The Integration Debate: Competing Futures For American Cities

Racial integration, and policies intended to achieve greater integration, continue to generate controversy in the United States, with some of the most heated debates taking place among long-standing advocates of racial equality.

Today, many nonwhites express what has been referred to as "integration exhaustion" as they question the value of integration in today’s world. And many whites exhibit what has been labeled "race fatigue," arguing that we have done enough to reconcile the races. Many policies have been implemented in efforts to open up traditionally restricted neighborhoods, while others have been designed to diversify traditionally poor, often nonwhite, neighborhoods. Still, racial segregation persists, along with the many social costs of such patterns of uneven development.

This book explores both long-standing and emerging controversies over the nation’s ongoing struggles with discrimination and segregation. More urgently, it offers guidance on how these barriers can be overcome to achieve truly balanced and integrated living patterns.

Chester Hartman is Director of Research for the Washington, DC-based Poverty & Race Research Action Council. He is also founder and former Chair of The Planners Network, a national organization of progressive urban planners. His most recent books include City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, Between Eminence and Notoriety: Four Decades of Radical Urban Planning, and A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda.

Gregory D. Squires is a Professor of Sociology, and Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Previously, he worked for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and HUD and served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. He has published several books on civil rights issues and has written for many academic and general interest publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Housing Policy Debate, and Urban Studies.