Echoes of Exploitation: Tracing the Impact of Racial Capitalism in Birmingham’s Titusville Neighbourhood

Abstract

This thesis examines the exclusionary planning practices that shaped the urban fabric of the United States through segregation, focusing on the Titusville neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama, as an illustrative example. The work highlights how cycles of capitalist oppression adapt and persist, perpetuating socioeconomic disparities among African American residents in pursuit of excess wealth. It investigates how exploitative mechanisms – such as organized abandonment, predatory inclusion, and organized violence – are reiterated and reinforced by municipal and federal policies, continuously restructuring regimes of accumulation to enshrine inequality.

Through this theoretical framework, the research examines the history of Birmingham from its incorporation during the 19th century to its current state in the 21st century. The transformative theory of reparative planning provides parameters for dismantling exploitative capitalist structures. While the city’s efforts through the Titusville Community Framework Plan are a start, a lack of accountability and implementation has shifted the burden onto nonprofit community groups in the area.

Insights gathered from interviews with leaders of two contrasting nonprofit organizations, the Titusville Development Corporation and the Dynamite Hill-Smithfield Community Land Trust, highlight the need for a multi-faceted approach to reparative planning. In the pursuit of anti-racist futures, combining pragmatic and transformative strategies is essential for dismantling the legacy of exclusionary planning. This study seeks to uncover the historical and ongoing impacts of these oppressive structures and advocate for reparative planning that genuinely addresses the needs of the Titusville community and, consequently, the larger American context.