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ReddiePenguin t1_jcodnlb wrote

Here is a very interesting read on Prospect Homes:

https://cambriamemory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/A-Restrained-Militancy-Johnstowns-Postwar-Black-Community.pdf (Page 5/151)

Basically it started out to where many whites in 1943 refused to even sign their leases because “they didn’t want to live with black people”.

It basically was the way until around 1970 when the courts stepped in and basically said every JTown Housing Property has almost no black persons except Prospect.

It really makes you wonder how much care & maintenance they would have gotten on that almost 30 years of first existence.

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my404 OP t1_jcq79mm wrote

Wow! That makes so much sense. Johnstown has a very dark history of racism, which unfortunately still continues today. I was contacted by an older Johnstown native many months ago who felt very strongly that the current situation mirrored its history of banishing the black community in the past.

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ReddiePenguin t1_jcqip83 wrote

I just can’t help but think after reading that, did they care to really do maintenance in the “black area”? Even if they had their own folks, did they refuse to sell them adequate supplies? It seems like it could have been a terrible mess.

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