Dark spaces: An account of Afro-American suburbanization, 1890-1950.
Item
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Title
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Dark spaces: An account of Afro-American suburbanization, 1890-1950.
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Identifier
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AAI9218286
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identifier
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9218286
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Creator
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Wilson, Leslie E.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Richard C. Wade
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Date
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1992
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States | History, Black | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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Although the history of American suburbanization, the residential movement from the core to the urban periphery, extends back to the colonial period, little is known about the outward progression of blacks. This study examines this process; the settlement of African Americans on the rings of metropolitan New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles from 1890 to 1950.;This suburban heritage is intertwined with slavery and the mass exodus from the South following Reconstruction. Before the Civil War, free blacks in the North pushed outward selecting the fringe as an outpost from racial hostilities. By the end of the conflict, this process was regional with northerners and southerners living on the city's rim. At the turn of the century, as southern suburbs disappear, new growth takes root in the North, coinciding with the beginnings of the Great Migrations and ending with the court case of Shelley v. Kraemer.;During the beginning of the twentieth century, overcrowding and decay in cities produced a large wave of urban flight, reuniting blacks and whites outside of the core. However, in a more dramatic fashion than in the city, classes and races clashed as minorities were overwhelming service workers, who relied on white support for their survival. Afro-Americans, bolstered by northern migrants, placed several groups in these communities: displaced city dwellers looking for better housing, southerners in search of employment, and previous arrivals attempting to better their lives. Despite their second-class status, the black community flourishes, building an infra-structure that rivals many urban locations. From 1900 to the late 1920s, the black press enhanced this movement through clever advertisement. However, this tremendous growth, coupled with economic decline, leads to white back-lash just before the Depression. The result was a closed society, complete with social disfranchisement, curtailing black mobility and limiting migration through the end of World War Two. The 1948 Supreme Court case marks the triumphant breakdown of this segregated system, and paves the way for the next wave of black suburbanization that appears in the late 1960s.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
