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Editor’s note: A shorter version of this commentary was presented to City Council on April 28, 2014, to urge members to support full funding of Mayor Jones’ budget proposals related to the Maggie L. Walker anti-poverty initiative.

My academic career of 44 years has focused on 20 th-century Richmond history and politics with particular attention given to race, poverty and regionalism. Over the past 10 years I have devoted my work to tracking poverty trends in central Virginia and studying the events from the 1930s to the present that led to the heavy concentration of racially defined poverty in East End and South Side Richmond and now areas of Chesterfield and Henrico counties.

The truth behind high-density poverty is that for the most part it was planned. The poor were rounded up and placed on an urban reservation far removed from mainstream society. While many people may not be familiar with the history associated with concentrated poverty, they are familiar with the problems associated with high-density poverty such as how it destroys individuals, breaks up families and sucks the life out of communities. In fact, we’ve known and discussed these problems for many years. And for the same number of years, citizens have demanded action from city policymakers, but nothing of consequence has ever happened.