The Second Ghetto Thesis And The Power Of History

Abstract

This article discusses the work of historian Arnold R. Hirsch, author of Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 (1983). The second ghetto thesis emphasizes the role of government policy and decision making, especially public housing location and urban renewal, in triggering racial transitions of formerly white neighborhoods and, subsequently, in concentrating and containing African Americans in these newer, “second” ghettos. The article also demonstrates the applicability, with some variations, of the second ghetto thesis to the housing history of Miami, Florida. The article concludes by discussing the relevance of the second ghetto thesis for contemporary civil rights litigation.