DIVIDED TERRAIN, DEFIANT GROUNDSEGREGATION AND RESISTANCE IN THE LANDSCAPES OF THE AMERICAS

EDITED BY ERIC AVILA AND THAÏSA WAY; WASHINGTON, D.C.: DUMBARTON OAKS RESEARCH LIBRARY AND COLLECTION, 2023; 406 PAGES, $75.

MIMI ZEIGER, FADI MASOUD

On January 1, 1959, Montgomery, Alabama, shut down its parks department. Federal U.S. District Court judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. had found the city’s segregation of parks and recreational facilities unconstitutional. In blatant defiance of desegregation, the Montgomery city council shuttered every public park and padlocked community centers. The entire public park system remained closed for more than a decade. The city’s beloved Oak Park pool was drained and filled with dirt rather than become racially integrated. Similar actions occurred nationwide: New Orleans closed its pools for years. Even in cities that did not close their pools, many white residents abandoned them. These retreats from racial integration led to the widespread loss of public spaces, depriving communities of valuable assets. As the author Heather McGhee has observed, this zero-sum paradigm—the…

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Landscape Architecture (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2024

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