Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

This research analyzes data, maps and academic literature in an attempt to argue why the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin has remained one of, if not the most, segregated cities in the United States. Segregation here will be defined as a political, physical, and economic separation of black and white Americans, with this separation usually being involuntary and disadvantageous to the social progress of those involved. Past academic research has focused much of its literature on studies that analyze levels of segregation from the physical perspective of the neighborhood. Neighborhoods in political science-based literature are usually understood to be the smaller, sub-units of cities that in some way share a unifying characteristic or boundary. Instead of neighborhoods, the research and analysis in this argument focuses on levels of segregation within school districts, where some of the more striking examples of segregation exist in Milwaukee County. An analysis of school districts offers potentially novel insights that “neighborhood studies” may miss or, by way of their design, avoid entirely. The subsequent research throughout this argument ultimately finds that historical redlining practices in Milwaukee (and how that redlining subsequently informed the creation of the interstate system) played a key role in drawing many of Milwaukee’s school districts. Redlining, in this case, is meant to refer to the historically common practice of refusing insurance policies, housing, business or vehicle loans to black Americans based solely on their race and/or socioeconomic status. Redlining would specifically target, and then outline, majority black communities as being “uninsurable” or “high-risk” in an attempt to keep white and black housing in metropolitan areas relatively separate. Unfortunately, several of Milwaukee’s major school districts have boundaries that nearly mirror historical redlining maps, which may have been perpetually reinforced by Milwaukee’s interstate and highway system. The highway system in Milwaukee, which was erected in wake of The Federal Highway Act of 1956, acts as a group of geographical barriers that exist on top of historical redlines. Importantly, many political scientists and researchers have found geographical barriers (like rivers, borders, mountains, and, in this case, highways) can enforce or even further exacerbate the level of segregation in an area, with or without the presence of historical redlines.

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