Delmar Divide
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The Delmar Divide refers to
Delmar Boulevard Delmar Boulevard is a major east-west street in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Route description Delmar Boulevard starts at North 14th Street in Downtown St. Louis, as a westward extension of Convention Plaza. It passes through the nei ...
as a socioeconomic and racial dividing line in
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
,
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. The term was popularized outside
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by a four-minute documentary from the
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. Delmar Blvd. is an east–west street with its western terminus in the municipality of
Olivette, Missouri Olivette is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 8,504 at the 2020 census. History Olivette was settled in the mid-19th century as a small farming community along an old Ind ...
extending into the City of St. Louis. There is a dense concentration of eclectic commerce on Delmar Blvd. near the municipal borders of University City and St. Louis. This area is known as the
Delmar Loop The Delmar Loop, often referred to by St. Louis residents simply as The Loop, is an entertainment, cultural and restaurant district in University City, Missouri and the adjoining western edge of St. Louis near Washington University in St. Lou ...
. Delmar Blvd. is referred to as a "divide" in reference to the dramatic difference in racial populations in the neighborhoods to its immediate north and south: as of 2012, residents south of Delmar are 73% white, while residents north of Delmar are 98% black, and because of corresponding distinct socioeconomic, cultural, and public policy differences.


History of segregation in St. Louis

The history of segregation in St. Louis is deeply rooted in systemic practices and policies that reinforced racial divisions. In 1916, during the
Jim Crow Era The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...
, St. Louis passed a residential segregation ordinance designed to maintain racial homogeneity in neighborhoods. This ordinance stated that if 75% of the residents in a neighborhood were of a particular race, no individual from a different race could move into the area. Although this law was challenged and overturned by the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
in court, its legacy continues through other discriminatory practices. As a result of the ordinance's failure, racial covenants were widely adopted. These legal agreements prevented the sale of properties in specific neighborhoods to individuals who were not white. These covenants were enforced through social and economic pressure and were legally binding until the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruled them unconstitutional in the landmark
Shelley v. Kraemer ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', 334 U.S. 1 (1948), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive housing covenants (deed restrictions) cannot legally be enforced. The case arose after an African-American family purch ...
case of 1948. This ruling, although it was significant, did not immediately combat segregation,
housing discrimination Housing discrimination refers to patterns of discrimination that affect a person's ability to rent or buy housing. This disparate treatment of a person on the housing market can be based on group characteristics or on the place where a person liv ...
persisted through informal practices. During this time, The Ville, a neighborhood located several blocks north of Delmar Boulevard, emerged as a central hub for the Black middle class. Many Black professionals, educators, and entrepreneurs were forbidden from living in other areas of the city so they made The Ville their home. The neighborhood became a thriving cultural and economic center, hosting institutions like Sumner High School, one of the first high schools for African Americans west of the Mississippi River. Urban renewal initiatives worsened racial and socioeconomic divides. In 1954, the city of St. Louis passed an ordinance to redevelop the Mill Creek Valley, a predominantly Black community located south of Delmar Boulevard. The redevelopment, which started in 1959, displaced over 20,000 residents and destroyed the community to make room for projects like
Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...
expansions, Highway 40, LaClede Town, and Grand Towers. Most displaced residents were forced to relocate to The Ville or areas north of Delmar, which made
overcrowding Overcrowding or crowding is the condition where more people are located within a given space than is considered tolerable from a safety and health perspective. Safety and health perspectives depend on current environments and on local cultural ...
and resource scarcity worse. To address the housing needs of displaced populations, the St. Louis Housing Authority expanded public housing developments north of Delmar Boulevard throughout the mid-20th century. However, these projects such as Pruitt-Igoe, were underfunded, had poor maintenance, and social stigma. By the 2000s, public housing in these areas had reinforced the image of Delmar Boulevard as a dividing line between wealth and poverty, further solidifying its role as a racial and socioeconomic boundary.


