The Persistence of the Black Ghetto as Spatial Separation

THE PERSISTENCE OF THE BLACK GHETTO AS SPATIAL SEPARATION Richard L. Morrill* "Seek and ye shall find; Knock and the door shall be opened; Ask and it shall be given; When love comes atumblin' down"—traditional song "Whites are the ones who must raise themselves to our humanistic level" —-SNCC, 1966 program announcement INTRODUCTION. One credo of the liberal view of the future relations of black and white in the United States is that integration means, among other things, the disappearance of the all-black ghetto as a distinctly segregated residential area. In fact, such a prospect is far from certain, even if conditions within the ghetto and attitudes toward the black minority were to change radically. This brief essay examines the origin and maintenance of the ghetto, outlines the conditions that would have to be met before the ghetto could disappear, and further suggests possible barriers that might indefinitely remain. Historically, the "ghetto" is the geographic manifestation of a social phenomenon—the physical as well as social segregation of a group discriminated against by a more powerful one owing to real and/or perceived differences. The Negro and also Puerto Rican and MexicanAmerican are the most recent targets of this process and the present occupants of U. S. ghettos. (1) It is popular to argue that since earlier ghetto occupants—the Irish. Italians, or Polish immigrants—have rather thoroughly assimilated into the wider culture, that the black ghetto, too, is but a passing phenomenon. But, for good reasons, especially the Negro's blackness and subsequent partially isolated cultural development , time may not erase this ghetto. LOCATION AND ORIGIN OF THE GHETTO IN AMERICA. In order to assess the prospects of a ghetto's disappearing, it is necessary to understand the conditions which created it. The ghetto of the American city appears to be a product of social incompatibility, poverty, and relative power. (2) The newest and/or most socially different groups are targets of both social and economic discrimination. The latter condemns a group to poverty—the former to a separate, segregated existence. Together they drain the group of power and self-esteem, and relegate them to the structurally deteriorating areas of the city, thereby creating a ghetto. Where would the ghetto—this least desired area—be found? A common developmental pattern in American cities was a concentration of *Dr. Morrill is professor of geography at the University of Washington. The paper was accepted for publication in May 1971. 150Southeastern Geographer employment of all economic classes in a commercial-industrial core, together with a wedge of industrial activity along railroad corridors. The high income residents have been able to keep the most desirable corridor (usually far from the industrial areas) into the center, either as areas of old mansions, or as high-rise apartments. The much larger number of low income residents who had to walk or rely on the streetcar were able to compete for access to this employment by accepting much less space and quality. By sheer numbers, and consequent overcrowding of the original housing stock, the poor could afford the high rent per unit of land. Over the years, the overcrowding led to housing deterioration, collapse of other demands for the land, and decline in land values. Along the industrial corridors, absence of demand by more affluent groups relegated the land to workers' housing. Within this central area abandoned to the low income population, the least desirable in turn was left to the poorest of the poor, usually the newest and most socially different group. (3) However, even if the most recent immigrants were not economically worse off, spatial separation was enforced and a ghetto quality created due to social differences. Earlier groups, who had only begun to be accepted themselves, feared the competition for jobs, feared the contact with other religions and cultures, and sought to avoid the newcomers. (4) When low income immigrants to the cities increasingly became blacks from the American South rather than whites from Europe, a whole new level of fears emerged. The obvious physical and rather great cultural difference unleashed far more basic physical and psychological fears, which in turn led to much more formidable barriers to social contact and...