A Place Called Home: Public Housing and Race in America

Until the 1930s, housing in America was primarily a private enterprise. But the Great Migration of Blacks from the farm to the city, and from the South to the North created severe housing shortages. As a way to address the population crunch as well as to generate work during the Great Depression, the US government began to subsidize housing for the poor and working classes.

The idea was that good houses make good people and, besides, these apartments would be temporary places to live as residents moved up to better jobs and neighborhoods.  It did not quite work out that way.  And this is why.

Speaker: Professor David R. Goldfield, an American historian, writer, film director, and professor.