Search Results

We Can Seize the Opportunity

E. James West

in Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America

This chapter charts Ebony’s initial response to the ‘mainstreaming’ of black history in American popular and political culture during the 1970s, focused around the magazine’s discussion of, and ... More

This chapter charts Ebony’s initial response to the ‘mainstreaming’ of black history in American popular and political culture during the 1970s, focused around the magazine’s discussion of, and engagement with, the American Bicentennial in 1976. As a whole, Ebony’s coverage of the Bicentennial reflected a shift away from a more activist-oriented depiction of black history and an embrace of less political and more commemorative editorial perspective. Yet even as this shift occurred, Bennett pushed for a rejection of the Bicentennial as an ‘affront to truth and freedom.’Less

Working Together to Live Tobacco-Free:: Community-Based Smoking Cessation in North Lawndale

Joseph F. West and Charlene J. Gamboa

in Urban Health: Combating Disparities with Local Data

North Lawndale in the city of Chicago is a community that is predominantly Black, poor, and dilapidated. Smoking is a pervasive public health issue for North Lawndale compounded by the deeply rooted ... More

North Lawndale in the city of Chicago is a community that is predominantly Black, poor, and dilapidated. Smoking is a pervasive public health issue for North Lawndale compounded by the deeply rooted issues of race and class. This chapter begins with an introduction to the data on smoking prevalence for North Lawndale gathered from a comprehensive community survey. It then discusses a community-based intervention illustrating all of the features of its multi-faceted design. The intervention features a collaboration that started with a few community partners and the state public health department and grew into substantial partnerships with local community groups, schools, churches, and outreach organizations — all focused on eliminating tobacco use in North Lawndale. Finally, the chapter discusses some key outcomes and lessons learned from the intervention.Less

Scaling Back: Closure, Crisis, and Counterrevolutionary Times

Jonathan Fenderson

in Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s

This chapter recounts the circumstances surrounding John Johnson’s decision to discontinue Black World and terminate Hoyt Fuller. It recalls the broad national outcry and subsequent efforts by the ... More

This chapter recounts the circumstances surrounding John Johnson’s decision to discontinue Black World and terminate Hoyt Fuller. It recalls the broad national outcry and subsequent efforts by the Black intellectual community to replace the magazine with the short-lived journal First World. More than just an attempt to chronicle the life and death of a seminal Black periodical and its short-lived replacement, the chapter elucidates how these magazines’ respective trajectories embodied larger shifts and rifts among Black intellectuals and within the Black Arts movement. In recalling this history, the chapter explores the very meanings of Black intellectual community in the 1970s while paying close attention to intraracial class politics. In essence, it argues that the slow demise of Jim Crow exacerbated preexisting class (and ideological) divisions within the Black intellectual community, and these divisions, once inflamed, had a tremendous impact on Black institutions and the shape of Black intellectual praxis.Less

Introduction: Leaping for Freedom: Black Theatre Manuscripts and Black Performance Communities

Kate Dossett

in Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal

The introduction explores the significance of Black theatre manuscripts for histories of the Federal Theatre Project, Black literary heritage and the Radical Black tradition. Black theatre ... More

The introduction explores the significance of Black theatre manuscripts for histories of the Federal Theatre Project, Black literary heritage and the Radical Black tradition. Black theatre manuscripts developed on the Federal Theatre Project were not always staged or published, but they document Black creativity and theatrical innovation in the 1930s and constitute a crucial if overlooked part of American cultural history. Theatre histories that only include plays staged or published will invariably be histories of what was interesting or acceptable to whites. This book examines what was important and necessary to African Americans. It develops the idea of the Black Performance Community, a temporary community which performance creates among spectators, performers, directors, writers and others whose backstage roles shape manuscripts and performance. It argues that histories of Black theatre need to consider variant manuscripts, the communities of unacknowledged collaborators that shaped them over time, and the role of the archives and anthologies in shaping knowledge production about Black theatre.Less

Community of Blackness

Karla Slocum

in Black Towns, Black Futures: The Enduring Allure of a Black Place in the American West

Chapter Four addresses the pull that various groups and individuals feel to connect with Black towns and argues that the pull is to connect with Black community, Black family, and the progress of the ... More

Chapter Four addresses the pull that various groups and individuals feel to connect with Black towns and argues that the pull is to connect with Black community, Black family, and the progress of the Black race. The Boley town rodeo parade draws in and recruits numerous and diverse Black social groups to participate in the annual event, which publicly presents a vibrant and inclusive Black space. Others relocate to a Black town. The chapter profiles a woman who moved to a Black town, motivated to connect with her family history in the place; and another woman who took up residence in a Black town, believing the Black space was prime for forwarding a project to bolster Black peoples’ racial sense of self and thereby improve race relations.Less

