Chapter 2: White Flight

After World War II, the creation of the suburbs and associated culture would come to dominate contemporary American life. Growing suburban developments were made possible through increased availability of cars and highways, new standardized construction processes, and favorable government-assisted loans. Federal Housing Authority loans, which still exist today, made housing more affordable through 30-year mortgages that required little to no down payment. However, many of these lending guidelines were explicitly racist, instructing and allowing banks not to give mortgages in red-lined or undesirable neighborhoods. Entire suburban towns were newly constructed through subsidies with racially restrictive covenants, while other neighborhoods were radically changed with blockbusting. 

The 1950s were a time of opportunity and new beginnings but also a time for conflict. The American dream of 2.5 kids, a dog, and the white picket fence was not the only driving force behind the creation of the suburbs. Fear of non-white individuals moving to their neighborhood drove a large subset of the white population from Chicago to the more racially homogeneous suburbs. In 1950, more than 3 million people called Chicago home, 2.5 million of which were white. Princeton economics professor Leah Boustan found that, for every African American resident who moved into the city from 1940-1970, two white residents left for the suburbs—which, not coincidentally, were effectively off-limits to most African American homebuyers, who were thwarted by racist obstacles.