“The Roots of Racism” will premiere in three, 20-minute segments on the Dayton Daily News Facebook page. The first part of the series premiered on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and the second premiered on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The third and final part premiered tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The series is hosted by Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, edited by DATV and includes presentations from University of Dayton professors and others on the historical events that have shaped the Dayton community racially, socially and economically from the 1700s through the 1900s.
“I’ve heard a lot about West Dayton and East Dayton but I wasn’t necessarily sure … (about) everything that really contributed to the inequities that exist in our city,” he said.
Redlining, one of the major topics discussed in the video series, can explain some of the disparity, said Leslie Picca, a professor of sociology at the University of Dayton.
The practice of redlining began in the 1930s when the federal government created color-coded maps of cities that categorized neighborhoods by the “risk” level of investing there. African American and other minority neighborhoods were outlined in red and rated as the most risky. Residents of those neighborhoods were denied home loans or offered much higher interest rates.
For many Americans, homeownership is the main avenue to building wealth, explained Kristina Scott, CEO of Learn to Earn Dayton, thus redlining was “devastating.”
When comparing redlining maps from 1935 to modern maps, Picca said, “we see pretty similar racial segregation taking place today, 85 years later.”
Other topics that the videos will touch upon include the forced removal of Native Americans, the Black Codes or Black Laws, segregation and the Civil Rights movement. In each segment, there will also be interviews with prominent members of the Dayton community or elders who share their earliest memories of the city.
The idea for the project came about when Whaley received a lot of pushback over the summer for her police reform plan from residents who don’t believe Dayton has ever had a race issue, Beckham said.
Picca encouraged viewers to resist having a “knee-jerk” reaction to this uncomfortable topic.
“The goal isn’t to make any group feel guilty or to feel like they did something wrong," she said. "These are policies and practices that most of us didn’t create but some of us benefit from even today.”
Other partners in the project include the Dayton Daily News, Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, Learn to Earn Dayton, the Dayton Metro Library and Premier Health.
"The Dayton Daily News is honored to be part of this important project. We hope it will help shine a light on a past that still impacts our lives today,” Dayton Daily News Community Impact Editor Amelia Robinson said.
In conjunction with this project, many of the same community partners are bringing an exhibit called Undesign the Redline to Dayton from January through April. The exhibit, which explores the impact of redlining on Dayton, will be displayed at the Dayton Metro Library, the University of Dayton and Sinclair Community College.
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