Community Prejudice Is Also to Blame: Significant Causes and Effects of Residential Segregation in St. Louis

Recent discourse has emphasized the legal causes of racial segregation in the development of cities such as St. Louis, Missouri. Before and alongside these laws were a long history of community prejudicial beliefs, many of which have outlived the laws they produced. Prejudice propelled de facto community decisions made during the development of St. Louis, and later solidified into de jure practices of racial segregation, which ultimately shaped the metropolitan area. De facto and de jure processes of segregation and urban planning also shaped the experiences of black families in St. Louis, especially those living in ethnic enclaves or ghettos. This history of St. Louis provides evidence of the profound racial prejudice within its community, existing parallel to, and beyond laws enforcing racial segregation. This intense community prejudice ultimately formed the context of the race riots in the St. Louis surrounding municipality of Ferguson in 2014