In their own interests : race, class, and power in twentieth-century Norfolk, Virginia / Earl Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Earl, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Virginia--Norfolk--Social conditions.

African Americans.

African Americans--Virginia--Norfolk--Economic conditions.

Working class--Virginia--Norfolk--History--20th century.

Working class.

Norfolk (Va.)--Social conditions.

Norfolk (Va.).

Norfolk (Va.)--Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 p.) : 15 figs., 3 maps

Edition:

Reprint 2019

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1991]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Since the Civil War, African Americans have made great efforts to empower themselves. Focusing on Norfolk, Virginia, Earl Lewis shows how blacks have had to balance competing inclinations for conscious inaction and purposeful agitation as they sought to promote their own interests at home and in the workplace. In Their Own Interests presents a cross-section of southern urban blacks--the power-brokers and lesser-knowns, Garvey followers and communist enthusiasts--who came to live in Norfolk between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Lewis seeks to recreate the texture of African-American life by examining the lives of the people after they moved to the city--the jobs and assistance they secured, the houses, families, and institutions they built, the battles they waged, and the culture they shared. In Their Own Interests moves African-American urban and social history beyond the current intellectual crossroads. Drawing on a variety of sources, Lewis tells the interconnected story of race, class, and power in twentieth-century Norfolk. His study has far-reaching implications and should be of wide interest.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. Framing a Perspective, 1862-1910

2. Migration, Jobs, and Race-Conscious Urban Workers, 1910-1930

3. Race Relations, Institutions, and Development in the Home Sphere, 1910-1930

4. Culture and the Family: Defining Their World, 1910-1930

5. Unemployment, Migration, and Material Decline: The Foundation for Change, 1929-1941

6. The Depression Years: Toward a Restructuring of Social Relations, 1929-1941

7. World War II and the Crystallization of a New Perspective, 1941-1945

Conclusion: Everything Has Changed, but Everything Remains the Same

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-262) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520914506

0520914503

OCLC:

1149475424