Here’s a hard truth: San Antonio was designed to be divided.
Divisions across San Antonio’s neighborhoods can be traced all the way back to the city’s development in the late 19th century. Whole groups of people—especially Hispanic and Black families—were cut off from living in white-only neighborhoods built for stability and wealth.
Those practices continued well into the 20th century and reverberate all the way into neighborhoods of today.
Dive deeper into these realities with Dr. Christine Drennon, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University. In this 13-minute video, Dr. Drennon unpacks our local history of disproportionate investment—and leads us to ask how we should be thinking about housing today.
Since 2002, Dr. Drennon has been researching the roots of some of San Antonio’s most tragic realities and their consequences for families today. She has shared her research in forums across San Antonio over the years, taking the community on a learning journey to understand why many of the challenges we face as a city today exist in the first place—and what we can do about it going forward.