Drawing on the Past toward a Food Sovereign Future: The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

Monica M. White

in Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement

Whereas previous chapters discussed strategies employed by those who stayed in the South, this chapter tells the stories of the descendants of those who migrated north, focusing on Detroit. While far ... More

Whereas previous chapters discussed strategies employed by those who stayed in the South, this chapter tells the stories of the descendants of those who migrated north, focusing on Detroit. While far in time and space from the other examples of Black agricultural resistance discussed in this book, contemporary communities in Detroit are similarly turning to agriculture as a strategy of survival and resistance. The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) formed in 2006, setting goals of improving education, food access, and collective buying. DBCFSN is rooted in a pan-African philosophy of pride and solidarity and draws from founders’ experiences in Detroit’s Black Power era and in city government. Central to DBCFSN’s approach to community food sovereignty are antiracist and anticapitalist principles that guide cooperative efforts, political education, and organizing designed to dismantle systems of white supremacy embedded in the food system. DBCFSN’s most well-known projects – the Detroit Food Policy Council, D-Town Farm, and the Ujamaa Food Buying Club – enact the strategies of prefigurative politics, economic autonomy, and commons as praxis to build collective agency and community resilience.Less

Suspect Nationals

in Turf Wars: Territory and Citizenship in the Contemporary State

This chapter looks at the conceptualizations of Africa and Africans, as well as the link between Africa and Afro-Colombians and between Colombia and Afro-Colombians. It shows that this link has a ... More

This chapter looks at the conceptualizations of Africa and Africans, as well as the link between Africa and Afro-Colombians and between Colombia and Afro-Colombians. It shows that this link has a history of rejecting Africa and forming a social order within Colombia. The Indigenous model, the referent to Blacks within Colombia, and the local definitions of ethnicity and race are also discussed. This chapter ends with a study on the different ethnic categories in Buenos Aires and the contrast between the Black and Indigenous communities.Less

‘Who controls the past controls the future’: Black history and community development

Shabina Aslam, Milton Brown, Onyeka Nubia, Elizabeth Pente, Natalie Pinnock-Hamilton, Mandeep Samra, and Paul Ward

in Co-Producing Research: A Community Development Approach

What role does “Black history” play in community development? This chapter discusses how Black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) communities have been excluded from contributing to national and local ... More

What role does “Black history” play in community development? This chapter discusses how Black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) communities have been excluded from contributing to national and local histories, depriving them of resources that would enable them to develop different futures in the context of a British historical narrative dominated by whiteness. It focuses on the intersection of history and community development and how community-based organisations have worked in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield (in West Yorkshire in the north of England). The chapter suggests that there are advantages in the co-production of historical knowledge, one of which is that a collaborative approach enables greater inclusion and diversity of views, especially as there is a lack of ethnic diversity amongst academic staff at British universities.Less

Organizing for Change

Sekou M. Franklin

in After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation

This chapter extends the discussion of the actions of the Black Student Leadership Network (BSLN) by highlighting the group's activities from 1993 to 1996. It specifically analyzes three organizing ... More

This chapter extends the discussion of the actions of the Black Student Leadership Network (BSLN) by highlighting the group's activities from 1993 to 1996. It specifically analyzes three organizing initiatives, the first of which is the Summer Freedom School program. Freedom schools, or alternative educational institutions for poor children, were utilized as pedagogical tools of protest for promoting children to challenge inequality. The second organizing initiative is the campaign against gun violence, a problem which became rampant during the 1990s. Together with the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and the Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC), the BSLN developed a strategy to reduce gun violence among youth, while connecting this effort to ameliorative juvenile justice policies. They lobbied for harsher prison sentences, putting more police officers on the street, and the death penalty for juveniles. The last initiative examined are the organizing activities in three regions: New York Metro, North and South Carolina, and California.Less

The Origins of the Black Student Leadership Network

Sekou M. Franklin

in After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation

This chapter examines the activities of the Black Student Leadership Network (BSLN) from 1991 to 1996. It first describes the BSLN's parent organizations, the Black Community Crusade for Children ... More

