How the 'Camel City' Got Sold on a Segregated Future

A lunchtime author talk and discussion with Dr. Karen Benjamin.

About this Event

MUSE Winston-Salem, Faith in the City, and Bookmarks invite you to an author talk and discussion with Dr. Karen Benjamin, author of the brand new book, Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools: Selling Segregation before the New Deal (University of North Carolina Press, 2025).

About the book: Good Parents, Better Homes, and Great Schools examines how white residential developers, planning consultants, and their allies in government strategically replaced block-level segregation with segregation at the neighborhood level in New South cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Houston, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem. Going beyond the well-known Home Owners' Loan Corporation maps of the 1930s, Karen Benjamin traces segregation tactics back to the late nineteenth century, when this public-private partnership laid the groundwork for the nationwide segregation strategies codified by the New Deal. This book links the tactics of residential and school segregation to prevailing middle-class ideas about what constitutes good parenting, ensuring the longevity of both practices. By focusing on efforts that specifically targeted parents, Benjamin not only adds a new dimension to the history of residential segregation but also helps explain why that legacy has been so difficult to undo.

Dr. Karen Benjamin is the Lester Brune and Joan Brune Endowed Chair of History at Elmhurst University (Illinois). She graduated with a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007.

Thanks to generous support from the Winston-Salem Foundation, the first 100 registrants for this event will receive a free boxed lunch.

Thank you to Knollwood Baptist Church for hosting this event!

When you register, you'll also have the opportunity to reserve a copy of the book through Bookmarks at a discount price of $28.00 (taxes included). More info about the book here: https://bookmarksnc.org/book/9781469684949

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