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Even if one accepted the concept of filtering--the view

that less-than-ideal housing conditions were a stage of

development, not its end point--the 1960s would have been a

politically difficult period in which to defend such gradu-

alism.  As did conditions in the Appalachian mining towns,

which had attracted attention during the 1960 presidential

primary campaign, conditions in black, urban neighborhoods

contrasted so strikingly with those in new subdivisions that

the call for political action was almost inevitable.  Pover-

ty, as Gertrude Himmelfarb has observed, is a relative

concept.8  The presence of poverty amidst affluence creates

momentum for redistribution.

But HUD's founding fathers' view was not simply that

society could not wait until the rising tide of affluence

lifted blacks as it had others; it was far more pessimistic.

Although Wood acknowledged that previous groups of urban

newcomers had followed what he repeatedly called the "long

tenement trail to relative affluence and acceptance in

American society," he did not believe blacks would follow in

their footsteps.  "The historic role of the city has deteri-

orated badly," observed Wood.  "In some city neighborhoods,

blight and poverty have gone hand-in-hand for generations,

and the slum is no longer a way station."  Moreover, wrote

Wood, "the bus has stopped running to the suburbs and the

urban poor are increasingly insulated from the larger soci-

ety."9  It is crucial to note that, in retrospect, we have

learned that Wood's assertion was exactly the opposite of

what was occurring.  At the very moment when the designers

of HUD were asserting that the process of upward economic

mobility would not lift blacks out of poverty, it was doing

so at a rate greater than that for whites.10

In light of HUD's assertions, one might have expected

actions such as the 1968 federal Fair Housing Law to be the

centerpiece of its agenda to improve the housing situation

of blacks.  Although HUD officials would mention the impor-

tance of fair housing and the agency would become part of

the enforcement mechanism of "equal housing lending," the

thrust of the HUD mission was in another direction: rebuild-

ing the ghetto to middle-class standards.  Secretary Weaver

envisioned "massive housing rehabilitation efforts. . . .

Successful rehabilitation can help achieve our goal of

adequate housing for all families in less time, with less

need for new land sites and, hopefully, at lower cost, than

through the provision of new housing for all who do not have

standard housing."  It was the concept of a massive inter-