FERGUSON ANALYSIS

The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of its Troubles Analysis

Dezerae Reyes

SOCI 3343.251: Criminology

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 Richard Rothstein’s report The Making of Ferguson: Public Policy at the Root of its

Troubles eloquently discusses the inception of Ferguson, Missouri by highlighting 20th century

local, state, and federal public policies responsible for segregating St. Louis. More specifically,

he argues that the effects of these historic discriminatory public policies are largely responsible

for the racial disparity in Ferguson today. Rothstein compels the reader to face the reality of

institutional racism by leading a rhetorical expedition through local, state, and federal public

policy history that of which has largely been forgotten. Although these policies were eradicated

in the 21st century, their effects still maintain the same ghettos and segregation they initially

created. In order to solve the segregated conditions of Ferguson and similar cities, it is

necessary to first understand the local, state, and federal conditions of the past.

The fatal shooting of the black and unarmed teenager Michael Brown in 2014 and the

following infamous protests in Ferguson provoked a nation-wide discussion about racism in

America (Rothstein 2015). These protests brought much needed attention to the neglected

subject of segregation and racism. However, a large portion of explanations circulating in mass

media suggested that private prejudices were largely to blame (Rothstein 2015). In other

words, private racist beliefs were the direct causes for Ferguson’s civil unrest and demands for

equality (Rothstein 2015). However, Rothstein’s (2015) report makes it clear that, although

private prejudices can be found within these policies, it is severely misguided to solely blame

“suburban snobbishness” as the perpetrator. Rather, it is far more accurate to analyze these

private prejudices within the grand scheme of government policy. Rothstein (2015) provides

several examples of local policy and private prejudices that eventually overlap in collaboration

with the bigger agenda of state and federal policy.

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 Rothstein (2015) introduces the personal impact of local segregation policy with the

compelling story of Larman Williams and Adel Allen in 1968. Williams, one of the first African

American’s to purchase a home in a Ferguson, an entirely white suburban at the time

(Rothstein 2015). He was initially denied a house showing by a real estate agent. White home

owners also participated in similar acts by participating in a consensual agreement not to sell to

African American known as restrictive covenants (Rothstein 2015). Even more disturbing,

Williams and other African Americans were banned from visiting some white residential areas

at night, known as “sun down towns” in the 1960’s (Rothstein 2015). Despite the odds, Williams

and his wife were determined to raise their three daughters in a safe neighborhood and

resource abundant school. Williams was eventually able to purchase a home in Ferguson with

the influence of his white pastor (Rothstein 2015). Yet, the Williams family were unknowingly in

the midst of a racial migration about to take place where the boundaries change but racial

homogeneity is maintained (Rothstein 2015). This movement is commonly known as “white

flight”.

At the time of Williams purchase, Rothstein (2015) reports that Ferguson was less than 1

percent black in 1970’s. Through the 1980’s and 2010’s, Ferguson’s black population grew

steadily from 14 percent to 67 percent (Rothstein 2015). As African Americans like Williams

moved into suburbs, especially after the demolishment of the St. Louis public housing in the

1970’s, White Americans migrated to downtown areas. Similar transitions took place in other

suburban areas like Kirkwood as reported by Adel Allen, an engineer in the 1960’s (Rothstein

2015). By hiding his identity through a “straw” purchase (real buyer’s identity is hidden), he

purchased a home but quickly noticed “for sale” signs popping up rapidly onto his block

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(Rothstein 2015). Within eight years, his neighborhood block transformed from a majority

white to Black Americans (Rothstein 2015). And unsurprisingly, the maintenance of public

amenities such as roads and sidewalks disappeared. Not to mention, property value sharply

decreased as well (Rothstein 2015).

As Rothstein (2015) argues, local policies enforced the 20th century model of housing

race boundaries: black urban cities and white suburbs. However, this model is gradually

transitioning in the 21st century to white central cities rimmed with black suburbs followed by a

ring of white suburbs (Rothstein 2015). The origin of this transition can be traced through policy

and was nothing short of intentional. For instance, St. Louis local government and officials

permitted and enforced discriminatory policies that were partially responsible for preserving

this segregation seen today in the 21st century. Additionally, local government neglected to

intervene into discriminatory practices from real estate agents and banks (who did not provide

loan or financing services to African Americans) (Rothstein 2015). Real estate and banks played

significant roles in enforcing local policy (also state and federal) to segregate housing in St.

