Many have heard the phrase again and again in history class and for many who lived through Jim Crow segregation it was an awful reality. But 40 years after the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act and the advancements of the civil rights movement, in a region where severe racial segregation remains virtually unchanged, it is a phrase that bears repeating. The concept that separate is unequal is at the core of MoveSmart.org. We firmly believe that until diverse and welcoming neighborhoods are the norm, there will continue to be an unequal distribution of opportunities and resources. Separate cannot and will not be equal.

In a recent article in Shelterforce entitled "An Unfinished Agenda", Inclusive Communities Project executive director Elizabeth Julian advocates for fair housing activists and community development advocates to come together around a common agenda. She begins her argument by summarizing the legacy of segregation:

What, specifically, is the legacy of segregation?

-Minority communities that are located in environmentally degraded areas.

-Minority communities subjected to decades of discrimination in the provision of public services.

-Minority communities avoided by private retail investment because of residents’ race, and assumptions about their ability to function as a “market.”

-Minority communities avoided by job creators because of assumptions about the conditions in the community and the abilities of the work force that lives there.

-Chronically under-funded schools in minority communities, the consequence of unequal distribution of resources based upon racial geography, which continue to struggle to serve a student population that is disproportionately disadvantaged.

-Minority individuals subjected to economic discrimination that depressed earning power and incomes.

-Minority individuals whose parents were not able to acquire property and accumulate wealth on the same terms as whites because of discrimination in the real-estate market, leading to a racial gap in inherited wealth particularly with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation.

-White communities that, as they became more racially diverse, were targeted for disinvestment by the public and private sectors, making it more difficult to achieve the benefits of a more integrated community.

-Exclusive white communities whose real-estate prices and property values are based upon assumptions about the negative impact of "too much" of a minority presence. This "segregation premium," which whites are often willing to pay for that reason, reinforces the notion that more inclusive racially and economically diverse communities are undesirable.

What is striking about this legacy is that the very real impact that each has on the daily lives of families living in segregated neighborhoods. Most folks miss the real problem with segregation. They think that the only benefit from neighborhood-level racial and economic diversity is the opportunity for their families to meet and experience other cultures and maybe eat exotic foods. Being deprived of the connections and interactions that a diverse community provides are important. But even more important is that concept at the core of the civil rights movement and MoveSmart.org - separate is unequal. As long as neighborhoods are separated by race and income, they will continue to provide unequal opportunities.