Segregation Made Them Neighbors: An Archaeology of Racialization in Boise, Idaho (Historical Archaeology of the American West)

"Segregation Made Them Neighbors investigates the relationship between whiteness and nonwhiteness through the lenses of landscapes and material culture. William A. White III uses data collected from a public archaeology and digital humanities project conducted in the River Street neighborhood in Boise, Idaho, to investigate the mechanisms used to divide local populations into racial categories. The River Street Neighborhood was a multiracial, multiethnic enclave in Boise that was inhabited by African American, European American, and Basque residents. Building on theoretical concepts from whiteness studies and critical race theory, this volume also explores the ways Boise's residents crafted segregated landscapes between the 1890s and 1960s to establish white and nonwhite geographies. White describes how housing, urban infrastructure, ethnicity, race, and employment served to delineate the River Street neighborhood into a nonwhite space, an activity that resulted in larger repercussions for other Boiseans. Using material culture excavated from the neighborhood, White describes how residents used mass produced products to assert their humanity and subvert racial memes. By describing the effects of racial discrimination, real-estate redlining, and urban renewal on the preservation of historic properties in the River Street neighborhood, Segregation Made Them Neighbors illustrates the symbiotic mechanisms that also prevent equity and representation through historic preservation in other cities in the American West"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 List of Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction 20 1. Forging an Urban Place through Racism 36 2. Race, Structural Racism, and Whiteness in Boise, Idaho 59 3. Creating a Landscape despite Racism 88 4. The River Street Public Archaeology Project 113 5. Archaeological Evidence of Life in a Stigmatized Landscape, 1890s–1960s 130 6. Saving the Erma Hayman House 171 Conclusion 184 Appendix 1 194 Appendix 2 196 References 200 Index 220