Louis and nationwide through practices that Rothstein (2015) reports as block busting, racial

steering, and racial zoning. These practices, some of which were later adopted and formalized

by state and federal government, such as racial zoning, for instance, was passed by the St. Louis

city through a ballot referendum (Rothstein 2015). It specifically prohibited whites and blacks

from moving into neighborhoods where 75 percent of the occupants were of the “opposing”

race (Rothstein 2015). Although it was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S Supreme Court, the

ruling focused on home-owner’s freedoms rather than the injustice of oppressive and racist

laws (Rothstein 2015). Through these examples, Rothstein awakens the reader from their

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peaceful dreams of racial progression and displays the horrific reality of segregation plaguing

the 21st century. He continues to remind the reader that factors such as “white flight” and racist

real estate agents were not the sole actors but simply enforced the intentions of discriminatory

of state and federal policy.

Rothstein (2015) discusses how state government undoubtedly played a significant role

in enforcing a “separate and unequal” quality of life for African Americans. State policies

equally pursued segregation with the support of federal government. For instance, Rothstein

elaborates on how the process of zoning was enacted to create various industrial lines such as

residential, commercial, and industrial zones (Rothstein 2015). Specifically, the process of

“redlining” (the literal marking of a map with red to segregate areas designated for African

Americans and whites by local and state officials) went hand-in-hand with designating zones.

The residential areas were high-property value areas that were kindly maintained with

city and state amenities. These prospering areas were safer communities with resourceful and

high performing schools. As Rothstein states, the residence areas were specifically roped off for

middle-class white families to live. Thus, the cooperation of local government was necessary to

ensure that these areas were inhabited for white Americans only. On the contrary, African

American communities were racially steered and blockbusted to reside in industrial or

commercial. Commercial and industrial areas were locations where industry cooperation’s and

“entertainment” business’ were permitted to function. These industries often created pollution

and caused other undesirable issues without fearing consequences or even mild regulation.

Also, various commercial businesses such as liquor stores, bars, and strip clubs were permitted

to set up shop into black residential communities. African American’s were confined to severely

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poor areas that lacked social bonding, safe areas, prosperous schools, and high property values.

This not only led to a depletion of safe neighborhoods, but also gave the impression that blacks

were inherently morally lacking, violent and unintelligent to other observing Americans. More

specifically, the effect of these dilapidated ghettos helped to reinforce stereotypes and

justifications of white superiority among white and government observers.

However, Rothstein continues to explain how these ghettos and slums turned out to be

a reputation backlash on local, state, and federal government. As Rothstein (2015) explains,

ghettos became a “national symbol” of public housing because of the “welfare-recipient, single

mother, gang-related” occupants. Ghettos rapidly became a self-inflicted wound on to the

nation’s reputation and was quickly demolished to preserve the credibility of government. State

as well as local governments developed urban renewal plans to remove the unattractive slums

and relocate the African Americans associated with them. To illustrate, the Federal Housing

Authority created the housing project Pruitt and Igoe Towers in 1972 to house low-income

Americans (Rothstein 2015). The Igoe, originally made for whites, were quickly occupied with

poor African Americans because whites had access to cheap, nicer suburban areas (Rothstein

2015). These suburban areas were often made cheaper for poor white Americans due to low-

interest loans from willing financial sectors, eager real-estate agents and subsidizing from local

and state government that were unavailable to a majority of African Americans (Rothstein

2015). Furthermore, Rothstein reports that even when federal power made attempts to

intervene into racist state policy, it proved to be in vain. For instance, a federal judge in 1980

ruled that state and local governments must “designate a plan” to integrate schools by

integrating housing (Rothstein 2015). However, states brushed off these instructions and

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instead offered voluntary busing to integrate schools and intentionally neglected housing

(Rothstein 2015). This left a stretching gap between segregating housing and equality for

African Americans within the United States.

As Rothstein explains, local and state government had an ominous agenda to continue

American’s long history of segregating blacks with a modern touch. The federal government

was no exception. The federal government laid the major “blueprint” for segregating housing in

an attempt to maintain segregation in the 20th century. This policy “blueprint” was designed to

segregate African Americans to slum areas in the hopes they lack equal participation in the

political, economic, and educational sphere. In fact, Rothstein (2015) reveals that a federal

appeals court declared 40 years ago that “segregated housing in the St. Louis metropolitan area

was ... in large measure the result of deliberate racial discrimination in the housing market by

the real estate industry and by agencies of the federal, state, and local governments” (Rothstein

2015).

