"Property values weren’t magically determined by some invisible hand of the market, but by a concerted effort of people and policy to enforce racial segregation."

It's gotten to the point that when I see Joe Dunman's name on the IL mailing, I just click through to read whatever he's written, irrespective of the topic.

Dunman's current piece is a must read.

Joe Dunman: During white flight, lack of racial diversity was by design (Insider Louisville)

... The Bon Air area was a hit. People, including my grandparents with my infant father in tow, flocked in droves. More than 2,000 affordable homes were filled with upwardly mobile young families almost overnight. Between 1953 and 1960, the population boomed to 12,000 residents packed into just over 2 square miles.

Almost every single one of those residents was white — 99.9 percent, in fact. This wasn’t some accident of demography, though. The complete lack of racial diversity was by design — an outcome guaranteed by official and private housing policies in force at the time.