The following is an adapted excerpt from Andre Perry’s forthcoming book, “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.”

In 2018, I took a walk through Birmingham, Alabama, with real estate developer Brian Rice. Earlier that year, Rice had purchased nine buildings on 19th Street in downtown Ensley, the largest of the 99 neighborhoods within Birmingham. He was planning to bring them and the commercial corridor they were once part of back to life.