This chapter examines the activities of the Black Student Leadership Network (BSLN) from 1991 to 1996. It first describes the BSLN's parent organizations, the Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC) and the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), and looks at the BSLN's leadership development and popular education programs. The BSLN represented an extensive effort on the part of post–Civil Rights student and youth activists to develop a federated youth formation that could address poverty, racism, and public health crises in low-income black communities. Through its Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute (EBCPTI) and Advanced Service and Advocacy Workshops (ASAWs), the BSLN trained over six hundred black students and youth in direct action organizing, social movement building, voter education, child advocacy, and teaching methodology and developed freedom schools in dozens of urban and rural jurisdictions.Less

Women in the Nation of Islam and the Warith Deen Mohammed Community: Crafting a Dialogue

Dawn-Marie Gibson and Jamillah Karim

in Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam

This chapter focuses on dialogue between women in the Nation of Islam (NOI) and those in the Warith Deen Mohammed (WDM) community. It explores the two groups' levels of engagement with mainstream ... More

This chapter focuses on dialogue between women in the Nation of Islam (NOI) and those in the Warith Deen Mohammed (WDM) community. It explores the two groups' levels of engagement with mainstream Islam, engagement with concerns in the Black community, and conceptions of gender equality, especially as it relates to women's leadership in mosques. Having found that encounters and conversations between women of the two groups are few and far between, the chapter proposes what women of the two groups would want the other to know about their practice and understanding of Islam in light of mutual misconceptions. It highlights women's voices as they might respond to these misconceptions, providing women's views on various topics, including the continued relevance of the NOI in a context in which Sunni Islam prevails as the version of Islam practiced by most African Americans and the controversial practices of female imams and polygyny.Less

Racial States and Local Governance

Jodi Rios

in Black Lives and Spatial Matters: Policing Blackness and Practicing Freedom in Suburban St. Louis

This chapter argues that municipalities with majority-Black populations are often both victims and administrators of highly racialized practices that differentiate, oppress, and exploit nonwhite ... More

This chapter argues that municipalities with majority-Black populations are often both victims and administrators of highly racialized practices that differentiate, oppress, and exploit nonwhite communities. This argument is based on data showing that municipalities with higher percentages of Black residents are more likely to have their resources poached by adjacent cities with majority-white populations. The data also show that the residents of these cities experience more extreme forms of political, economic, and physical violence at the hands of local administrators and police, and that the forms of predatory policing in these areas are often obscured or deemed economically rational. The chapter then details the racialized means and extreme measures cities in North St. Louis County use to extract money and resources from Black citizens. These practices have been developed over many years in response to wholesale disinvestment and the poaching of resources out of Black communities. The chapter also considers the ethical arguments and discourses concerning municipal dissolution of majority-Black cities, with particular emphasis on the relationship between municipal poaching, predatory policing, and suburban race-making.Less

Ethnic Minority Perspectives1

Ola Uduku

in Reinventing the City?: Liverpool in Comparative Perspective

This chapter discusses the settlement and integration of Black or ethnic minorities in Liverpool. First, it gives a brief historical background and overview of the settlement and development of the ... More

This chapter discusses the settlement and integration of Black or ethnic minorities in Liverpool. First, it gives a brief historical background and overview of the settlement and development of the Black and Asian community in Liverpool. It then evaluates the quality of life and everyday experience of the city's Black community. The chapter also presents case studies on the life experience and quality two communities, the Somalis and the Chinese, focusing on the areas of housing, employment, education and health.Less

FIGHTing for the Soul of Black Capitalism: Struggles for Black Economic Development in Postrebellion Rochester

Laura Warren Hill

in Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970

This chapter documents the various plans to encourage Black entrepreneurship. It mentions that Kodak spearheaded the creation of the Rochester Business Opportunities Council (RBOC) after it became ... More

This chapter documents the various plans to encourage Black entrepreneurship. It mentions that Kodak spearheaded the creation of the Rochester Business Opportunities Council (RBOC) after it became wary of further negative publicity. It also analyzes the collaboration between the locally headquartered corporations, several universities, and private citizens with RBOC in order to provide funds, training, and technical assistance to Black individuals seeking to start or expand a business. The chapter discusses other organizations in Rochester that envisioned a different form of Black capitalism, a more collective capitalism wherein the Black community would operate businesses for the common good. It explores the alternative vision of Black capitalism, where profits are reinvested in daycare centers, affordable housing, and shopping centers.Less

Tense Territories

in Turf Wars: Territory and Citizenship in the Contemporary State

This chapter looks at certain community programs that were designed to form a specific idea of community as a part of the state. These programs are a part of Community Mothers, which has a ... More

