Truman, Troy, and the Troubled 50s

To understand the situation in the Hill District during the 50s, it's absolutely necessary to understand the factors that created said situation. The two main factors were the Housing Act of 1949 as well as the Great Migration. Together, with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement enabled Troy to get his promotion as a garbage truck driver, rather than a lifter. 

The Housing Act of 1949 was the brainchild of the president at the time, Harry Truman. The conditions in which he was brought up and his early career choices helped to shape the choices that he made during this presidency. Truman was born to a father who was a farmer and livestock dealer; he was clearly not brought up in anything more than lower-middle class conditions. This was no more evident then when he had to drop out of college in his first year due to insufficient funds. He was able to secure a job with his meager business college experience, but made no where enough to afford adequate housing, and thus, spent most of his nights sleeping in hobo camps. 

The only feasible way for Truman to continue his education was to attend West Point, which had no associated fees. However, due to his poor eyesight, he was turned away, but he would later go on to cheat the eye exam by memorizing the eye chart. That aside, he quickly rose through the ranks and in 1918 he was appointed to be a captain. Being a captain for Truman meant that "he was required to command soldiers from different ethnic and religious backgrounds from his own." Truman's interactions with such a broad and varied set of people gave him the perspective of the lives of people other than his as a white man. 

Of the experiences that Truman would have, his interactions with African American soldiers is the most important as he was able to learn the experiences of such an oppressed minority. When Truman was running for his reelection in 1948, he knew that he had to appeal to the African American minority in order to secure the votes required. Though he had grown in up the Jim Crow law state of Missouri, his time in the military meant that he didn't believe that African Americans should live as second class citizens; he would go onto sending the first civil rights measure to Congress. Though, in the end, "He failed, owing to the rise of Southern Democrats known as Dixiecrats, to end lynchings, poll taxes, discrimination in public transportation, and other forms of racial segregation, but succeeded in raising public consciousness about these issues for future attempts at resolving them."

Truman's time living as a homeless man, making not enough money meant the policies of Roosevelt, the presidency before his, appealed to him In an effort to replicate the policies instituted by Roosevelt, he sent to Congress the "Economic Bill of Rights" — the analog of Roosevelt's New Deal — and, more importantly, the Housing Act of 1949 — the analog of Roosevelt's Housing Act of 1937. The Housing Act of 1949 was passed in an effort to combat the rapid suburbanization of America: many families were leaving their urban centers and moving to the suburbs. The Housing Act of 1949 aimed to clear "some slums and [provide] decent housing for some of the nation's poor." 

After the Second World War, the landscape of America changed drastically, with many Americans moving out of the urban centers and the inner cities, into suburbs and the outer cities. This was in contrast to the massive urbanization during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century as Americans looked for factory work in the inner cities. The baby boom and the return of millions of soldiers following the war meant that housing spaces in the inner cities became almost impossible to acquire. 

The assembly line techniques that matured during the production of wartime goods meant that even suburban housing could follow a similar methodology. Homes were able to be built faster and cheaper than ever before. In addition to cheaper housing, returning soldiers, aided by GI bill benefits, were able to secure loans to help pay for their suburban houses. In the end, more Americans could afford to own homes. The more pertinent issue stems from the fact that minorities who lived in these urban centers, due to low earnings, were unable to move out like other white Americans. This effect is known as white flight. These urban centers would go on to be ignored now that the majority white population has left, creating slum like conditions that the Housing Act of 1949 aimed to counteract. 

While the Housing Act of 1937 was a small success, the Housing Act of 1949 was a complete disaster. Clearing out large amounts of slum lands proved to be a crude and ineffective method of redevelopment. Similarly, "concerns over social equity, such as where to house dislocated people, were inadequately addressed." By destroying homes and replacing them with convention centers, housing, and far too often, empty lots, these plans to reinvigorate cities often did more harm than good. 

 Take for example Los Angeles in 1950, just a year after the Housing Act of 1949 had been passed. The city of Los Angeles, through their power of eminent domain, would purchase the homes of many of the residents of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop. The city extorted these residents, who were mostly poor, working class, Mexican Americans, into selling their homes for prices that were well below the fair market value. To top it all of, rather than building public housing for the displaced residents and other poor people to move back into, the city and its civic leaders decided that building a sports stadium — the Dodger Stadium — would be the best course of action. Obviously this would do more harm than good, and this course of action of misuse of reclaimed land would be an issue that shows up elsewhere, and ultimately causes the fail of the Housing Act of 1949.

In conjunction with the rapid suburbanization that took place during the 50s, another factor was disadvantaging minorities: The Great Migration, "the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West. Notice how as white Americans were moving out of urban centers, minorities continued to flock into these urban centers, exaggerated the effects of white flight. The cause of the Great Migration was caused due to the poor economic conditions, as well as the racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern states. Notice how these issues outlined here that contributed to the Great Migration, are the same issues that Truman attempted to rectify during his time as President. 

Outside of social issues, there were economic motivators for the Great Migration as well: the need for more blue collar workers in the North. Following the First World War, there was shortage in European immigrants to work in Northern factories. As the Second World War came by, there were huge opportunities for African Americans to move to the North and work in these factories.

The Hill District, the setting of Fences, was a hotspot for African American migrants; "the neighborhood's black population grew rapidly from around 10,000 in 1890 all the way to over 37,000 in 1920." The infrastructure in the Hill District was not setup to handle such a large population. There were many, many, young single black men who lived in the Hill District. With such a large supply for labor, it's understandable that Troy pushed so hard for Cory to retain his job at the supermarket: every worker was very easily replaced. 

The aging infrastructure and large population of the Hill District made it a prime candidate for the urban renewal through the Housing Act of 1949. The majority of Pittsburgh politicians authorized the relocation of around 8,000 residents that comprised around 1,500 families. A repeat of what happened in Los Angeles with regards to the Dodgers Stadium occurred here in the Hill District as well. Low cost government subsidized housing was promised, but instead the Hill District got the Civic Arena — the ex-home of the Pittsburgh Penguins — and an adjacent parking lot.. 

The two factors that contributed the most to the Maxson's living conditions were the start of the Civil Rights movement which started with Truman, as well as the waning population in the Hill District, also due to Truman. The most notable effect that these factors had was Troy being able to get a promotion to become a driver, rather than someone who just picks up the garbage. In the play, he complains to Mr. Rand that ' "Why? Why you got the white mens driving and the colored lifting?" Told him, "What’s the matter, don’t I count?" ' 

With a waning population comes less men to be workers on the garbage pickup routes, and thus, it was necessary to retain as many employees as possible as hiring new ones was gradually more difficult. In addition, following the white flight that occured in the Hill District, and more broadly in Pittsburgh, it was essential that the garbage truck company had the good will of the majority African American population. With the Civil Rights movement starting, the garbage pickup company couldn't afford the negative reputation that came along with segregating jobs. Mr. Rand didn't want to give him the promotion, much less, he wanted to fire him: "When they called me down there to the commissioner’s office . . . he thought they was gonna fire me. Like everybody else." However, the higher up that was in charge was much more willing to give Troy the promotion because he understood the gravity of the situation. 

The situation that the Troy and his family were now in was indirect consequence of Troy's probable actions. Truman had centered a significant portion of his re-election campaign around acquiring the votes of minorities, and especially the African American community. Thus, it is feasible to assume that even Troy voted for Truman, and brought along the necessary changes to acquire his job.