The Federal Government in a Segregated Society: Public Employment Exchanges and Housing Programmes

Abstract

Abstract King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the segregationist order in which they were installed, thus consolidating residential separation by race. According to King, not only did USES discriminate in their job placements but also in its field office facilities and staff; he also shows how the anti‐discrimination policies of the USES were failures and explores the reasons. Next, King traces the evolution of federal public housing and mortgage assistance programmes, focusing especially on the policies of the US Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and responses from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).