At some point, we need to address that.
This is the 'Delmar Divide'
A street many in St. Louis consider a symbolic boundary of racial division that has existed for decades.
As the city continues to protest the not guilty verdict
of former officer Jason Stockley in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, the Delmar divide looms in the back of everyone's minds.
There’s still rumors that you shouldn’t go north of Delmar.
They tell new white people to the city that you shouldn’t drive north of Delmar. ‘Don’t go to North City, it’s too dangerous up there.’
Which is stupid because it’s just people but that’s still the narrative people get when they move here.
Protestors have promised 100 days of unrest in the city.
And one of the areas they’ve chosen to march in is right on Delmar.
The racial divide here is a hangover from the history that we have.
I think a lot of people don’t think of context when we think about a protest so like, it seems like this popped out of nowhere right?
But the Dred Scott case was decided here,
and black people were sold on the steps of the courthouse,
and we walk by on the Arch riverfront and tourists come in a walk by that every day.
Delmar boulevard stretches for 9 miles near the boundary of St. Louis Proper and University City, a suburb.
The changes in landscape when crossing Delmar are drastic.
People in St. Louis have been taught that north of Delmar means 'poor,'
and south of Delmar means 'rich.'
You’re seeing Whole Foods, and like Straub’s, and grocery stores in the Central West End and north of Delmar
you have like White Castle, Aldi, and kind of like discount markets and check-cashing places, there’s a Church’s Chicken up this way.
The businesses there are more to take money from people but not really give people a living wage to work in their neighborhood.
The 'Delmar Divide’ is just one of many by-products of the city’s racial past.
It was a term popularized by a 2012 BBC documentary,
and is often referenced when St. Louis residents talk about racial segregation.
We all live in food deserts.
You get nothing but chicken wings, fried fish, gyros, and loaded potatoes. How is that healthy?
There’s nowhere around here for us to walk and go get food, so what do we do?
We’re at the mercy of somebody who really doesn’t care about us.
You see the Delmar Divide and you see the lack of funds in primarily black areas.
It’s like what’s going on?
How come we can’t have black communities that are vibrant and prosperous, and have representation in the community.
You can just look in the skyline: there are tons of cranes! You look on our side of Delmar, all you see is pain.
Officially sanctioned segregation in St. Louis can be traced back over a hundred years.
In 1916, voters overwhelmingly enacted a measure making it illegal for a person of one particular race
to move into a neighborhood occupied by more than 75% of another race.
The law was overturned a year later, but St. Louis remained racially divided due to existing housing associations that were pro-segregation.
With support from the city real estate board, these housing associations forced white property owners
to sign covenants forbidding the resale of their homes to non-whites for periods up to 50 years.
This practice was one of many so-called ‘restrictive covenants’ enacted all over the U.S. during the same time period.
Meanwhile, another widespread practice known as ‘red-lining’ also helped reinforce segregation.
Red boundary lines were literally drawn on maps by mortgage lenders,
insurance companies and the like, labeling African-American neighborhoods as ‘risky investments’ or even ‘dangerous.’
Red-lining effectively corralled black families into specific neighborhoods, while whites could live everywhere else.
Welfare associations would write letters to residents saying things like,
It would take a 1948 Supreme Court decision to overturn the enforcement of racist covenant clauses.
But the damage had been done - decades of state-sanctioned segregation left St. Louis racially divided in ways that still hold true today.
If you went over the line, one, there could be punishment [by] law enforcement,
things like that, or vigilante violence.
But also, people would leave the neighborhood if you crossed that line, and then that started white flight and things like that.
If we look at one zip code just north of Delmar Boulevard,
over 95% of the residents are black.
While the neighborhood just south of it is only 33% black.
The homes on both sides of Delmar also tell their own story.
Average home values just north of Delmar come in at over $65,000,
whereas the average home values south of Delmar skyrocket to $269,000.
And some of these properties are just a few blocks away from each other.
What the city of St. Louis, rather their police or the government, they respect those that spend money.
Since y’all been around here, you haven’t seen any police riding around.
Now let’s go on the other side of Delmar.
They watching everything.
You got Forest Park; number one park in America.
They’re going to have to do something.
They’re gonna have to do some major things.
Delmar Boulevard represents what minorities have had to struggle with for decades in St. Louis,
and how that haunting past has yet to go away.
The line is still basically there; not a lot of mobility has happened so we still basically have segregated cities.
Ultimately, we want to be an example for other cities to get it right.
Now, we’re not getting it right just yet, but I think we’re trying to push for that.
We believe that we’re the heart of the country.
The country’s having a heart attack right now. At some point, we need to address that.