Exclusive majority-white cities are springing up across the South as wealthy communities try to separate themselves from poorer black neighborhoods in an attempt to conserve their resources.
Residents of some privileged enclaves argue that they should not be forced to subsidize their poorer neighbors through taxes.
The phenomenon has been called the “White Fortress” by Urban Institute academic Luisa Godínez-Puig.
In the process often wealthier, whiter locals attempt to separate themselves from non-white areas, many of which are already disadvantaged due to historical racism.
Critics say the practice perpetuates modern segregation, depletes resources and steals opportunities from communities left behind.
In Louisiana, the city of St George has been approved thanks to the efforts of campaign leader Norman Browning (pictured with his family). The city will separate from Baton Rouge
St George will have 86,000 residents in a 60-square-mile area in southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish.
But advocates say it makes resource allocation fairer and ensures greater representation.
The latest example is the city of St George in Louisiana, where wBaton Rouge’s able-bodied white residents have won a decade-long court battle to break away from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city.
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Friday that the new city of St George could move forward with its incorporation, separating itself from the rest of Baton Rouge.
St George will have 86,000 residents in a 60-square-mile area in southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish and will have its own mayor and city council.
Supporters of the new city say the existing municipal-parish government is poorly managed, with high crime rates and poor schools.
‘Street. “George taxpayers provide two-thirds of the revenue to East Baton Rouge Parish government, with only one-third of that government’s expenses in return,” the movement states on its website.
“The incorporation of a city would reverse this unfair circumstance to some extent.”
But opponents say the move is “racist” and will create a “white enclave” by separating a wealthy area of the city from the majority-black city and school district.
Proponents of the city of St George claim their tax dollars provide two-thirds of revenue to the East Baton Rouge Parish government and only one-third of that government’s expenses in return.
Last month, residents of Gwinett County, Georgia, voted to approve the creation of the city of Mulberry (pictured) just as the county became majority black.
The proposals would create stark differences in demographics between the two cities.
In St George, the population would be only 12 per cent black compared to almost half in Baton Rouge.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, 11 new cities have been established around the Atlanta metro area since 2005, many of them majority white.
Among them is Chattahoochee Hills, a city of 3,000 people, 77 percent of whom are white.
“Chatt Hills is a small city just south of Atlanta, Georgia, that was incorporated in 2007 to preserve and enhance the rural lands, heritage and culture of this area,” the city website states.
Another example is Brookhaven, which was approved to become DeKalb County’s 11th city through a referendum in 2012.
The population of 60,000 is nearly 60 percent white and is one of the wealthiest in Atlanta.
By comparison, Big Peach has a 47 percent black or African American population, according to Data USA.
Buckhead residents (pictured) want to separate from Atlanta largely due to rising crime rates in the Georgia city.
Buckhead’s efforts were thwarted by Governor Brian Kemp, but the appetite for secession remains strong.
Last month, Gwinett County residents voted to approve the creation of the city of Mulberry just as the county became majority black. Bloomberg reports.
The news angered supporters of a plan to establish the town of Buckhaven, whose efforts were rebuked by Governor Brian Kemp.
“The most notable reason residents are pushing to become a city is the increase in crime in Buckhead,” the nonprofit Liveable Buckhead states on its website.
In Cobb County, three new towns were proposed that would have been 70 to 77 percent white.
Vinings, East Cobb and Lost Mountain failed in their attempts in 2022, but the appetite for secession remains strong.
The arguments remain largely similar to those of similar postwar movements, such as during the White Flight, in which whites abandoned their communities in the wake of desegregation.
“Municipal incorporations are a modern type of segregation triggered by feelings of racial threat and conservatism, which I call white fortress,” writes Godínez-Puig in a academic article about the topic.
“By forming cities, unincorporated communities separate themselves from shared county-level authorities and the broader populations served in these jurisdictions.”
More than a dozen fed-up liberal counties in eastern Oregon have voted in favor of measures to begin negotiations to secede from the state and join conservative Idaho.
The proposal, pictured, seeks to move Oregon’s border 200 miles west, meaning 14 counties and several partial counties would fall under Idaho state lines.
But it is not only the communities of the South that seek to redraw borders.
In Oregon, supporters of the Greater Idaho Movement are pushing for several counties to secede from their liberal state and join the more conservative Idaho.
The organization recently received a boost after Crook County became the 13th to approve measures to begin negotiations.
