Staff photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Walter Burks, left and Victor Spence talk the M. L. King neighborhood as "Living The Dream," patterned after the book by two local writers.Victor Spence's face lights up when someone asks about the "new" integration of Chattanooga neighborhoods.
"That's us," he says, gesturing around to the new and old houses around his sister's home near Flynn and Eighth Street in the M.L. King neighborhood. "We've even got a book. Have you seen it? It's called 'Living the Dream.'"
Sure enough, Spence disappears into the house and returns with a coffee table book that pictures his sister, Jena Johnson, and about two dozen neighbors, black, Hispanic and white, who are making the once all-black neighborhood a rainbow of diversity.
More than 40 years since federal civil rights and fair housing laws were passed, most Chattanooga neighborhoods are shedding their segregated pasts and becoming more diverse.
Census figures and estimates from 1960 through 2009 show that Hamilton County began the period with only three census tracts showing significant diversity -- black populations between 30 and 70 percent.
Through the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s school desegregation era, those numbers hardly budged. But in the 1980s and 1990s, and especially in the past decade, the number of census tracts with 30 to 70 percent black populations has grown to at least 12.
The census figures also show that more blacks are moving into traditionally white neighborhoods.
According to 2005-09 census estimates, released last month, just more than half of Hamilton County's 69 census tracts measured at least a 10 percent black population.
And the traditionally black central city neighborhoods of Chattanooga -- such as the M.L. King and Southside communities -- once again are being populated by whites.
"I call it re-gentrification," said Eddie Holmes, a retired NAACP president and longtime civil rights leader here.
"It's reverse white flight," he said with a laugh. "Now the suburbs are coming back to the city. ... It shows that people are learning to live together."
The national picture
The 2010 census findings have not yet been released at the neighborhood level, but in the newly released census estimates from 2005-09, the Chattanooga area was among 61 of the nation's largest metro areas to show a decline in segregation since 2000.
"Chattanooga is in the top 30 percent. It's moving in the right direction," said William H. Frey, the demographer with the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census estimates and found that Chattanooga ranked 29th in what he calls his dissimilarity index.
Dissimilarity measures the percentage of a group's population that would have to change residence for each neighborhood to have the same percentage of that group as the metropolitan area overall. The index ranges from 0 percent (complete integration) to 100 percent (complete segregation).
Nationally, 70 percent of blacks would have to move to achieve true integration. In the Chattanooga area, 65.5 percent would have to move, according to the Brookings research.
"Historic patterns of segregation are finally breaking down," Frey said. "Make no mistake, though, it's not time for rose-colored glasses. There is still much segregation in the United States, and there are 12 of the 100 largest metro areas where the segregation index is 70 percent of more."
Most of the improvements occurred in the South, Frey found.
"These tend to be areas in the growing parts of the country that have been attracting middle-class blacks for a couple of generations. Atlanta is a good example."
Atlanta dropped its dissimilarity index by 5 points from 2000 to 2009, while Chattanooga's fell 4 points.
Local challenges
In Hamilton County, there remain four all-white census tracts and five predominantly black census tracts.
Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain and Walden's Ridge are all white. Snow Hill is more than 99.5 percent white.
Alternately, the much smaller neighborhood of Alton Park is 99 percent black, while Bushtown, Avondale and Glenwood all are more than 90 percent black.
Richard Beeland, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield's spokesman and a resident -- with his wife and two children -- of the M.L. King neighborhood, are pictured with Jena Johnson and other neighbors in the "Living the Dream" book.
"Times change. Perceptions and fears change. But really, neighbors are neighbors," Beeland said.
"My wife and I like living close to everything, and we like old houses. We chose the M.L. King neighborhood because of its location, and we got a bonus of great neighbors," he said.
What Beeland called the breakdown of "generational" perceptions about neighborhoods also got a hand locally from city, university and foundation incentives.
Lyndhurst -- a local, nonprofit philanthropic foundation -- played a large role in renovating the M.L.K. neighborhood with the M.L. King Tomorrow program. And the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had incentives for faculty members. The various incentives offered perks such as forgivable second mortgages or down payment assistance if faculty members, police officers or others would buy new or remodeled or fixer-upper homes in the community near the university.
The M.L. King neighborhood was 94 percent black in 1960. By 2000, it was 75 percent black. Census estimates from 2009 put it at 29 percent black, 55 percent white and 12 percent Hispanic -- closely mirroring Chattanooga's population.
"My wife and I both are from small towns," Beeland said. "The M.L. King neighborhood is like being in a small town. We all know each other, and everything is close. And how fitting is it to live in the M.L.K. community and it be as integrated as it is now? I think Dr. King would be proud to have his name associated with this neighborhood."
But Holmes said change has two sides, and sometimes there are trade-offs.
While he chose to move decades ago to the Murray Hills subdivision where his was only the second black family, many blacks in the downtown area today are being pushed out by new development and higher housing costs.
Census estimate highlights* In 1960, Hamilton County had only three census tracts showing significant diversity -- black populations between 30 and 70 percent.* In the past decade, the number of census tracts with 30 to 70 percent black populations has grown to at least 12, according to 2009 census estimates* The same estimates indicate that just more than half of Hamilton County's 69 census tracts measure at least a 10 percent black population.* In Hamilton County, there remain four all-white census tracts and five predominantly black census tracts.Source: U.S. Census American Community Survey, 2005-09 five-year estimateCounty 2009 breakdown* 330,941 -- Total population* 75.7 percent white* 20.1 percent black* 3 percent Hispanic* 1.2 percent otherSource: U.S. Census American Community Survey, 2005-09 five-year estimate
"A lot of the McCallie Homes families who were displaced for the Villages at Alton Park have moved to the Silverdale area. I call that Alton Park East now," he said.
"I think it's good that our neighborhoods are more diverse, but I think we've lost some things, including small black businesses -- especially on M.L. King Boulevard."
Southside changes
A case in point is another transformation in the making -- Southside.
Rob and Christy Righter, who are white, moved their two young sons into a home in a new subdivision in Jefferson Heights about two years ago from Atlanta.
"We wanted to live in town near work, and we wanted a diverse neighborhood for our kids," Christy Righter said. "We really like the park in the middle of the houses here, but now there's only one African-American family here."
The costs of the new homes and the rising property values have combined with the recession to push most of the blacks out of the neighborhood. Most of the minority population remaining in their neighborhood, the Righters said, is Hispanic.
Marion Pound, along with her husband and two daughters, has lived in Jefferson Heights seven years, and she echoed that concern last week as she walked her girls home from Battle Academy, the magnet elementary school designed several years ago to help attract higher incomes to the inner city. Similarly, Brown Academy at UTC was designed to help the M.L. King neighborhood rehabilitation.
"We love the neighborhood, and we love the school," said Pound, who is white. "And we wanted the diversity, but that part hasn't worked out so well. It really is becoming predominantly white."
The census tract that comprises all of Southside shows the larger community beyond the Jefferson Heights development is estimated at 84 percent black. In 1980, it was 100 percent black.
Patty Streip, the family partnership specialist at Battle Academy, said it's hard to say whether Southside's thriving diverse community is driving the success of the magnet school -- which reached its goal capacity two years early -- or whether the school has driven the community's transformation.
"A school is one of those things" that shapes a community. "On the other hand, if the community hadn't been changing, and the perception of the community hadn't been changing, you'd not be seeing people walking from one restaurant to another. Here the reality has become the perception."
She said she was skeptical at first about the plan to build the school and revitalize the Southside community.
"I've been proven more wrong every year, and I love it," she said. "This is a thriving community."