Houston and Commercial Desegregation

My recent mention of Morgan Freeman's annoyance with Black History Month reminded me indirectly of an article (Scroll down to Joel Kotkin's "A Tale of Two Cities".) I encountered about Houston. It is notable first of all for its succinct comparison of the two Gulf Coast cities that starred in this year's months-long hurricane miniseries, and second for its mention of the way that Houston succeeded in integrating peacefully back in the early 1960's.

The following paragraphs tie both of these themes together.

Under very different management, Houston long ago surpassed New Orleans, and now boasts a population more than three times larger, and a vastly more dynamic economy. During the 1990s, the Texas city grew almost six times faster than greater New Orleans. It flourished as a major destination for immigrants, particularly from Latin America.

One clear area of success has been race. Like New Orleans, Houston was a Southern city with a history of racial discrimination. But in the early 1960s the city decided to desegregate. It did so not as much for moral reasons as because it was perceived to be bad for business.

That phrase, "bad for business," is close to a curse in Houston. Business drive and the search for a better economic future has sustained this city through boom times and crashes, notably the disastrous energy bust of the 1980s. Because of the economic flexibility of the locals, even that disaster was turned into a boon. Collapsed property prices and lots of available space lured hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to the city, sparking a durable new revival, recalls Houston architect Tim Cisnero, whose clients include Mexican, African, Chinese, and Indian entrepreneurs.

That bit about Houston desegregating (and mostly peacefully) because segregation was "bad for business" reminded me further of a very well-done documentary I saw several years ago about that very story.

Back when I was in grad school, I was lucky enough to see one of the first public screenings of The Strange Demise of Jim Crow at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. This capsule summarizes it well enough, though it does not do the film justice: "Eldrewey Stearns and other participants reveal the behind-the-scenes compromises, negotiations, and the controversial news black-outs which helped bring about the quiet desegregation of commercial establishments in Houston, Texas between 1959 and 1963." The entire film can be viewed over the internet from the site I link to at the movie title. I highly recommend it because it is very interesting and because it provides a concrete example of capitalism helping to cure racism, as George Reisman might put it.

-- CAV