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Cited by 160Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation StudiesUrban Planning and GovernanceEnvironmental Justice and Health Disparities

Root shock: the consequences of African American dispossession

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Fullilove, M. T.·2001·Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
DOI 10.1093/jurban/78.1.72PMC PMC3456198
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Abstract

Urban renewal was one of several processes that contributed to deurbanization of American cities in the second half of the 20th century. Urban renewal was an important federal policy that affected thousands of communities in hundreds of cities. Urban renewal was to achieve "clearance" of "blight" and "slum" areas so that they could be rebuilt for new uses other than housing the poor. Urban renewal programs fell disproportionately on African American communities, leading to the slogan "Urban renewal is Negro removal." The short-term consequences were dire, including loss of money, loss of social organization, and psychological trauma. The long-term consequences flow from the social paralysis of dispossession, most important, a collapse of political action. This has important implications for the well-being of African Americans. It also raises important questions about the strength and quality of American democracy.

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Crossref · 10.1093/jurban/78.1.72

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  • The 1949 U.S. Urban Renewal Act-related dispossession of the lands of many flourishing Black communities intensified existing health disparities.

    “the 1949 U.S. Urban Renewal Act-related dispossession of the lands of many flourishing Black communities intensified existing health disparities”

    From Cultural trauma as a fundamental cause of health disparities (2022) · cites this paper as Fullilove, 2001

    The Urban Renewal Program section links the 1949 Act to displacement that disproportionately affected African American communities and describes ways displacement could cause illness and disadvantage. The Long-Term Consequences section says more than 800 African American communities had been displaced by 1962, including communities that had been gaining economic and institutional strength. The paper does not establish that existing health disparities intensified; it presents the health effects partly as proposed mechanisms. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • The dispossession forced residents to expend major financial capital to resettle, casting subsequent generations into economic disadvantage.

    “forcing residents to expend major financial capital to resettle, casting subsequent generations into economic disadvantage”

    From Cultural trauma as a fundamental cause of health disparities (2022) · cites this paper as Fullilove, 2001

    The Urban Renewal Program section says displaced people spent economic capital on resettlement, leaving them at a disadvantage relative to the rest of society. The Long-Term Consequences section describes financial losses lasting years and a rupture in communities’ economic trajectory, but does not specifically say that subsequent generations were cast into economic disadvantage. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • Cultural trauma occurs both through physical dislocation from native lands via force, genocide, or disease, and through discriminatory policies that strip groups of existing cultural lands while blocking access to future lands and other flexible resources.

    “Within the literature, this cultural trauma appears to occur both through physical dislocation from native lands via force, genocide, or disease (Evans-Campbell, 2008; Krieg, 2009), or discriminatory policies that strip groups of existing cultural lands (i.e., material resources) while blocking access to future lands and other flexible resources (Fullilove, 2001; Williams and Collins, 2016).”

    From Cultural trauma as a fundamental cause of health disparities (2022) · cites this paper as Fullilove, 2001

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  • In the United States, when many African Americans moved from the southern to the northern states during the nineteenth century, first the Jim Crow laws and then redlining, gentrification, segregation, and discrimination severely limited the housing that was available to them.

    “For example, in the United States, when many African Americans moved from the southern to the northern states during the nineteenth century, first the Jim Crow laws and then redlining, gentrification, segregation, and discrimination severely limited the housing that was available to them (43).”

    From Review of the Impact of Housing Quality on Inequalities in Health and Well-Being (2023) · cites this paper as [43]

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Cites

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1 of the 20 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Watkins BX. Fantasy, Decay, Abandonment, Defeat and Disease: Community Disinte- gration in Central Harlem 1960-1990 [dissertation]. New York: Columbia University; 2000.
  2. Bellush J, Hausknecht M. Urban renewal: an historical overview. In: Bellush J, Hausk- necht M, eds. Urban Renewal: People, Politics and Planning. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books; 1967:3-16.
  3. Parin C, Jacobs J. L'Invite ´e. Urbanisme. September-October 1999;308:16-25.
  4. Bellush J, Hausknecht M. Relocation and managed mobility. In: Bellush J, Hausknecht M, eds. Urban Renewal: People, Politics and Planning. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books; 1967:366-377.
  5. Saunders JR, Shackelford RN. Urban Renewal and the End of Black Culture in Char- lottesville, Virginia: an Oral History of Vinegar Hill. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co; 1998.
  6. Fainstein NI, Fainstein SS. New Haven: the limits of the local state. In: Fainstein SS, Fainstein NI, Hill RC, et al., eds. Restructuring the City: the Political Economy of Ur- ban Redevelopment. New York: Longman Inc; 1983:27-79.
  7. Shipp SC. Winning some battles, but losing the war. Blacks and urban renewal in Greensboro, North Carolina 1953-1965. In: Thomas JM, Ritzdorf M, eds. Urban Plan- ning and the African American Community: in the Shadows. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 1997:187-200.
  8. Wallace AFC. Mazeway disintegration: human perception of socio-cultural disorganiza- tion. Hum Organ. 1957;16:23-27.

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Authors
Fullilove, M. T.
Affiliations
New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Fullilove, M. T.
ORCID
Fullilove, M. T.
Venue
Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2001-03-01
Volume
78
Issue
1
Pages
72-80
ISSN
  • 0022-1503 (ISSN-L)
  • 1099-3460
  • 1471-8505
DOI
10.1093/jurban/78.1.72
PMC
PMC3456198
OpenAlex
W2136233128
Cited by
160
References
20
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
FWCI
6.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Heredity (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
Keywords
urban regeneration, African American community, dispossession, deurbanization, forced relocation, psychological trauma, social disorganization, political disengagement, federal housing policy, urban blight, American democracy
MeSH terms
Anomie, Black or African American, City Planning, Cultural Deprivation, Ethics, Humans, Politics, Poverty Areas, Social Alienation, Social Change, United States, Urban Population, Urban Renewal, Virginia

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