Overview
Renewing Inequality is a digital humanities project that consists of a map, cartogram, and charts to show the number of American families that the government reported being displaced through urban renewal programs from 1950 to 1965. These federally-funded renewal programs moved poor citizens from their homes into developing buildings and projects during this time. The project has three sections the explains the project’s background and importance.
The first is “The People & the Program”. This section dives into great detail the history of urban renewal programs during this time. It gives information about the many cities that took part in it. People who experienced it themselves give insight into the time. The second is the “Sources and Method'” this section mainly describes and lists the sources and methods that made this project possible in the first place. The third is the “Legislative History.” This section of the project gives the user background knowledge about the Housing Act of 1949 as well as other laws and amendments that were put into place during the 1950s to make all of the housing relocations of American citizens possible.
Renewal Inequality was developed by a team of Brent Cebul, Robert K. Nelson, Justin Madron, and Nathaniel Aye at the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab.
Significance
The reason that “Renewal Inequality” is significant to digital humanities is that it is still having an impact on today’s society and how cities are set up now. This could also provide significant insight into how relocation project should be treated in the future. This is an interactive project for us to really dive into the depth and impact that urban renewal programs had on the thousands of people all across the U.S. in the 50’s and still to this day. This project is catered to those history scholars, but it is important for all of us to understand the significance this has had on our ancestors and how it changed our city life as we know it. The urban renewal programs today are much more about investment and renovation rather than at the time of the 1950’s where it was about destruction and government control.
