Justice
The Birmingham Suburb That Wants to Segregate Its Schools
The predominately white, prosperous city of Gardendale hopes to secede from its poorer, more diverse school district.
Throughout this week, CityLab is running a series on borders—both real and imagined—and what draws so many of us to places on the edge.
Gardendale, Alabama, sits just north of Birmingham. Though it’s not the wealthiest suburb—it’s been described by The Washington Post as a town of modest homes, old coal mines, and strip malls—its residents are better off than many in Jefferson County. While 20 percent of county residents live below the federal poverty line, that number is only 7 percent in Gardendale. And 88 percent of Gardendale is white, compared to 54 percent countywide.