Roots of Urban Decay: Race, Urban Renewal, and Suburbanization in Youngstown, Ohio, 1950-1977

Abstract

After a half a century of seemingly inexorable urbanization, the post-war era in America saw a steady decline of cities. For older industrial areas like Youngstown, Ohio, decay in the decades following World War Two proved to be particularly extreme. After reaching a height of 170,000 in 1930, the city's population declined to 139,000 by 1970. In the ensuing decades after the war, the shift of the population to the outlying areas and growing racial conflicts and inner city problems proliferated in a city trying to counter a shrinking population and tax base The purpose of this study is to determine how and why the roots of Youngstown's eventual urban collapse grew. To determine the roots of urban decay in the city, this thesis moves beyond the study and analysis of the closure of the city's steel mills in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By analyzing populations and demographics, retail shifts, racial conflict, African American self-empowerment, and the effects of urban renewal in the period between roughly 1950 and 1977, this thesis seeks to explain the problems that led to the Youngstown area's fragmentation. Chapter one analyzes Youngstown's population stagnation at the beginning of the 1950s, early suburbanization and the growth of retail in outlying areas. Chapter two examines the cities response to decline in urban renewal campaigns and the unintended consequences they had on concentrations of poverty. Chapter three focuses on white flight in the 1960s and the eclipsing of retail in Youngstown by huge shopping centers in the suburbs. Chapter four examines the impact of segregation in the city-especially in regards to education and neighborhood decay. Chapter five deals with the problems of inner city joblessness, concentrated poverty, and the first Youngstown race riot in 1968. Chapter six is about the second riot to hit Youngstown in 1969 and the rise of the Black Power movement in the city. The conclusion closes the thesis by examining the eroding position of the city vis-a-vie the suburbs in the first ha