Pruitt-Igoe And The Civil Rights Movement

1344 Words6 Pages
Pruitt-Igoe Life in the United States during the post World War II era was anything but steady and fulfilling for African Americans. During this time of racial segregation blacks struggled to become an equal in society and were in a sense forced to settle for whatever they could get out of it. The “Myth” of Pruitt-Igoe was a direct reflection of the things that were going on in the United States during this time. Blacks were suppressed to housing projects were they lived in bunches and for many in piss poor living conditions. When you really take a look into the structure of these housing projects and how they came about you begin to see that this was nothing more than a way to relocate poor blacks into one area. When World…show more content…
As tension grew extremely fast between white America and the leaders and people of the black communities America was an ugly place to be. The Civil Rights movement sparked up anger out of black people that led to non-violent protest and blacks basically saying, “We can’t take this anymore”, and then actually doing something about it. Their desire for better living was clear during this movement and housing projects such as Pruitt-Igoe at the time seemed to be exactly what the African American race was looking for. So people jumped at the chance to be apart of it due to our situation with movements going…show more content…
One example of this was the simple that no able bodied man was able to live in these projects along with their families. They were forced to struggle on their own to look for low-end jobs. This idea of the American family that consisted of a working father and a working mother clearly weren’t in affect here. It proved hurtful to the lifestyle of many African American families. As a women stated in the film, “The strong and tightly knit families I had grew up around had begun to shatter and it was one of the most tragic things I had seen”(Pruitt-Igoe). Kids struggled in school and in social settings without that reinforcement of a father figure. It broke down the image of what a true family really consisted of and started a generational outbreak of black fathers not being a round that is still present amongst African Americans
Open Document