Segregation Made Them Neighbors

An Archaeology of Racialization in Boise, Idaho

William A. White

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781496217134
• eBook ISBN: 9781496233714
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Segregation Made Them Neighbors investigates the relationship between whiteness and nonwhiteness through the lenses of landscapes and material culture. William A. White III uses data collected from a public archaeology and digital humanities project conducted in the River Street neighborhood in Boise, Idaho, to investigate the mechanisms used to divide local populations into racial categories. The River Street Neighborhood was a multiracial, multiethnic enclave in Boise that was inhabited by African American, European American, and Basque residents. Building on theoretical concepts from whiteness studies and critical race theory, this volume also explores the ways Boise's residents crafted segregated landscapes between the 1890s and 1960s to establish white and nonwhite geographies. White describes how housing, urban infrastructure, ethnicity, race, and employment served to delineate the River Street neighborhood into a nonwhite space, an activity that resulted in larger repercussions for other Boiseans. Using material culture excavated from the neighborhood, White describes how residents used mass-produced products to assert their humanity and subvert racial memes. By describing the effects of racial discrimination, real-estate redlining, and urban renewal on the preservation of historic properties in the River Street neighborhood, Segregation Made Them Neighbors illustrates the symbiotic mechanisms that also prevent equity and representation through historic preservation in other cities in the American West.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Forging an Urban Place through Racism
• 2. Race, Structural Racism, and Whiteness in Boise, Idaho
• 3. Creating a Landscape despite Racism
• 4. The River Street Public Archaeology Project
• 5. Archaeological Evidence of Life in a Stigmatized Landscape, 1890s–1960s
• 6. Saving the Erma Hayman House
• Conclusion: Using Archaeology to Fight Racism
• Appendix 1: Artifact Tables
• Appendix 2: Makers’ Marks Summary
• References
• Index
• About William A. White III
• Series List