Catalog
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Black Chicago's first century. Volume 1, 1833-1900
Reed, Christopher RobertColumbia : University of Missouri Press, ©2005."Examines the first one hundred years of African American settlement and achievements in Chicago. It spans the antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction periods"--Provided by publisherIn Black Chicago's First Century, Christopher Robert Reed provides the first comprehensive study of the first one hundred years of African American settlement and achievements in the Windy City. Encompassing a range of activities and events, Volume 1 of this pioneering work spans the antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction periods. Reed takes us from a time when black Chicago provided both workers and soldiers for the Union cause to the ensuing decades that saw the rise and development of a stratified class structure and growth in employment, politics, and culture. Just as the city was transformed in its first century of existence, so were its black inhabitants. With the use of the federal pension records of Civil War soldiers at the National Archives, as well as previously neglected photographic evidence, manuscripts, contemporary newspapers, and secondary sources, Reed captures the lives of ordinary black men and women. He places black Chicagoans within the context of northern urban history, providing a better understanding of the similarities and differences among them. We learn of the conditions African Americans faced before and after emancipation. We learn how the black community changed and developed: we learn how these people endured - how they educated their children, how they worked and played. Black Chicago's First Century is a balanced and coherent work. Anyone with an interest in urban history or African American studies will find much value in this book.
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Knock at the Door of Opportunity : Black Migration to Chicago, 1900-1919
Reed, Christopher RobertCarbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 2014.Disputing the so-called ghetto studies that depicted the early part of the twentieth century as the nadir of African American society, this thoughtful volume by Christopher Robert Reed investigates black life in turn-of-the-century Chicago, revealing a vibrant community that grew and developed on Chicago's South Side in the early 1900s. Reed also explores the impact of the fifty thousand black southerners who streamed into the city during the Great Migration of 1916-1918, effectively doubling Chicago's African American population. Those already residing in Chicago's black neighborhoods.Disputing the so-called ghetto studies that depicted the early part of the twentieth century as the nadir of African American society, this thoughtful volume by Christopher Robert Reed investigates black life in turn-of-the-century Chicago, revealing a vibrant community that grew and developed on Chicago's South Side in the early 1900s. Reed also explores the impact of the fifty thousand black southerners who streamed into the city during the Great Migration of 1916-1918, effectively doubling Chicago's African American population. Those already residing in Chicago's black neighbourhoods had a lot in common with those who migrated, Reed demonstrates, and the two groups became unified, building a broad community base able to face discrimination and prejudice while contributing to Chicago's growth and development. Reed not only explains how Chicago's African Americans openly competed with white people for jobs, housing and an independent political voice but also examines the structure of the society migrants entered and helped shame. Other topics include South Side housing, black politics and protest, the role of institutionalised religion, the economic aspects of African American life, the push for citizenship rights and political power for African Americans, and the impact of World War I and the race riot of 1919. The first comprehensive exploration of black life in turn-of-the-century Chicago beyond the mould of a ghetto perspective, this revealing work demonstrates how the melding of migrants and residents allowed for the building of a Black Metropolis in the 1920s.
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The Depression comes to the South Side : protest and politics in the Black metropolis, 1930-1933
Reed, Christopher RobertBloomington : Indiana University Press, ©2011."In the 1920s, the South Side was looked on as the new Black Metropolis, but by the turn of the decade that vision was already in decline -- a victim of the Depression. In this timely book, Christopher Robert Reed explores early Depression-era politics on Chicago's South Side. The economic crisis caused diverse responses from groups in the black community, distinguished by their political ideologies and stated goals. Some favored government intervention, others reform of social services. Some found expression in mass street demonstrations, militant advocacy of expanded civil rights, or revolutionary calls for a complete overhaul of the capitalist economic system. Reed examines the complex interactions among these various groups as they played out within the community as it sought to find common ground to address the economic stresses that threatened to tear the Black Metropolis apart"--Provided by publisherIn the 1920s, the South Side was looked on as the new Black Metropolis, but by the turn of the decade that vision was already in decline-a victim of the Depression. In this timely book, Christopher Robert Reed explores early Depression-era politics on Chicago's South Side. The economic crisis caused diverse responses from groups in the black community, distinguished by their political ideologies and stated goals. Some favored government intervention, others reform of social services. Some found expression in mass street demonstrations, militant advocacy of expanded civil rights, or revolutionary calls for a complete overhaul of the capitalist economic system. Reed examines the complex interactions among these various groups as they played out within the community as it sought to find common ground to address the economic stresses that threatened to tear the Black Metropolis apart.
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