Blockbusting in Baltimore: The Edmondson Village Story

by W. Edward Orser

Overview

Like many suburbs, Edmondson Village, a post-WWI rowhouse development with 20,000 residents, saw a dramatic shift in its population between 1955 and 1965. Behind this change lay blockbusting techniques adopted by realtors in which scare tactics were used to encourage white owners to sell cheap, followed by drastic markups for potential black buyers who lacked access to conventional bank mortgages. Both sets of homeowners, argues Edward Orser, were members of an upwardly mobile middle class in search of the American dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813184050
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	10/21/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

W. Edward Orser is professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland.

Table of Contents

The Trauma of Racial Change
The Making of a Rowhouse Neighborhood
Continuity and Undercurrents of Change
A White Community Responds to Change
African American Pioneers
The Legacy of Blockbusting

Editorial Reviews

Orser (American studies, U. of Maryland) describes a widely experienced but little analyzed phenomenon of recent social history, examining Edmonson Village, a west Baltimore rowhouse community where blockbusting triggered white flight and racial change on a dramatic scale. Of interest to students of community and urban studies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Has deftly revealed the social fragility of an apparently 'stable' white community.

American Historical Review

A valuable contribution to urban history and to the history of race relations in the United States.

Journal of Southern History

"Has deftly revealed the social fragility of an apparently 'stable' white community." — American Historical Review

"A valuable contribution to urban history and to the history of race relations in the United States." — Journal of Southern History

From the Publisher