Segregation by gerrymander: The creation of the Lincoln Heights (Ohio) school district

Journal of Negro Education, The, Spring 1997 by Patricia Randolph Leigh

It is situated on the north bank of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Licking river, which enters the Ohio between Newport and Covington, Kentucky. This city is near the eastern extremity of a valley about twelve miles in circumference, surrounded by beautiful hills, which rise to the height of 300 feet by gentle and varying slopes, and mostly covered with native forest trees. (p. 16)

The city's spontaneous, amoeba-like growth came about as a direct result of increasing steamboat traffic as well as the heightened buying, selling, and trading of goods along the Ohio River and the opening of numerous shops of various kinds (Aaron, 1992). During the early 1800s, Cincinnati had no city planning commissions, zoning laws, or building codes (Taylor, 1993), and the law of supply and demand seemed to direct growth. The city's center was relatively small in area and limited by its very terrain, which proved of critical importance as Cincinnati entered the industrial era and experienced tremendous population growth. This growth restriction directly affected municipal building policies, which in turn limited both residential space for new inhabitants and commercial space for new factories, offices, and businesses. The commercial center eventually expanded into the industrial center, exhausting all available space within the river and creek beds and at the base of the hills. However, inadequate transportation left the city's workforce without efficient means of daily travel over these terrain barriers.

Blacks, Whites, immigrants, businesses, and factories competed for the same space during these early years of Cincinnati's history (Taylor, 1984, 1993). This is an important factor to consider when analyzing racial attitudes and the ways these attitudes promoted the growth of urban racial ghettoes in general and the emergence of Lincoln Heights in particular. The outcome of the Civil War, coupled with the rise of industrialization, had the same general effects on urban areas throughout the United States. The failed farms in the nation's rural areas prompted Blacks and Whites to seek new opportunities en masse in centers such as Cincinnati. According to Urban and Wagoner (1996): "Some blacks, keenly aware of the deteriorating conditions surrounding their tenuous freedom, joined in an 'exodus' from the South" (p. 151). However, because of the lack of residential space in Cincinnati's industrial center in the early 1900s, Whites, Blacks, and immigrants of various origins lived in close proximity to each other. By Taylor's (1993) account, due to lack of space rather than a lack of racial animosity or discriminatory practices at the time, Blacks were not segregated in certain segments of the city or even specific streets. Other historians report the prevalence of job discrimination practices in factories and businesses. For example, as Sundstrom (1994) states,

It is well known that blacks were underrepresented in the more skilled and higher-paid jobs. . .[and] in the. . professional, and clerical categories in both the North and the South. The virtual exclusion of black women from clerical and sales jobs is notable. (p. 385)