Statistics and studies

As estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 the populations separated by Delmar Blvd. were as follows.U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2012-2016, 5-year estimates. The Delmar Divide illustrates segregation issues in St. Louis more broadly. Segregation in St. Louis, Missouri has been the subject of many studies. A
Manhattan Institute The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs.R. Emmett Tyrrell, ...
study entitled “The End of the Segregated Century: Racial Separation in America's Neighborhoods, 1890-2010” studied segregation in U.S. cities with the largest population of black residents. The study ranked each city by a dissimilarity index and an
isolation index Isolation index measures the degree to which people inhabit geographic units inhabited primarily by members of their own group. It is usually denoted by I. It varies from 0 to 1.0 and is defined as the proportion of own-group members in the unit of ...
. The dissimilarity index measures the extent to which different racial groups are found to live in equal proportion in each neighborhood in a city. The higher the number, the higher a percentage of a racial group would need to move to a different neighborhood to achieve equality. The isolation index measures neighborhoods that have extremely different racial makeups. In 2010, St. Louis ranked 14th in African American population, with a dissimilarity index of 71.0 (the fifth-highest score in major cities in the US) and an isolation index of 53.8 (the 6th highest score in major cities in the US). This study found St. Louis to be one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. A study done by
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
and Saint Louis University found the higher number of African American residents in a community is correlated with higher rates of poverty.Purnell, Jason, Gabriela Camberos, and Robert Fields. “For the Sake of All.” Joint Report, Washington University in St. Louis and Saint Louis University, May 30, 2014. available at https://forthesakeofall.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/for-the-sake-of-all-report.pdf (Retrieved June 2020). This study, titled "Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide", also notes that Saint Louis "ranks 42nd out of 50 large metro areas" when assessing a child's probability to climb up the social and income hierarchy (that is, economic ascension from lowest 1/5th of population to highest 1/5th by the time of adulthood). Moreover, it points out that the "average annual inflation rate" for home equity was "-0.4%" for households with Black residents, compared to positive increases for other households. In addition, this racial segregation data is viewable in one study collecting the 2010 census data into an interactive map showing one dot for each person recorded, color-coded by race.


Gentrification along the Delmar Divide

Starting in the early 1900s, St. Louis was one of few cities that actively pushed for legalizing local zoning. In ''Mapping Decline'', author Colin Gordon notes that the fear of a "negro invasion", orchestrated by local realtors, led to the formation of a “new organization...that called for racial zoning, provoked practices of school segregation, and overall advocated for 'mutual restriction' between the two primary races". This lay the foundation that has impacted St. Louis ever since. In the 1970s, rapid urban renewal expanded upon the underlying foundation of gentrification. According to Gordon, the short-term focus of this renewal was "attracting high-income residents back downtown and eradicating the 'worst slums'" of the city, the majority of which were in the northern parts of the city. These efforts of urbanization ultimately failed, however, and left the regions “ blighted” and considered by earlier advocates of development to be :an economic liability". Gordon goes on to mention that many of such developmental failures lie primarily in the northern section of St. Louis, one cause of the divide along the northern and southern regions of Delmar. By the late 1990s, the leading minority loan-lender banks in the city, Boatmen's, was in danger of dismantling. In 1993, as part of the
Community Reinvestment Act The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA, P.L. 95-128, 91 Stat. 1147, title VIII of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to h ...
(CRA), Boatmen's Bank announce it would provide $284million per year to all borrowers in all communities. In the following years, Boatmen's received consecutive awards for its service to minorities in St. Louis. But, after acquiring Boatmen's in 1996,
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dismantled the many minority-lending programs, which largely remain unavailable, particularly in the region north of Delmar. As Ian Trivers finds, "despite the prime location and low cost housing...the neighborhoods directly north of the prosperous CWE he Central West End, south of the Delmar Divide">Central_West_End.html" ;"title="he Central West End">he Central West End, south of the Delmar Dividehave experienced almost no redevelopment and repopulation spillover". Trivers goes on to say that neighborhoods north of Delmar are still recovering from the brunt past; physical violence increased and "vacant buildings" and "empty lots are common sights" on the north side of Delmar.