An instance of segregating federal policy occurred during the New Deal, a time of high

unemployment and a short supply of housing. In order to accommodate these Americans in

need, Congress implemented the Public Works Administration (PWA) to combat the national

housing shortage (Rothstein 2015). To ensure segregation would be enforced, the PWA leaders

devised a “neighborhood composition rule” which said, “public housing could not alter the

racial composition of neighborhoods in which they were located” (Rothstein 2015). In other

words, the PWA offered relief to those who were remained in their designated racial areas and

even segregated previously integrated neighborhoods. Federal policy, supposedly intended to

improve American quality of life, also excluded African Americans to ghettos. Ghettos were also

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formed by federal government because the Federal Housing offered mortgage insurance

exclusively to whites during the 1940’s (Rothstein 2015).

Additionally, federal housing officials caught wind of local practices in St. louis and other

counties regarding the enforcement of local property deeds and neighborhood agreements

(Rothstein 2015). These neighborhood agreements that exclude African Americans from

purchasing homes in white suburbs were federally legalized and officially protected by the

federal government (Rothstein 2015). Perhaps the federal government discovered it was crucial

that social prejudices are necessary for the enforcement of legal policy. This suggests not only a

constant legal scrutiny over African Americans but also a constant surveillance that maintains

African American control in every social interaction.

While many of these policies used to create Ferguson and similar communities have

been revoked, the same could not be said about the effects that still haunt them. The public

policies deliberately created to segregate, punish, criminalize, and exploit African Americans

during the 20th century have seeped into our modern-day society. For instance, contemporary

segregated communities suffer similar problems: Black communities are deprived of adequate

residential services. Unsurprisingly, there has not been much improvement in solving these

problems nor major attempts to integrate communities. Additionally, mass media has failed to

inform the unsuspicious viewer of segregation history and the policy involved. Government

have also neglected to be transparent with their past policies and continue the cycle of shifting

blame about ghettos onto other sources such as the black community themselves. For instance,

responsibility is placed on “suburban snobbiness” despite the fact government exclusively held

the power to create and maintain a segregated housing society (Rothstein 2015). Without this

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knowledge, Americans cannot adequately demand equity or reimbursements for themselves or

their neighbors.

In conclusion, Rothstein’s report The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of

its Troubles has succeeded in reminding its readers, myself included, that African Americans are

truly not emancipated from century old policies. Instead, Rothstein’s report has made it clear

that slavery, like a disease, simply adapts in an advancing America. It is also made clear that

despite attempts to eradicate said “disease” by power social movements, opposing

governmental policy has built the ideal habitat for new forms of slavery to thrive.

Before reading this text, I made the mistake of not taking government into account the

inequality around me. This reading has especially enhanced my understanding of Criminology in

the sense that responsibility does not fall on the individual but on the power of social

constructions. Rothstein has helped to increase my insight on the disproportionate patterns

that fall along racial lines that are described in Criminology and the Criminal Justice system.

Since the Criminal Justice system relies heavily on removing power from the Black community,

Blacks and other minorities are confined to live within pre-determined racial lines. In other

words, systematic bias actively punishes all minorities with destructive labels and enforces

racial ideas to ill-informed individuals. Additionally, as Professor Michael Whitehawk (2016)

informed, African American’s who are poor are especially unable to benefit from a judicial

system that requires a certain amount of wealth to return to society unlabeled.

Overall, this report has expanded my sociological imagination to perceive and analyze

intuitions with a more refined oppositional gaze. Like Rothstein (2015) explains, Michael Brown

and countless others are not fatalities that will fade away if we insist on chasing untouchable

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private prejudices. If anything is to be learned from Rothstein’s report, it is that racism in

American society often have a concealed participant that can be exposed through a vibrant

sociological imagination.

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 References

Berger, Ronald J., Marvin D. Free, Melissa Deller, and Patrick K. O' Brian. 2015. Crime,
Justice, and Society: An Introduction to Criminology. Fourth. Boulder, CA: Lynne Rienner
Publications.

Rothstein, Richard. 2015. “The Making of. Ferguson: public Polices at the Root of its
Troubles.” Economic Policy Institute 1–41.

Whitehawk, Michael. 2017. “Class lecture.”

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