Citizen Brown explores the experience of African Americans in St. Louis County by examining patterns of municipal incorporation and annexation (much of it in service of racial segregation), the starkly uneven provision of local services (schools, water and sewers, public safety), local approaches to urban renewal (which pointedly “blighted” and relocated African-American neighborhoods), and the potent combination of racial transition and fiscal austerity that led to the death of Michael Brown.
Colin Gordon, Professor of History at University of Iowa, writes on the history of American public policy and political economy. He is a senior research consultant at the Iowa Policy Project.
History Department McLellan Lecture
