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A review by alexisrt
Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila
4.0
This is an interesting look back at the history of housing segregation in one city. Baltimore makes a fascinating study because it operated a three tier system: white, Jewish, and black, and because of its history as a border city with a complicated history of segregation.
Pietila walks you through the history of Baltimore's attempt to segregate itself via means both official and unofficial--from attempts at legislating segregation via ordinance to restrictive covenants and the existence of multiple MLS services (that continued through the 1970s). Neighborhoods were integrated via blockbusting, speculators, and through individual homeowners seeking better places to live. White flight, too, was both organized or prompted by speculators, and spontaneously generated through fear of financial loss.
The nature of Baltimore segregation ultimately pitted Jews against blacks--both because of the actions of non-Jewish white politicians and developers, and because Jews themselves took part in blockbusting, in discriminating against black homebuyers (and sometimes other Jews), and through the part Jewish middlemen played in enabling black homeowners to bypass banks and government institutions that would not help them buy.
The book isn't flawless--you can tell it was published by a small press and would have benefited from more editorial attention. However, Pietila spent 35 years at the Baltimore Sun, and does a good job of telling the story.
Pietila walks you through the history of Baltimore's attempt to segregate itself via means both official and unofficial--from attempts at legislating segregation via ordinance to restrictive covenants and the existence of multiple MLS services (that continued through the 1970s). Neighborhoods were integrated via blockbusting, speculators, and through individual homeowners seeking better places to live. White flight, too, was both organized or prompted by speculators, and spontaneously generated through fear of financial loss.
The nature of Baltimore segregation ultimately pitted Jews against blacks--both because of the actions of non-Jewish white politicians and developers, and because Jews themselves took part in blockbusting, in discriminating against black homebuyers (and sometimes other Jews), and through the part Jewish middlemen played in enabling black homeowners to bypass banks and government institutions that would not help them buy.
The book isn't flawless--you can tell it was published by a small press and would have benefited from more editorial attention. However, Pietila spent 35 years at the Baltimore Sun, and does a good job of telling the story.