Nicknamed the “Lung Block” because of its high rates of tuberculosis, the predominantly Black neighborhood of DeSoto-Carr didn’t have much money, but it was still a close-knit community.
This St. Louis neighborhood was home to Black-owned businesses, homes, manufacturing, and a hospital financed by Black philanthropy. But soon, all of that came crumbling down.
The early 1950s marked the planning of the Pruitt and Igoe high-rise apartment buildings, and the destruction of the neighborhood. The Pruitt building, designated for Black residents, finished construction in 1955, while Igoe, designed for white residents, finished a year later. However, when housing desegregation occurred white residents left, never even moving in.
The property, now all Black, never received resources, leading to burst pipes, raw sewage leaks, and blackouts. Finally fed up, the residents staged a nine-month rent strike in the late 1960s. But it wasn’t enough; the complex fell into disrepair and blight. It was demolished a decade later.
The Pruitt-Igoe projects are part of today’s trend of deliberately warehousing Black people in substandard housing projects. What would a world with affordable, safe, and accessible housing for our people look like?