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Housing Disparities

A set of photographs comparing suburban and urban housing in the St. Louis area.

Primary Source

Background

Popular culture and the federal government celebrated the suburbs as the /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ American ideal. But this ideal was not intended or attainable for everyone. Housing in the United States was deeply segregated even before the rise of the suburbs. Federal and state policies denied Blacks and other marginalized groups access to fair housing for decades.

Nearly 7 million white Americans left cities between 1950 and 1970. Suburban developers seeking business catered to the newcomers. The developers promoted communities where like-minded neighbors could build an American dream together. Many suburban developers included clauses in real estate contracts guaranteeing white residents that Black families would be kept out of the neighborhood. The founder of the famous Levittown in Long Island, New York, argued that such policies were necessary to attract residents.

In the same two decades, nearly 3 million Black Americans left the rural south for the urban North, continuing the Great Migration. They were not welcomed in most suburbs. Because they lacked options, many Black families moved into new government-sponsored public housing. Public housing was designed to provide low-income families with a home. The large apartment buildings packed many people into a small amount of space without any amenities.

The domestic reality for white and Black women was very different. White women were more likely to stay home full time to care for their families. Most married white women who worked earned a modest income, which added to the family’s spending money. They had access to better-quality homes filled with time-saving appliances. They also had the support of and participated in volunteer organizations that benefited their schools and communities. Black women rarely had the option to care for their families at home full time. Economic inequalities and employment discrimination based on race meant that most Black families needed two incomes to survive. As working mothers, Black women had less support and time to invest in their homes, children, and other needs. And no amount of hard work would earn them access to the suburbs.

Images

Photograph
A black and white, 1956 street view photograph of a suburban home with shuttered windows, Christmas lights, a lawned front yard, a driveway, as well as an open door garage.

Home in the Glasgow Village Subdivision decorated for Christmas, 1956. Photographs depicting Glasgow Village. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, 1967 photographic print of the 11 floor, rectangular housing complex that appears to span several blocks with a dozen cars parking in front of the patches of grass outside of the large boxy structure. A sign on the lower left corner indicates that this is the Pruitt Homes apartments, part of the St. Louis Housing Authority.

Pruitt-Igoe Apartment Buildings, 1965 [Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project]. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, 1956 photographic print of a tree-lined playground where young white children climb a ladder and slide down. Individual white suburban homes appear in the background.

Children at a Playground in Glasgow Village Subdivision, 1956. Photographs depicting Glasgow Village. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, 1956 photographic print of a dozen African American children climbing and sitting on a slide in a playground near urban, eleven-stories high, rectangular apartment buildings.

Pruitt-Igoe Apartment Buildings, 1956 [Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project]. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, 1956 photographic print of a carpeted living room with a young white boy sitting on the couch, behind a coffee table, near a collapsible dining table, with four wooden chairs set along the wall, as well as a mid-century credenza and hutch with decorative dishes displayed.

Builder’s Display home in the Glasgow Village Subdivision, North St. Louis County, 1956. Photographs depicting Glasgow Village. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, photographic print, circa 1955-1976, of an African-American woman sitting on a cushioned wingback chair, below a rural landscape painting mounted on a cinderblock wall room, next to a side table with a lamp.

Mrs. Mattie Mason in her apartment in the Pruitt-Igoe public Housing Project at 2229 O’Fallon Street, 1955-1976. Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white, 1956 photographic print of four white women with matching shirts, pants, and belts, standing next to each other in a bowling alley, each with a bowling shoe mounted upon a resting bowling ball.

Women’s Bowling Team from the Glasgow Village Subdivision, 1956. Photographs Glasgow Village. Henry T. Mizuki / Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Photograph
A black and white photographic print, circa 1955-76, of two African American women sitting in the Division of Welfare office, one taking notes, sitting at a typewriter. Over a dozen cars are parked outside the window, in front of the large high rise apartment building visible in the background.

Two women in the division of welfare office across from the Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing Project, 1955-1976. Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.

Teaching Materials

Suggested Activities

  • AP Government Connection: 4.9: Ideology & Economic Policy

  • Assign students to do a deep dive into one pair of images from this set. The images can be divided into four pairs: exterior of housing, living rooms, playgrounds, and nearby “amenities.” Ask students to highlight similarities and differences and share what they have learned with other groups.

  • Explore the ideal and reality of /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ life in greater detail by combining this resource with the Kitchen Debates and the resources on consumerism.

  • Glasgow Village had its own dedicated shopping center. Watch the shopping center film in conjunction with looking at these photographs to develop a deeper understanding about the allure of suburban life.

  • Life in the suburbs was often presented as an ideal, but was it? Combine the photographs of Glasgow Village and the post-war consumerism resources with the life story of Betty Friedan to explore this question.

  • School and housing integration were closely linked, as location often informed a student’s school zone. Pair this resource with the document about the Little Rock Nine to explore the inequities Black women and their children faced in this era.

  • Explore housing segregation in the 20th century in greater detail by pairing this resource with the data available on Mapping Inequality, a website that studies the impact of redlining and other Depression-era policies in detail.

  • Many of the Pruitt-Igoe residents were part of the migration of Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Connect this resource to the larger narrative of women and the Great Migration by exploring these additional resources.

  • Housing was only one part of racial segregation in /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ America. Combine this resource with the document on the Little Rock Nine, the life stories of Mamie Till-Mobley and Katherine Johnson, and the Barbie and Christie dolls to study the Black experience in the 1950s.

Get Deeper into Relevant Topics

1948 - 1963

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