Pruitt-Igoe’s downfall was not just due to the infrastructure of the building that led to a massive social disparity, but also a political decision that affected the decision of many white people to move out of the city and into the suburban outskirts. In “Public Housing Myths: Perception, Reality, and Social Policy” by Joseph Heathcott, he highlights the Supreme Court case of Brown v.s. Th Board of Education of Topeka, which ruled that separate but equal facilities for black people is not constitutional, being one of the factors why many white people moved out of their home and into the suburban areas. Heathcott said “white residents fled or dropped off the waiting lists, and Pruitt-Igoe was effectively rendered an all black development (37)” because of the Supreme Court decision. To me, it’s sad to learn that people were so ignorant that they would even uproot their entire lives and move elsewhere, just to avoid living around people of a certain color or race.

The ignorance is also shown in Micheal Kimmelman’s article “Towers of Dreams: One Ended in Nightmare,” in which he described a clip of a young white woman saying that black people’s aims for moving into the public housing is “mixed marriages and becoming equal with whites.” The irrational fear of black people among the white people fueled an issue such as housing to crumble and fall apart, just as Pruitt-Igoe ultimately did. A monumental political decision affected and almost widened the social divides between two peoples, which ultimately affected the issue of housing all over the country. The intersections of politics and social issues unforeseeably affected the government’s efforts to better public housing.