n and the corresponding migration of blacks from rural to urban areas (especially tonorthern urban areas), urban whites witnessed an influx of poor and uneducated blacks who had ventured out of the rural South in search of better opportunities. Whites, threatenedby this invasion, and convinced by Social Darwinism thatblacks were inherently inferior, insisted upon a system of residential segregation (Swain 210). Beginning after World War II, another major force the mechanization of agriculture also contributed to the northward migration.Racial tension became paramount as city officials promoted and perpetuated racial division by supporting segregation and discrimination in housing, employment, and social services (Massey & Denton 39). Various types of residential controls contributed to the problem of residential segregation. One such tool for segregation was the establishment of zoning. Zoning was introduced in New York City in 1916 and encouraged by the U.S. Department of Commerce through the publication of the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act in 1922. Zoning proponents argued:Zoning was necessary to avoid the fate that had befallenurban ethnic neighborhoods inhabited by the new arrivals,who have crowded the citys hospitals, have taxed its juvenile courts, and have made greater police and firedepartments necessary (McGrew 3). Real estate zoning codes and certain marketing practices set prices so high as to exclude many members of minority groups from better neighborhoods (Grier 22). Under such zoning initiatives, communities were required to provide a minimum level of low-income housing; thus low-income families and individuals would have more housing options (Swain 231). In essence, planners saw zoning as a mechanism for preserving middle-class standards. In turn, zoning became a powerful tool for maintaining segregation.Yet another mechanism that contributed to maintaining segregation was the existence of restrictive cov...
