New Census data shows NJ Laws Continue Segregation

Posted by Adam Gordon on January 17th 2011

NJ remains segregated while Dr. King’s Atlanta integrates

In 1970, two years after the tragic death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his hometown of Atlanta was one of the most segregated areas in the country, with a segregation index between African-Americans and whites of 82.1 on a scale of 100. The Newark metropolitan area was not far behind at 81.4

Dr. King would be proud of how Atlanta has changed since then. A new analysis of just-released Census data found that Atlanta’s segregation index has declined to 60 - an over five point decline in the past decade alone. In the red hills of Georgia, in Dr. King’s words, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners indeed are sitting down together at the table of brotherhood.

Dr. King would surely take less pride in the story of the Newark metropolitan area, whose segregation levels remain at 79.6 in the latest data - or barely any change. In the rolling hills of Morris County, there is a dream still not yet realized.

It is a dream not yet realized because the force of law still operates to separate our state by race. The law may not operate with the recklessness of Bull Connor, but it still packs much of the same power. Unlike the vast majority of the country, New Jersey has an active policy of segregation through the drastic restriction of land being used to house certain classes of people, which a pair of recently published papers by Princeton University’s Doug Massey and Jonathan Rothwell (in Urban Affairs Review and Social Science Quarterly) find are strikingly effective at segregating communities by race and class.

These policies are expressed publicly in the language of school costs, pseudo-environmentalism, and not-in-my-backyard, and often those are very real motivations for local officials. But too often lying just below the surface are the anonymous blog posts about “people from Camden” and the muttered comments about “the character of the neighborhood.”

Whatever the motivation, if we are to speak with the candor that this day demands, it must be said that the actions of too many (though certainly far from all) local governments in New Jersey and organizations like the League of Municipalities have the effect of segregating our state by race and class. And those actions have a significant cost - making New Jersey less desirable for businesses, providing fewer choices for families of all backgrounds and colors, and furthering the destruction of our environment due to poor land use.

This Martin Luther King Day, Gov. Christie faces a choice. He can continue to treat the issues of segregation and exclusionary zoning as he did throughout his first year in office - staring down the business, civil rights, religious, and special needs communities of New Jersey, not to mention the courts, in a battle that will surely outlast him.

Or he can turn to a more reasonable approach to New Jersey remaining segregated as most of the rest of the country moves in a more positive direction, that fits more comfortably with his overall goals of economic growth and reform for the state.

Either way, we shall overcome, someday.