Segregation In Kansas City In The 1940's

2042 Words9 Pages

Grace Vaughn
Mrs. Gumina
English III Hour 1
4 April 2016
Title
“Overall, the percentage of black residents in Kansas City — which rose from 17.5 percent in 1960 to 31 percent in 2000 — has now dropped to 29 percent” (As Whites Flock to Kansas City, Blacks Pick the Suburbs 1). Segregation in Kansas City has been a problem for decades. One of the biggest problems in the 1940’s-1960’s is segregation in neighborhoods. This is one of the biggest concerns because it concerns where people eat, go to school, go to work, and many other aspects of their lives. African Americans were forced to live east of Paseo and all white people lived to the west of it. “ Many African-Americans worked and lived in the West Bottoms, but the second industrial revolution …show more content…

“With the Union prevailing, the city remained divided. Many people think that Paseo and Troost are the same thing, but they are not. The Paseo and the color line are the same thing and it is the most controversial thing in Kansas City. Northerners preferred to live on the west side of Main Street on streets dubbed Pennsylvania, Broadway and Washington, and Southerners on the east side on streets such as Oak, Walnut and Locust. By 1870 a downtown street grid had been established” (A Rich History and Culture 1). Many white people decided to live on the west side and the African Americans were forced to live on the east. No African American had the choice to live on the west side. White people would yell or curse at black people if they were even seen in a white neighborhood. “In the 1990s new strides at community building were taken with the FOCUS: Kansas City plan and Hands across Troost initiatives. This study is an overview of community building in this neighborhood. The researcher provides a look at the past, reflections on recent developments, and considerations for the future, based on current trends” (Troost Village Community Association 1). African Americans tried to live in the same neighborhoods as whites, but they made sure that did not happen. Once many people started realizing that they were not going to be able to live in neighborhoods with white people or get as nice of houses they …show more content…

Segregation offered a “compromise” in its chimerical promises of separate but equal, yet demographic trends in the late nineteenth century, not to mention state law, made broad implementation of such a system nearly impossible (Peavler, David J. "African Americans in Omaha and the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition