A Case Study for Teaching Urban Politics: Examining Residential Racial Segregation through Historic Significance of Black Neighborhood

Moving students out of the classroom and into the community provides promising outcomes for teaching residential racial segregation and understanding of historical context of preservation. This class provides an exploratory case study of students in political science and art studio who worked in teams to develop digital stories for an historically black neighborhood in a large urban city. Through examination of archival data, conducting interviews, and experiencing places within the neighborhood, students gained insight into the politics that work to promote some history over others. Students became more aware of the importance of neighborhoods and gained an understanding of the importance of history to the lives of people living in particular communities. Students learned to work as a team, to overcome challenges of working in a community, and gained an understanding of political processes that work to hide or bury significant history of marginalized groups and neighborhoods.