History of Segregation in Rochester
Click here for link to 4th grade curriculum (click here for new version)
Shane Wiegand
shanewiegand22@gmail.com
History of Segregation
and Racist Policy in Greater Rochester
Shane Wiegand
shanewiegand22@gmail.com
Sources
White Fragility
“The key to moving forward is what we do with our discomfort. We can use it as a door out—blame the messenger and disregard the message. Or we can use it as a door in by asking, Why does this unsettle me? What would it mean for me if this were true?”
― Robin DiAngelo
Definitions
Disparity
2017
ACT Rochester
Hard Facts
Report
Our Rochester
297 Alexander Street
“I shall always feel more at home there
than anywhere in the country.”
Austin Steward
Webster: Underground Railroad
Slave Owner: Daniel Penfield
Our Rochester
Our Rochester
Our Rochester
Housing Segregation
Segregation in Rochester Today
Disparity
2017
ACT Rochester
Hard Facts
Report
3 Black Teachers
764 White Teachers
2015-2016 School Year
NY Schools are the Most Racially Segregated in the U.S.
Howard Coles
The Voice Housing Study 1938
1939 Rochester Housing Survey
1939 Rochester Housing Study
-Harold Rand
1941 ‘Rochester is one of the worst places for discrimination against the Negro of any city in the North’. -Rev. R. La Rue Cober, Genesee Baptist Church
1941 “Rochester is one of the worst places for discrimination against the Negro of any city in the North”
-Rev. R. La Rue Cober, Genesee Baptist Church
1942 Dr. Anthony Jordan “In Rochester the Negro death rate from all causes is 50% higher than that of whites. The Tuberculosis death rate among Negroes in Rochester is two and one-half times that of whites.
1942: “In Rochester the Negro death rate for all causes is 50% higher than that of whites. Tuberculosis death rate among Negroes in Rochester is two and one-half times that of Whites. -Dr. Anthony Jordan
“The housing situation always has been an enigma to the Negro. In Rochester only two areas have been gracefully made available for him. If any attempt is made to move out of the black ghetto the attempt is met with opposition.”
-Rev. Charles Boddie
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church
Presentation Outline
Presentation Outline
Sanford FL
1910-1970: Great Migration
From 1920s until 1956, the Code of Ethics set by the National Association of Real Estate Boards stated:
"A realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood."
National Association of Real Estate Boards
National Association of Real Estate Boards
“I then confronted the housing segregation in Rochester. In 1954, the wife and I answered ads for sixty-nine apartments and were refused at all of them.”
Dr. Walter Cooper
1957 19th Ward:
Dr. Alice Holloway Young, Real Estate Board, & KKK
1957 19th Ward:
Dr. Alice Holloway Young, Real Estate Board, & KKK
1980 Democrat and Chronicle Henrietta KKK
1910-1948: Restrictive Covenants
1910-1948: Restrictive Covenants
-Monroe County Clerk
Liber 1479 Page 314
Photo by Shane Wiegand
Brighton: Restrictive Covenants
Institutional Racism at Kodak
-Kodak Magazine 1920 p. 17
1930s: Institutional Racism at Kodak
-Monroe County Clerk
Liber 1960 page 300
Photo by Shane Wiegand
Irondequoit: Restrictive Covenants
Irondequoit: Restrictive Covenants
Liber 1469 p398-399
Fred Tosch
288 Wimbledon
Irondequoit: Restrictive Covenants
Brooklea Builder Norman Huyck
Gates: Restrictive Covenants
Rochester: Restrictive Covenants
Pittsford: ‘Rigid Restrictions’ Oak Hill and St. John Fisher
Pittsford: Restrictive Covenants
“My wife and I were looking for a house. This was in 1958. We saw a house we liked on 135 Elmdorf Avenue in Rochester just a block or so west of Genesee Street. And I would say that there were probably four black families that lived anywhere west of Genesee Street at that time.
The owner refused to sell to us. Because we were black. There was a restrictive covenant in the deed that these houses when built were not to be sold to the colored and Italians.”
1958: Judge Reuben Davis
Restrictive Covenants Found so Far
Known Covenants
Harris & Ewing, photographer / Library of Congress
New Deal:
National Housing Act 1934
Federal Housing Authority
“To be most effective, deed restrictions should be imposed upon all land in the immediate environment of the subject location.... Recommended restrictions should include provisions for the following... Prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended."
FHA
Underwriting Manual
“Time and again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era”
-Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning
“The ultimate goal of racism was the profit and comfort of the white race, specifically, of rich white men.”
― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
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Redlining:
Enforcing the National Housing Act
Redlining:
Enforcing the National Housing Act
Assessors Report: Corn Hill
Suburbs Greenlined &
Whites Only
Suburbs Greenlined
1960: 11 Individual People of Color in Henrietta
The FHA and VA Insured Half of All Mortgages Nationwide
The FHA and VA gave out over $119 billion in mortgage insurance
1947 Chief Rochester FHA Underwriter Alfred C. Gertis breaks ground on whites only veterans housing in Brighton.
$119 Billion in Mortgage Insurance
Homeownership increased from 44% in 1934
to 63% in 1972
-Color of Law
Homeownership Increased
1934: 44%
1972: 63%
35 Million Families Benefited
98% of Them White
Normalizing Racism
Normalizing Racism in Rochester
Pittsford 1953 : Holy Name Society of St. Louis Parish Annual Minstrel Show
R.I.T.
