Root Shock at Twenty: Reflections from Pittsburgh

The publication of Mindy Fullilove's Root Shock in 2004 turned the oftcited narrative of top-down progress on its head. For the first time, the words of ordinary neighbourhood folk emerged as counter points to urban renewal and rapid community change. Now, twenty years later, the process Fullilove established still resonates among the people with whom she interacted. One city she profiled, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suffered through several rounds of emotional and physical trauma in the form of African American displacement from urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s, then the demolition of public housing units in the 1990s and early-2000s. This article synthesizes the responses of Terri Baltimore, a neighbourhood activist from Pittsburgh's Hill District; Phil Hallen, the former President of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund which funded Mindy's research in Pittsburgh; and Duquesne University history professor Dan Holland as they recount their reactions to Root Shock in 1994 and the inspiration Mindy Fullilove continues to provide today. But as a new round of root shock unfolds – the exodus of African Americans from traditional inner-city neighbourhoods as a result of gentrification – Fullilove's lessons provide a cautionary tale for how cities respond to the latest housing crisis.