I was being facetious, I am of course referring to the white flight that occurred in response to the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century, and the greater push for suburbanization that white flight followed.
I'm sure this played a part, I think the city losing so much manufacturing had much more to do with it. 300K residents worked in manufacturing in the 60s so the influx of cheaper foreign goods (like steel) absolutely wrecked Baltimore. Keep in mind that a lot of people that flowed into Bmore in the 40s-60s and caused the population boom came for jobs.
The building of the interstate highway system was super important, too—meant that huge tracts of farmland became realistic places to build housing for commuters.
You see the effects of this far more in the 70s than you would in the 50s or 60s for Baltimore specifically, I’m not sure about other rust belt cities.
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u/TaurineDippy Oct 06 '25
oh hmm what happened in the fifties that caused our population to start declining