Segregation in St. Louis-Dismantling the Divide

Christine
CONFRONTING THE PAST
The emotional
boundaries of
white flight
The history of white flight has also
created intense emotional boundaries
between people in our region. This
history has also caused a sense of
loss that is deeply felt but seldom
expressed across racial lines.
Christine Schmiz
and Cheeraz Gorman
told their personal
experiences of white
flight through a fall
2017 “We Live Here”
podcast on St. Louis
Public Radio.
Christine is white. Cheeraz is African
American. They had never met, but
in the podcast they both mourned
the North St. Louis neighborhoods
that no longer resemble the places
they remember as children. Both
shared a powerful sense of loss
and remorse.
Co-producers Kameel Stanley and
Tim Lloyd said the fall 2017 podcast
was one of the most popular they’ve
produced on St. Louis.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from
people, especially locals who really
said that it just resonated with them
whether they were in Christine’s
position or Cheeraz’s position,”
Stanley said.
“This is the story of many people
in St. Louis, and I would go out
on a limb and say, it’s a story also
happening outside of St. Louis.
Anyone who has experienced life
in a city that has declined probably
has had these feelings. They are
recognizing their own implicit
role in society’s problems.”
Christine, now in her mid-60s, grew
up in a small brick house in North
St. Louis near the now demolished
Sportsman’s Park. Cheeraz, a
generation younger, grew up about a
mile further north on Grand Boulevard
in the College Hill neighborhood.
“We thought we were the coolest of
all because we lived across from the
baseball stadium on North Grand,”
recalled Christine in the podcast.
“The lights of the stadium shone
in our bedroom.”
Christine said her childhood in the
neighborhood was “somewhat magical,”
with everything they needed within
blocks of their house. The house was
the first the family ever owned and
was purchased jointly by her parents
and grandparents, who combined their
resources to make it work.
Carolina Hidalgo, St. Louis Public Radio
When Christine was a teenager in
the mid-1960s, anxiety overtook
the area as more African American
families began moving into the area.
Rumors spread that property values
would fall.
“We were raised during that time
in church where the priest would
say everyone is equal, color doesn’t
matter… until this whole thing
about your property values,”
Christine said. “They had this
house, and the thought of losing
your home—losing the value of
your home—was really frightening.”
So, when she was 14, her family sold
the house to a speculator for about
$9,000. Christine’s parents paid
double for a house in an all-white
subdivision in South St. Louis County.
It was a hardship for her family, both
financially and emotionally. Her
grandparents moved to an apartment
in the City. Christine lost her daily
connection to childhood friends
because the bus ride from her new
house to her old neighborhood was
impossibly long. Their family life grew
more complicated. Her brother went
to Vietnam. Her sister went through
difficult times. In a way, Christine felt
she had lost her life compass.
90 Segregation in St. Louis