The racial origins of zoning: Southern cities from 1910–40

This article argues that the desire to regulate black residential patterns constituted a major objective of the early zoning and planning movement in the United States, particularly in the South between 1910–40. Throughout the early 1900s, the racial zoning movement enjoyed widespread endorsement by the emerging national planning contingent, and was not merely the brainchild of misguided southern urban leaders out of touch with the mainstream of reformism. Even after the US Supreme Court declared racial zoning unconstitutional in 1917, planners and public officials persisted in their efforts to find a legally defensible way to regulate residences by race. The most prevalent practice was to regulate residential locations indirectly through ‘racially‐informed’ comprehensive planning, including zoning, capital improvements, public housing siting, road construction, the location of segregated schools, parks and other public facilities, and through slum clearance.