Race, History, and Urban Landscape- Danny Mayer, 1/16/2013

Race, History, and Urban Landscape- Danny Mayer

Three strands of presentation:

1)      Frontier History from Paddling the Kentucky River

2)      Lexington Racial History- Rich Shine (sp?)

3)      Marxist Geographer- Neal Smith

Frontier History:

                Kentucky- Open, common ground à “Terra Nova”-Settlers   “Great Meadow”-Native Americans

                Private Coorperations formed to trade goods to N.A. in exchange for the Land—Early Gentrification.  (i.e. Ohio Co, Transylvania Co., etc.)

                Settlers- All you need to do is put up a corn patch to claim the land.

                KY River early highway system- Cheap Iron, Salt, Coal, etc.

                To get W of Appalachian Mtns , either hike in or Float in along the KY River, either way à Lex!!

                Lexington an early hub for Finance, business, etc.—Athens of the West

Lexington Split up very early on.

Racial Lexington-Rich Shine (sp?):

                In 1860, slave population roughly 25% of total Lex pop. à African Americans only 10%  total pop now.

                Lexington a huge hub for slave labor—primarily for hemp production

                Pre-Civil War—White Landowners, legally, a higher tier than their African American counterparts, so the ethnic diversity in Lex. relatively fluid.

                Post-Civil War—Mass migration of African Americans to Lexington, and white landowners needed a way of placing themselves “above” the AAs à “Enclaves” or “bottoms” established.

                In the East End, some major enclaves merged and formed one, African American, commercial district.

                At first, these enclaves were on the outer edge of the city, but as the city continued to grow, commercial development skipped over them and continued to expandà The reason most of these enclave-remnants are “inner city”

        Racial Tension still seen in:

1)      The way we retell civil war stories.  (i.e. Hunt Morgan, a confederate raider, still memorialized. Cheapside still prevalent as a bar even though it was the place to sell African American women and young girls into slavery—hence the name “cheapside”, etc.)

2)      The way our town is set up. (i.e. Transylvania University and The Sayre School both face away from historically “black neighborhoods.” Thoroughbred park masks the East End, and it memorializes no African Americans, etc.)

Lexington Adjusted Median Wealth after 2009 Recession:

                                Black                                      Hispanic                               White

                                $5,677                                   $6,325                                   $113,149

                                53% Decline                        66% Decline                        16% Decline

Marxist Geographer-Neal Smith

                Gentrification-People of higher social standing (The Gentry) moving back into cities and displacing the poor.

                Gentrification language usually very offensive.  (i.e. “revival,” “reformation,” etc. ~ Totally ignores/puts down the people being displaced.)

                “Fair and Balanced” news outlets often spin these renovations in a positive light.

                Our “Inner City” is trying to complete globally, so downtown is becoming a “Wallstreet” of sorts

                The current downtown trend—Arts, entertainment for wealthy Lexingtonians

                Wealthy worry about “my property value going down!”  yet they forget the racist, classist notion that their property value is based on the number of socially underprivileged people living in their neighborhood.