria has become pretty sketchy as of late.” Translation: "There are too many damn black people here!"

The irony, to me anyway, is that nowadays in most other cities, white people don’t run from black people, but actively take over their neighborhoods. They just move right on in!  But in St. Louis, the exact opposite trend is happened. "White Flight", as it’s called, was about white people getting the hell out of areas with too much racial diversity and into the safe bosom of the newly developed suburbs (St. Charles County).

Many things in this city is still painfully segregated. Many of white St. Louis native don't even realize this, because they believe that "laws" changed all that. All people know where they are not wanted. With white people continuing moving farther and farther away, it will remain that way.

St. Louis will never amount to much until the city’s deep-rooted racism is adequately addressed.

John Parker is a senior public relations and communications professional, journalist, author, and Owner / Principal of Evolution Communication Group, a public relations firm in St. Louis, MO. He is well experienced in corporate communications, crisis management, and public affairs with over 15 years of diverse experience in public/media relations, political operations and connecting individuals and corporations with the world through communications.