6. Race and Cities

How is the history of urban and land use planning connected to US racial discrimination? 'Heavily' according to Sarah Coffin! In 2014, an African American teenager named Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson Missouri. Michael Brown's death led to widespread protests across the United States and the rise of the black lives matter movement. Many of us watching the events unfold on television. We probably made assumptions about Ferguson being one of those typically poor black US neighbourhoods, riddled with violence, crime and drugs – but according to Associate Professor Sarah Coffin nothing could be further from the truth. Sarah takes us back to the Civil War to show how the history of urban and land use planning are connected to racial discrimination in the US.