Planning, Civil Rights, and African American Voting: The Case of Montgomery, Alabama.

This article examines the coevolution of African American civil rights activism, voter registration, and city planning in Montgomery, Alabama, prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Through historical and spatial analyses, it identifies three distinct periods—pre-World War II, postwar to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and post-Bus Boycott—during which city planning, including slum clearance and urban renewal, disproportionately targeted African American neighborhoods with active civil rights leadership and higher voter registration, particularly the middle-class Centennial Hill neighborhood. The research suggests that these planning efforts were not solely aimed at economic development or addressing blight but also functioned to suppress African American political power by displacing voters and activists, while more distressed but less politically active neighborhoods were often left intact. The study highlights the intersection of urban planning and voter disenfranchisement, underscoring implications for understanding historical and contemporary practices of racial segregation and political suppression.