1. The Rush to the Suburbs

2. Information 1 Government policies drew citizens into the suburbs
Federal Housing Administration and Veteran Administration guaranteed loans, making suburb life economically viable.
Those who lived in the suburbs were offered tax deductions for their interest payments on mortgages.
Highways were built to make it easier for suburbanites to commute into the city.
By 1960, one quarter of all Americans lived in the Suburbs

3. Information 2
The rising demand for suburban homes caused drastic growth in the construction industry. Pioneers capitalized on this by establishing suburbs.
Technological developments were brought about by the demand for construction, making the process of construction quicker and more efficient.
When whites migrated out of the cities into the suburbs (“white flight”), inner cities were left with a high concentration of impoverished blacks due to the great migration.
This essentially “imported” the south’s poverty that was escaped from after the great migration.

4. Information 3
Businesses eventually left the cities due to poverty, moving into the suburbs.
The FHA inflamed this situation by informing the country of the “risks” that came along with loaning to certain racial groups, limiting social mobility of blacks.
Public housing programs followed a “neighborhood composition rule” which caused black housing to be built in black neighborhoods, reinforcing racial division.

5. Source 1

6. Source 2

7. Source 3

8. Questions
Determine why the poverty of the south was “imported” into urban areas.
Explain how the neighborhood composition rule contributed to racial separation.