Black Birmingham Housing

Black Birmingham Housing. March Route for Fair Housing. 1937 , Most of Birmingham's housing started as cheap, poorly built living quarters that large coal and mining companies created near their factories for their workers. Living in camp town housing carried a stigma that many Blacks and Whites wanted to escape. However, Blacks, who were paid less than Whites, could not afford the best housing. The housing they could afford was limited to fewer residential areas than Whites. Additionally, the areas zoned for African Americans were located in some of the city's most undesirable areas, like in flood-prone plains or next to busy railroad yards. , "Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow." , Chief Joseph , Native American leader of the Nez Perce, 1871–1904., Blacks in Birmingham earned more money as semi-skilled laborers in the city's industrial complexes than their peers across the South. Yet they lived in the poorest quality housing compared to their peers. As late as 1950, about 88 percent of Birmingham's African American population lived in dilapidated houses that did not have a private bath, a toilet or hot water. (A smaller percentage of Birmingham Whites lived in similar conditions too.) In some places, it led to unsanitary conditions. City officials spent little public money to improve streets, sewers, lighting or other public services in Negro-zoned neighborhoods as compared to White neighborhoods. , Lesson H2: Explain how you would feel if the government forced you to live in an unclean neighborhood.