The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Analysis

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, many U.S. cities experienced sudden transformations. After World War II, many suburbs began to grow and develop across many U.S. cities. The suburbs represented a new modern and affluent life. However, the suburbs were very exclusive to certain people, mainly white, middle-class families. The inner city became entangled with cycles of poverty and urban decline. Despite the improvement in sanitation, questions of environmental racism remained present targeting minorities of color. The housing inequality in U.S. cities in the second half of the 20th century gave rise to an increasing gap in life in the suburbs and life in the inner city. As many residents left the inner city, many African-Americas

The documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. This was the first national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s, which was caused because of the creation of suburbs and emptied American cities of their residents, businesses, and industries. Those left behind in the city faced a poor, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis, and increasingly segregated by class and race. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest hit. Their interesting stories of survival, adaptation, and success are at the emotional heart of the film. The domestic turmoil wrought by pushing public welfare policies; the frustrating interactions with an oppressive and cash-strapped Housing Authority; and the downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime led to resident protest and action during the 1969 Rent Strike, the first in the history of public housing. And yet, despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe has often been stereotyped ( Documentary)