Income-level disparity Along the Divide

A 2014 joint report issued by Washington University in St. Louis and Saint Louis University, titled “Segregation in St. Louis,” investigates the wealth gap between black and white families along the Delmar Divide. The report notes the “average African-American family takes 228 years to amass the same amount of wealth as the average white family”. Additionally, the same study reports that the wealth return generated by education between Black and White families differ by as much as $50,000. In “Black Lives and Policing: The Larger Context of Ghettoization,” author John Logan depicts that while poverty in the suburbs of St. Louis is “below 12%,” Ferguson “tracts in the range of 20-25% poor” with some even above “35% poor”. In “What Do We Mean When We Say, ‘Structural Racism,’” author Walter Johnson writes that “federal housing assistance” in the city are often placed under a “segregated housing market,” ultimately causing many blacks to be illegally excluded. As J. Rosie Tighe states in “The Divergent City: Unequal and Uneven Development in St. Louis,” the region's clear divide along the Delmar into the north and south means that “lower income households and people of color … are disproportionately concentrated … and suffer disproportionality from the resulting misdistribution”.


Education inequalities

Education inequities along the Delmar Divide are a significant driver of the socioeconomic disparities between the neighborhoods north and south off
Delmar Boulevard Delmar Boulevard is a major east-west street in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Route description Delmar Boulevard starts at North 14th Street in Downtown St. Louis, as a westward extension of Convention Plaza. It passes through the nei ...
. Schools in neighborhoods north of Delmar face chronic underfunding due to reliance on property taxes to fund education. As property values north of Delmar are significantly lower than those to the south, schools in these areas struggle to secure adequate resources to support students. According to ''Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide'', the lack of funding has an influential effect on the quality of education, leading to fewer advanced placement courses, limited extracurricular activities, and an overall disconnection from the broader economy. These inequalities are not just a matter of financial disparity but also have long-term consequences for students' futures. Data from the report highlight that educational achievement in neighborhoods north of Delmar is significantly lower than in the south, with only 10% of residents holding a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
compared to 70% in the south as seen in the table above. This disparity perpetuates cycles of
poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
and prevents upward mobility, as students from underfunded schools face more significant challenges accessing
higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
and landing well-paying jobs. Addressing these inequities requires systemic reforms, including restructured funding models and targeted investments in schools north of Delmar to make sure that all students have access to quality education.


Health inequities

St. Louis's historical health disparities continue to influence the health outcomes of its residents, particularly Black communities. Central to this issue is St. Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH), which has a history of segregated medical care. SLCH, located on the south side of Delmar Boulevard, initially operated as a whites-only institution when it opened in 1879. By 1915, as it grew in prominence, it reverted to a segregated model due to discomfort from white patients being treated alongside Black patients. Although integration officially began in 1942 within SLCH, it took another 22 years for the adult hospitals to fully integrate, following the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, the trauma of this segregation continues to impact both patients and hospital staff, maintaining distrust in the healthcare system. The Delmar Divide remains a factor in health inequities, with a significant difference in healthcare access and outcomes between communities north and south of Delmar Boulevard. The divide correlates strongly with unequal access to healthcare resources, such as primary care physicians, specialized medical services, and even basic necessities like nutritious food. The effects are especially evident in maternal and infant health outcomes: Black babies in St. Louis die at nearly “three times the rate of their white counterparts (13.5 vs. 4.4 deaths per 1,000 live births)”. Additionally, there is an 18-year gap in
life expectancy Human life expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimate of the average remaining years of life at a given age. The most commonly used measure is ''life expectancy at birth'' (LEB, or in demographic notation ''e''0, where '' ...
at birth between the areas in north and south St. Louis. This reflects the cumulative effects of historical segregation, ongoing systemic racism, and the lack of investment in marginalized communities. Access to healthcare in North St. Louis County and other low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods is also constrained by structural barriers. A 2016 study highlighted challenges faced by residents, including a lack of nearby medical facilities, provider shortages, and limited access to transportation. Residents often need to travel long distances to reach clinics or hospitals, which can be particularly difficult for those relying on public transit. This logistical hurdle disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including children in the Normandy School District. Many students in this district face chronic health issues such as
asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...
,
allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...
, and behavioral health disorders, yet they struggle to access necessary medical care due to long commutes and appointment delays. Moreover, despite the availability of
Medicaid Medicaid is a government program in the United States that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by U.S. state, state governments, which also h ...
, patients face challenges in obtaining specialized care. Environmental factors further compound these health inequities. Neighborhoods north of Delmar are disproportionately affected by industrial pollution, poor housing conditions, and limited green spaces, all of which contribute to higher rates of respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular diseases.


