History of White Flight in Indianapolis (Gary, Hamilton: how much, neighborhoods, schools)

[kwk337]

Tell me about "white flight" in Indianapolis. What do you know? I'm not an Indianapolis native. I'm going through a lot of archival material on the revitalization of the city back when Richard Lugar and Bill Hudnut were mayors. When I read posts on here about how great Hamilton County is, my find flashes back to some of the stuff I see in the archive. Formerly great neighborhoods just sucked dry of money and community pride, as the white man moves his kids out to the new 'burbs back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The picture I'm getting is that it killed the city, for decades. But white flight, in some ways, seems like it's still alive and well.

For those of you who were here, what was your experience like in those years? To me, Richard Lugar and others seem to have really improved race relations in Indy during the late 60s and '70s. I always thought it was interesting that Indianapolis was one of the few cities in America that didn't have big riots the day Martin Luther King was killed, since Robert Kennedy was here that night.

Interesting documentary about the decline and depopulation of Baltimore in recent years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccjMjqXEMxw

As far as Indianapolis goes, how much of the "white flight" syndrome do you think was due to race relations, how much to crime, and how much to perceived government ineptitude in maintaining the city?

Lot of factors behind all this. Your thoughts?

[domergurl]

If you want to study white flight, study NW Indiana.

[Northwest Indiana]

Better yet, study Chicago's south suburbs (in which NWI is both a recipient of flight and had its own flight)

From what I see in Indy, yes there was some white flight but I see way way way less racial and economic segregation than other parts of the Midwest. It is more integrated than NWI and definitely more so than Chicago.

[kwk337]

Originally Posted by Northwest Indiana

Better yet, study Chicago's south suburbs (in which NWI is both a recipient of flight and had its own flight)

From what I see in Indy, yes there was some white flight but I see way way way less racial and economic segregation than other parts of the Midwest. It is more integrated than NWI and definitely more so than Chicago.

I don't dispute that, but why did it turn out that way?

Also not sure that Gary/NW Indiana is a typical case when it comes to white flight. Deindustrialization there was obviously the massive culprit.

[msamhunter]

Originally Posted by kwk337

I don't dispute that, but why did it turn out that way?

Also not sure that Gary/NW Indiana is a typical case when it comes to white flight. Deindustrialization there was obviously the massive culprit.

Hatcher being elected mayor was the culprit. While there had been some flight mainly due to the schools being integrated, electing America's 1st black mayor of a major us city was the catalyst. His own political party tried to sink him which is why it was monitored by the feds.

The massive steel downsize in the 80's caused roughly 86% of the people who could leave to do just that. That is different from its white flight.

Indy is different in that center township even today is still majority white albeit by like 2 people today. Downtown was a joke for the main business center, IPS was failing and vacant land was abundant so people started moving out into the townships (now donut counties). Sure some left due to black migration into the city but the city forming unigov during that time makes it harder to truly determine why people left center township for the outer townships unlike nwi. I remember when the state banned all billboard advertising on the highways in Gary after Hatchers election and usurping its own state laws by allowing merrillville to annex up to 53rd officially Land locking Gary in 71.

[Dyadic]

Originally Posted by kwk337

Tell me about "white flight" in Indianapolis. What do you know? I'm not an Indianapolis native. I'm going through a lot of archival material on the revitalization of the city back when Richard Lugar and Bill Hudnut were mayors. When I read posts on here about how great Hamilton County is, my find flashes back to some of the stuff I see in the archive. Formerly great neighborhoods just sucked dry of money and community pride, as the white man moves his kids out to the new 'burbs back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The picture I'm getting is that it killed the city, for decades. But white flight, in some ways, seems like it's still alive and well.

For those of you who were here, what was your experience like in those years? To me, Richard Lugar and others seem to have really improved race relations in Indy during the late 60s and '70s. I always thought it was interesting that Indianapolis was one of the few cities in America that didn't have big riots the day Martin Luther King was killed, since Robert Kennedy was here that night.

Interesting documentary about the decline and depopulation of Baltimore in recent years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccjMjqXEMxw

As far as Indianapolis goes, how much of the "white flight" syndrome do you think was due to race relations, how much to crime, and how much to perceived government ineptitude in maintaining the city?

Lot of factors behind all this. Your thoughts?

In a nutshell: The Indianapolis 1949 Indiana School Desegregation Law.

[leavingIL]

This isn't really an accurate way to describe Indianapolis. I believe it has one of the most suburbanized black populations of any major U.S. city as well.

[Serious Conversation]

This may be totally off base as I'm not a native and haven't been here long, but I find Indianapolis to be a "chocolate city" in much the same vein as Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis. Indy isn't majority black from the latest census numbers I saw, but I think a lot of that is due to the size of the city limits. I work at 96th and we are technically in the city limits. I frequently walk from 96th to 91st on lunch through a neighborhood there, and this isn't an urban neighborhood at all, and I bet neighborhoods like that are majority white, but are only marginally "city." They get counted as city, but it's certainly not urban. It skews up the white population.

Go into truly urban neighborhoods and you may be hard pressed to see a white face.

[Dyadic]

Originally Posted by PeteCole84

Yeah, I agree that Indianapolis demographics are misleading - has to be more than 30% black. I see a lots of black thugs with their black trashy females from 38th to 10th; not many whites and if I do see one she's got tatts/piercings.. gross looking. It's pathetic that lots of stupid black girls would want afro-thugs who show half their butts to everyone. Saggin spelled backwards is n****s ya know. The effeminization of the black male in Indy is ridiculous but black women seem to like it. These people are backwards.

This must be nic #12.

[Dyadic]

Originally Posted by Emigrations

This may be totally off base as I'm not a native and haven't been here long, but I find Indianapolis to be a "chocolate city" in much the same vein as Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis. Indy isn't majority black from the latest census numbers I saw, but I think a lot of that is due to the size of the city limits. I work at 96th and we are technically in the city limits. I frequently walk from 96th to 91st on lunch through a neighborhood there, and this isn't an urban neighborhood at all, and I bet neighborhoods like that are majority white, but are only marginally "city." They get counted as city, but it's certainly not urban. It skews up the white population.

Go into truly urban neighborhoods and you may be hard pressed to see a white face.

Indianapolis isn't a densely populated city. There are areas on the west and south side where you will be hard pressed to see a black face.