R.I.T. Delta Omicron’s Annual Minstrel Show 1951
Towns that Hosted blackface minstrel shows
Greece
Irondequoit
Webster
Penfield
Fairport
Pittsford
Victor
Henrietta
Gates
Churchville
Canandaigua
Honeoye Falls
Brockport
Dansville
Lyons
Clyde
Seneca Falls
Geneva
Marion
Ontario
Newark
Penn Yann
Hemlock
Williamson
Sodus Point
Walworth
Albion
Dundee
Phelps
Perry
Geneseo
Nunda
Farmington
Palmyra
North Rose Wolcott
Towns That Hosted Black Face Shows
1939: School 44 RCSD
“Blackface minstrel shows must be banned from all public and private schools, churches and public buildings. To do otherwise [will] cripple permanently the attitudes of all the white youth involved in these community-accepted shows, toward all of the dark-skinned people of the world.”
1961 NAACP spoke out in the Democrat and Chronicle about these racist shows.
1961: Local NAACP Condemns Shows
Governor Harriman
1958: NYS Commission Against Discrimination
1950 Monroe County: 80% of all people of color live in 3rd & 7th Wards
-Democrat and Chronicle 1946
More than 2,000 Units in 3rd and 7th Wards were Overcrowded
Constance Mitchell
“We were living in a community that was bursting at the seams because there was not open housing.
When John and I bought our house on Grieg Street, the real estate agent told us, said, "I can't show ya houses west of Jefferson Avenue. It's just not open to blacks." So that we were confined, from Jefferson Avenue back to the river, to look for a place to live on the west side of the city.”
Constance Mitchell
7th and 3rd Ward: 30% of all units had no running water
7th & 3rd Ward:
30% of all Units no Running Water
1958: No FHA or VA Loans Given to People of Color in any Suburb
Move in Violence
Move in Violence & White Resistance
1969
1969
Urban Renewal and Displacement
3rd Ward-490
Urban Renewal Baden-Ormond 886 Families Displaced. 850 Families displaced in Third Ward.
Urban Renewal and Displacement
7th Ward: 886 Families 3rd Ward: 850 Families
1965: Church of God in Christ
1940 Rev. Joseph Caldwell
Mayor Dicker & Pepsi President Frank Staropoli Sr.
1964: Uprising
1989 Study on Riots: Strong correlation between housing conditions, displacements and people arrested for rioting
1989 Study on Uprising:
caused by displacement, lack of running water, & police brutality
-Vacca 1989
1968 Fair Housing Act
1968: Fair Housing Act
“As long as the Fair Housing Act is enforced Individually rather than systematically, it is unlikely to be effective in overcoming the structural arrangements that support segregation and sustain the ghetto.
“It will require a moral commitment that white America has historically lacked. The segregation of People of Color was no historical accident; it was brought about by actions and practices that had the passive acceptance, if not the active support of most whites in the United States.”
Population in Redlined Areas Today is
92% Minority
-The National Community Reinvestment Coalition 2018
Population in Redlined Areas
92% Minority
1960s-Today: Exclusionary Suburban Zoning
Penfield Zoning Board 1965
1960s-Today: Exclusionary Suburban Zoning
Segregation in Rochester Today
Segregation in Webster Today
-Democrat and Chronicle 1974
1971: Philips Village
Tract 1
Tract 2
Phillips Village Today
White: 63% Black: 17% Non White: 37%
Phillips Village Today
White: 53% Black: 21% Non White 50%
Owner Occupied Homes
Owner Occupied Homes
Concentration of Poverty
-Empire Justice River Runs Dry Repot
-Empire Justice
Empire Justice:
Home purchase denial rates are the highest in neighborhoods with 80-100% of residents who are black.
In 2011, the median white household had a net worth of $111,146, compared with $7,113 for the median black household
$111,146
$7,113
2011 Wealth Gap
“For every $100 that an average white family has in wealth, an average black family has $5.”
Yale
2017: “For every $100 than an average white family has in wealth, an average black family has $5.”
Yale
Presentation Outline
Summary
What can we do?
Key Resources
The Color of Law by: Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein on Fresh Air
Nikole Hannah-Jones “Living Apart” ProPublica
American Apartheid by: Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton
Case for Reparations by: Ta-Nahesis Coates in The Atlantic
This American Life Story on Fair Housing Act
New York Times Census Map of Segregation
1935 Redlining Map of Rochester NY
October 2016 DC Article by Justin Murphy about Redlining in Rochester
City Newspaper article by: Dr. Walter Cooper reflection on 64’ riots and their causes
Our Crisis of Poverty, Racism, and Segregation by Mary Anna Towler City Newspaper
Rochester Black Freedom Struggle University of Rochester
How Home Ownership Became the Engine of American Inequality by: Matthew Desmond
ACT Rochester 2017 Hard Facts Report
University of Rochester Oral History Project
Blockbusting by Realtors in Rochester