The City of Joliet’s long battle to seize control of a privately-owned Section 8 housing project is motivated by a racially-charged desire to drive out hundreds of poor black residents it described as “rats and whores from Chicago,” attorneys alleged in federal court Thursday.

What’s expected to be a weeks-long bench trial to determine the fate of Evergreen Terrace — a riverside housing project that is home to more than 300 African-American families near downtown Joliet — began amid heated opening argument exchanges.