Racial democracy and the Black metropolis : housing policy in postwar Chicago / Preston H. Smith II.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Preston H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Housing--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

African Americans.

Home ownership--Illinois--Chicago--History--20th century.

Home ownership.

History.

African Americans--Housing.

Illinois--Chicago.

Physical Description:

xix, 433 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2012]

Summary:

Political Science/Race

In Racial Democracy and the Black Metropolis, Preston H. Smith II examines housing debates in Chicago that reach beyond black and white politics, and shows how class and factional conflicts among African Americans helped to reproduce stunning segregation along economic lines. Smith outlines the ideological framework that black civic leaders in Chicago used to formulate housing policy to reveal a surprising picture of leaders who singled out racial segregation as the source of African Americans' inadequate living conditions rather than attacking class inequalities. This book details how black civic leaders fought racial discrimination in ways that promoted-or at least did not sacrifice-their class interests in real estate struggles. And, as Smith demonstrates, their accommodation of the government policy of the time has had a lasting effect: it contributed to a legacy of class segregation in the housing market in Chicago and major metropolitan areas across the country that is still felt today. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Black civic ideology and political economy in postwar Chicago

Racial democracy and the case for public housing

Black factions contesting public housing

Fighting "negro clearance" : black elites and urban redevelopment policy

From negro clearance to negro containment : displacement and relocation in a dual housing market

Black redevelopment and negro conservation

Racial violence and the crisis of black elite leadership

From restrictive covenants to occupancy standards : class and racial democracy

Selling the negro housing market

Self-help and the black real estate industry

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780816637027

0816637024

9780816637034

0816637032

OCLC:

759910076