Almost a century later, the city again gained notoriety, but this time it was for the refusal to embrace progress. In the 1960s, Birmingham was the center of some of the worst violence to come out of the Civil Rights Movement. By this time other factors were contributing to the decline of the iron and steel industry and increasing unemployment. With a few exceptions, the downtown area fell into a state of decay. The accompanying "white flight" left the city with abandoned buildings, crumbling infrastructure, and mounting debt. In recent years a renewed interest in urban living has contributed to a debatable "gentrification" of the downtown area. 

By investigating the history of the industrialization in Birmingham, coupled with the resistance to equality between Reconstruction and the present, a correlation between generational income inequality and  current poverty rates begins to appear.