Viacratic America: Plessy on Foot v. Brown on wheels

Abstract

The United States has undergone a profound spatial reorganization over the course of the twentieth century, and it influences the working of democratic and judicial institutions profoundly. The critical feature is differential access to transportation and place, and the major instrument is of course the automobile. Other technologies -the AC electric grid most fundamental among them - have allowed a finer and finer sorting of the population into relatively homogeneous income strata. The failure of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) is a leading example of this phenomenon. The trivialization of local politics - when resources are separated from needs in a region - is another.