Race, Real Estate, and Education:

Join us for a moderated lunchtime conversation with Professor Edward Epstein, author of the newly released Race, Real Estate and Education: Inventing Gentrification in Philadelphia, 1960-2020. We will use this timely historical study to reflect questions of public inclusion and exclusion in urban development, as well as the expectations and responsibilities of powerful institutional actors in a democratic society. The event will include a mix of conversation between the moderator and the author, and Q&A from the audience.

Registration required. Click here to register.

About the book:

Philadelphia’s urban renewal efforts in the 1950s, which re-envisioned the city as a residential enclave, were an early example of gentrification. In West Philadelphia in the 1960s, a coalition of universities and hospitals went further, initiating K-12 public school improvements meant to attract an affluent and whiter population. As Edward Epstein details in Race, Real Estate, and Education, these interventions discounted the negative impact they could have on neighborhood residents. Epstein outlines the citywide context for the plan to create “University City” in West Philadelphia. He recounts the attempts to correct the segregation, overcrowding, and authoritarian management that plagued Philadelphia’s public schools. As the West Philadelphia Corporation, the proxy for the universities and hospitals, initiated gentrification efforts, the local community resisted and protested, causing the project to fail. The effort was revived with spectacular success, however, with the launch of the well-funded Penn Alexander School in 2001. Race, Real Estate, and Education shows how the pursuit of urbanist ideals sometimes deepens neighborhood injustice. Epstein’s exploration of whether Philadelphia’s overall approach was beneficial or misguided presents a cautionary tale.