This chapter looks at certain community programs that were designed to form a specific idea of community as a part of the state. These programs are a part of Community Mothers, which has a significant impact on the lives of rural households and families in Buenos Aires. This chapter examines the conceptualizations of community that can be associated with Community Mothers. It devotes one section to the role of violence in a number of social relations, such as government decisions and economic production, and the blurring of the boundaries between Black and Indigenous communities.Less

The Clintons’ War on Drugs: Why Black Lives Didn’t Matter

Donna Murch

in Caging Borders and Carceral States: Incarcerations, Immigration Detentions, and Resistance

The chapter offers a political analysis of how mass incarceration unfolded through the designs of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the collection of conservative and centrist Sunbelt ... More

The chapter offers a political analysis of how mass incarceration unfolded through the designs of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the collection of conservative and centrist Sunbelt governors and congressmen whose political aim was to undo the 1968 presidential primary reforms that established a more pluralistic party base. The chapter takes up the political career of President William J. Clinton, the DLC’s champion, through a political analysis of his “tough on crime” agenda that resulted in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that established $30.2 billion for prisons and policing, the federal expansion of the death penalty, a “three strikes” and lifetime imprisonment provision for federal felony convictions, and gang “enhancements” that allowed minors to be prosecuted as adults. Linking Clinton’s embrace of welfare reform to “get tough” political positioning, the chapter castigates the Democratic Party for pursuing retributive policies that retained white working-class voters within the Democratic fold at the expense of Black people. The “paradox” of Bill Clinton’s political legacy is that he has been able to cast himself as a “liberal” and a friend to the Black community while pursuing such harmful policies, which only makes clear the degree to which African American voters were locked within a detrimental two-party system.Less

N-word vs. F-word, Black vs. Gay: Uncovering Pendejo Games to Recover Intersections

Catherine R. Squireso

in Critical Rhetorics of Race

This chapter shows how dominant media stories pitted and ranked one marginalized group (blacks) against another (LGBTQ) by highlighting the anti-gay epithets made by black male celebrities, who ... More

This chapter shows how dominant media stories pitted and ranked one marginalized group (blacks) against another (LGBTQ) by highlighting the anti-gay epithets made by black male celebrities, who served as responsible exemplars for the larger black U.S. culture. Such logics reduced all gays to being white males and all blacks (especially black males) to being straight and homophobic. Indeed, allegations about black homophobia are a recurring topic in media discourse, such as rappers' homophobic lyrics, black men “on the down low,” and black clergy supporting anti-gay ballot initiatives. In doing so, the media framed black and gay communities as distinctive and essentially de-intersecting black and gay identities.Less

Introduction: Striking the Hammer while the Iron Is Hot

Laura Warren Hill

in Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970

This chapter provides a background to the story of transformations brought by the rebellion of the Black community that happened first in Harlem, New York and then in Rochester on July 4, 1964. It ... More

This chapter provides a background to the story of transformations brought by the rebellion of the Black community that happened first in Harlem, New York and then in Rochester on July 4, 1964. It points out that the rebellions in Rochester and Harlem shared a common spark: police brutality and misconduct. It also explains how the twin rebellions in New York State in 1964 were a foretaste of the Southern-based civil rights movement, which gave way to a different kind of Black political mobilization that centered largely in the urban North. The chapter reviews the consequences of the civil rights movement that dismantled Jim Crow as a system of legalized racism in the North and South. It emphasizes that the new Black political mobilization, which built on the energy arising from the rebellions and fashioning theories of a Black political economy, sought to address the structures of socioeconomic marginalization and impoverishment that survived the legal dismantling of Jim Crow.Less

Uniting for Survival: Police Brutality, Organizational Conflict, and Unity in the Black Freedom Struggle

Laura Warren Hill

in Strike the Hammer: The Black Freedom Struggle in Rochester, New York, 1940-1970

This chapter documents several brutal clashes between African Americans and the police, which engendered a loose coalition of Black organizations and a number of sympathetic white ministers. It ... More

This chapter documents several brutal clashes between African Americans and the police, which engendered a loose coalition of Black organizations and a number of sympathetic white ministers. It recounts the Rochester cases that garnered significant attention, while police clashes occurred throughout most cities in the postwar era. It also mentions a case where the US Justice Department interceded and another case where the famed Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X joined the protest efforts. The chapter argues that police brutality became a salient issue for a broad cross section of the Black community, which included ministers who cultivated and promoted a unified response. It talks about the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that worked closely with Malcolm X and local Nation of Islam leaders to organize a unity rally, chastising the Rochester branch for consorting with reputed Black separatists.Less