Black Corona : race and the politics of place in an urban community / Steven Gregory.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-277) and index.

InBlack Corona, Steven Gregory examines political culture and activism in an African-American neighborhood in New York City. Using historical and ethnographic research, he challenges the view that black urban communities are "socially disorganized." Gregory demonstrates instead how working-class and middle-class African Americans construct and negotiate complex and deeply historical political identities and institutions through struggles over the built environment and neighborhood quality of life. With its emphasis on the lived experiences of African Americans, Black Coronaprovides a fresh and innovative contribution to the study of the dynamic interplay of race, class, and space in contemporary urban communities. It questions the accuracy of the widely used trope of the dysfunctional "black ghetto," which, the author asserts, has often been deployed to depoliticize issues of racial and economic inequality in the United States. By contrast, Gregory argues that the urban experience of African Americans is more diverse than is generally acknowledged and that it is only by attending to the history and politics of black identity and community life that we can come to appreciate this complexity. This is the first modern ethnography to focus on black working-class and middle-class life and politics. Unlike books that enumerate the ways in which black communities have been rendered powerless by urban political processes and by changing urban economies, Black Coronademonstrates the range of ways in which African Americans continue to organize and struggle for social justice and community empowerment. Although it discusses the experiences of one community, its implications resonate far more widely.

Machine derived contents note: Table of contents for Black Corona : race and the politics of place in an urban community / Steven Gregory. -- Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog -- Information from electronic data provided by the publisher. May be incomplete or contain other coding. -- List of Illustrations ix -- Acknowledgments xi -- Part One 1 -- Chapter One: Introduction 3 -- Chapter Two: Making Community 20 -- Chapter Three: The Movement 55 -- Chapter Four: The State and the War on Politics 85 -- Part Two 107 -- Chapter Five: Race and the Politics of Place 109 -- Chapter Six: A Piece of the Rock 139 -- Part Three 179 -- Chapter Seven: Up Against the Authority 181 -- Chapter Eight: The Politics of Hearing and Telling 218 -- Chapter Nine: Conclusion 248 -- Notes 253 -- References Cited 267 -- Index 279 -- Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Corona (New York, N, Y,) Race relations, New York (N, Y,) Race relations, Afro-Americans New York (State) New York Politics and government, Urban ecology New York (State) New York History 20th century, Political culture New York (State) New York History 20th century.

English.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide