Richmond’s History of Racial Injustice: Impacts on Human and Environmental Health
Richmond’s History of Racial Injustice: Impacts on Human and Environmental Health
9/27/2020 Presentation by John Moeser with Sally Johnston
Recommended Resources
Resources on the history of racism in the USA:
· Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon
· Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner
· Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
· Steel Drivin’ Man: The Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson
· Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Urban Planning and Racism in Richmond: Articles and Books by John Moeser
· Politics of Annexation: Oligarchic Power in a Southern City by John Moeser.
o Free online access to John’s book through VCU at this website
o https://news.vcu.edu/article/VCU_University_of_Richmond_libraries_work_together_to_publish
· “Redemptive Planning: What Richmond Must Do to Save It’s Soul.” John Moeser, Richmond Times Dispatch, April 26, 2020. https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/john-v-moeser-column-what-richmond-must-do-to-save-its-soul/article_b0d1531c-e67a-5340-977d-3e9e83d69059.html
· “The Real Navy Hill.” John Moeser and Ben Campbell, Richmond Times Dispatch, Sept. 11, 2019. https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/ben-campbell-and-john-moeser-column-the-real-navy-hill/article_690515b2-233c-573d-9ce0-652d7a022ec0.html
· Redlining Richmond. Research by John and others to use census data to map and understand the ongoing impacts of the 1930’s-1960’s practice of redlining. https://dsl.richmond.edu/holc/pages/intro
Resource linking racism with climate and health vulnerabilities:
· “How decades of racist housing policy left neighborhoods sweltering.” New York Times, August 24, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html
o Builds on redlining research by John Moeser and recent research by Jeremy Hoffman, chief scientist at the Science Museum of Richmond, and others that builds on John’s earlier work to map connections between heat islands in Richmond, historically redlined communities, and zipcodes where the most incidents of heat related emergency room visits occur.
· Nearly half of Richmond’s Covid cases are in South Richmond’s Black and Latino communities. Richmond Times Dispatch, September 5, 2020. https://richmond.com/news/local/nearly-half-of-richmond-covid-cases-are-in-south-richmonds-black-and-latino-communities-advocates/article_0cc0ba3d-0049-551a-8b92-124e1a04665e.html
o Some of the historically redlined areas of Richmond are suffering disproportionately from Covid. Many factors have impacted community health in these areas, including decades of environmental injustice.
RICHMOND’s Climate Mitigation and Equitable Community Resilience Initiatives
Richmond 300. Richmond’s long-term masterplan. http://www.richmond300.com/sites/default/files/R300_LowResDraft_200603.pdf
“Designing an equitable, sustainable, and beautiful Richmond for its 300th birthday in 2037.”
Richmond’s Green Team (Capital Trees is one of the community partners)
https://capitaltrees.org/announcing-the-city-of-richmonds-green-team/
Plan to target 10 parcels of city-owned land to make green spaces – letting residents have parks within 10 minute walks. City parks and recreation working with community partners.
RVAGreen 2050. https://www.rvagreen2050.com/
City of Richmond’s equity-centered climate action and resilience planning initiative to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and help the community adapt to Richmond’s climate impacts of extreme heat, precipitation, and flooding.
A RESOURCE BUILDING ON JOHN MOESER’S EARLIER WORK REGARDING RACISM AND REDLINING IN RICHMOND TO EXAMINE THE SAME DYNAMICS IN CITIES ACROSS THE USA
Mapping Inequality: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=4/36.71/-96.93&text=intro
“Mapping Inequality brings one of the country's most important archives to the public. HOLC's documents contain a wealth of information about how government officials, lenders, and real estate interests surveyed and ensured the economic health of American cities. And with the help of ongoing research, we continue to learn at what cost such measures were realized.
Over the last thirty years especially, scholars have characterized HOLC's property assessment and risk management practices, as well as those of the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, and US. Housing Authority, as some of the most important factors in preserving racial segregation, intergenerational poverty, and the continued wealth gap between white Americans and most other groups in the U.S. Many of these agencies operated under the influence of powerful real estate lobbies or wrote their policies steeped in what were, at the time, widespread assumptions about the profitability of racial segregation and the residential incompatibility of certain racial and ethnic groups. Through HOLC, in particular, real estate appraisers used the apparent racial and cultural value of a community to determine its economic value. Mapping Inequality offers a window into the New Deal era housing policies that helped set the course for contemporary America. This project provides visitors with a new view, and perhaps even a new language, for describing the relationship between wealth and poverty in America.”