'The Most Segregated City in America': City Planning and Civil Rights in Birmingham, 1920-1980

摘要

Connerly borrows a phrase from Martin Luther King, Jr., to describe the Birmingham, Alabama (USA), of the 1960s. As he aptly demonstrates, the segregated city that King encountered was the product of 60 years of segregationist city planning policies. Through racial zoning, urban renewal, and the placement of interstate highways, city planning ensured that Birmingham became and remained "the most segregated city in America." Birmingham experienced changes in the 1970s, as Black residents became more involved in city planning and elected the city's first Black mayor in 1979. Connerly makes an important contribution to urban studies literature by linking segregation and city planning. Other scholars have considered segregation in Birmingham, most notably Bobby Wilson's America's Johannesburg (2000), but Connerly offers the first large scale investigation into the central role of planning in creating this racially divided city.