The term inner city first achieved consistent usage through the writings of white liberal Protestants in the U.S. after World War II, contrasting with the growing affluent suburbs.
Its genesis was the product of an era when a largely white suburban mainline Protestantism was negotiating its relationship to American cities.
The term inner city arose in this racial liberal context, providing a rhetorical and ideological tool for articulating the role of the church in the nationwide project of urban renewal.
Thus, even as it arose in contexts aiming to entice mainline Protestantism back into the cities it had fled, the term accrued its meaning by generating symbolic and geographic distance between white liberal churches and the black communities they sought to help.
Urban renewal is the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and more.