Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century

Calling all Virginia K12 teachers: there is still space in the "Power of Maps" teacher workshop. The workshop is offered by Dr. Johnny Finn in conjunction with the exhibition Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century at the Torggler Fine Arts Center on the campus of Christopher Newport University.

Wednesday, March 7, 5-8pm. All participants will receive a $50 stipend, and will have private access to the Torggler Center’s current show “Ansel Adams: Compositions in Nature.”

Advanced registration is required: https://reg121.imperisoft.com/thetorggler/ProgramDetail/3332383336/Registration.aspx

This workshop is made possible by the generous support of the VIRGINIA GEOGRAPHIC ALLIANCE, the Torggler Fine Arts Center, and CNU Sociology, Criminology, and Anthropology.

Check out this 5-min documentary short on the 200-acre coal pile right next to SE Newport News, a redlined neighborhood that today has the highest rate of asthma in the city. The film was made by Brandon Davis and features Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century project director Dr. Johnny Finn

"Coal Blooded" by Brandon Davis Media A documentary film on the community impacts of the coal terminal in Southeast Newport News.In 3 months, this video went from an idea to reality. I have learn...

"To understand why our community and others across the county look the way they do, you need to understand the history of discriminatory housing policies." Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander and Dr. Johnny Finn talk with about this history and present-day impacts of racist housing policies in Hampton Roads.

Professor: Discriminatory housing practices of the past impact the way neighborhoods look today For almost all areas around the country, segregation is part of the history and make up of the region.

Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century has been recognized by Everyday Democracy as a “site of promising practice” for the project's "unique strategies for fostering connection and equity within and around institutions of higher education". In the press release, they write: “Due to its vision for using community-based research to work towards social justice, Living Together/Living Apart stood out as a promising practice.”

We'd like to thank the hundreds of people who have shared their time, their stories, and their efforts with us over the last four years. We're looking forward to continuing the work of participatory community-engaged research and activism in 2022 and beyond!

Everyday Democracy Announces 2021 Aicher Award Winners The Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award was launched in 2017 to honor the memory of Everyday Democracy’s founder, Paul Aicher, and his wife, Joyce Aicher. Over the past three decades, the Aichers’ generosity, spirit of innovation, and commitment to justice have fueled Everyday De...

"The spatial racism behind in the 1930s was not new; it grew out of existing retail racism and restrictive racial housing covenants. Moreover, it did not disappear with an archiving of the infamous Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps—redlining tactics are redeployed with current advances in technology. It is the embedded racism within institutions and their policies that remains the legacy to be examined and challenged as new data-driven practices continue to reproduce inequitable opportunity in US cities."

Before Redlining and Beyond There is a larger story of spatial racism in cities before and beyond redlining. Spatial racism was not limited to a single set of maps, but is embedded within institutions. The long history of spatial racism must be teased out and examined as new data-driven practices generate inequitable opportuni...

Happy Juneteenth everyone! It was an honor for us at the Living Together/Living Apart: project to be a part of this celebration, organized by Faith-Walk Hampton and the city of Hampton, VA.

Most American cities are moving in the wrong direction: "The study found that 81% of regions with more than 200,000 residents were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990, despite fair housing laws and policies created to promote integration."

Most major metropolitan areas have become more racially segregated, study shows Some of the nation's largest metropolitan regions have become increasingly segregated in the last 30 years, underscoring racial inequalities that have led to poorer life outcomes in Black and brown neighborhoods, according to a study released Monday by the University of California Berkeley's Otherin...

"The Biden administration plans to reinstate a 2013 rule that codified a decades-old legal standard known as 'disparate impact' as well as a 2015 rule requiring communities to identify and dismantle barriers to racial integration or risk losing federal funds"

Trump gutted Obama-era housing discrimination rules. Biden’s bringing them back. HUD submits rules to address systemic racism and housing discrimination.