Intersection of policy and race

Federal housing policies from the mid-20th century contributed to
racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...
in the Delmar Boulevard area. In 1935, the Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) developed
redlining Redlining is a Discrimination, discriminatory practice in which financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have significant numbers of Race (human categorization), racial and Ethnic group, ethnic minorities. Redlining has been mos ...
maps to assess the risk associated with mortgage lending in various urban areas, often determined by racial and socioeconomic factors. Areas north of Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis were classified as "hazardous" and outlined in red due to their predominantly Black population, even if Black families were middle class and above. This designation discouraged mortgage lending and investment in these neighborhoods, leading to decades of
disinvestment Disinvestment refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change. The term was first used in the 1980s, most commonly in ...
, declining property values, and limited economic disparities that refine the Delmar Divide today. The policies of the
Federal Housing Administration The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a Independent agencies of the United States government, United States government agency founded by Pr ...
(FHA) and the Veterans Administration during the mid-20th century significantly contributed to the economic and racial disparities seen along the Delmar Divide. From 1934 to 1962, the vast majority of federally insured home loans—approximately 98%—were granted to white borrowers, systemically excluding nonwhite populations. This discriminatory practice not only denied Black families access to homeownership but also deepened the effects of redlining by depriving neighborhoods north of Delmar Boulevard of the resources needed for property maintenance and generational wealth transfer. By the time the Fair Housing Act of 1968 sought to end these explicit forms of housing discrimination, many homes in these areas had fallen into severe disrepair. Decades of neglect forced numerous residents to abandon their properties and move elsewhere, often to suburban neighborhoods. These policies played a central role in creating and perpetuating the clear divide in wealth and opportunity that characterizes Delmar Boulevard today.


Grassroots movements and community resilience

Efforts by local organizations have played a significant role in addressing the socio-economic disparities along the Delmar Divide. These initiatives have focused on empowering communities and promoting equitable development.


Community Development Administration (CDA) Initiatives

The Community Development Administration (CDA) of St. Louis, launched in 2024, has been instrumental in funding projects aimed at neighborhood revitalization through their Neighborhood Transformation Grants. These grants have supported initiatives such as affordable housing, small business development, and public safety improvements, contributing to the overall betterment of communities north of Delmar Boulevard.


St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative (SLVC)

The St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative (SLVC) addresses the issue of vacant properties and their impact on neighborhoods. By converting abandoned spaces into community assets, the SLVC promotes urban gardening, creates affordable housing, and organizes community clean-up events, thereby enhancing community involvement and revitalization efforts. They have issued a two-year-long partnership starting in 2023 and expected to be completed by 2025, to implement changes to vacant lots for community-wide outreach.


Saint Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO)

The Saint Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO) represents a coalition of neighborhood associations that work towards promoting racial equity and improving the quality of life in St. Louis. Starting in the late 1970s, SLACO served specific metropolitan communities and expanded in 2014 to other regions, promoting community involvement and advocating for racial equality. SLACO's projects include advocating for fair housing policies, organizing neighborhood watch programs, and providing resources for youth development, which collectively aim to foster greater community engagement and address systemic inequities.


References

{{reflist, 2 Anti-black racism in Missouri Geography of St. Louis History of St. Louis Poverty in Missouri