A Haven and a Hell
The Ghetto in Black America
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
The black ghetto is thought of as a place of urban decay and social disarray. Like the historical ghetto of Venice, it is perceived as a space of confinement, one imposed on black America by whites. It is the home of a marginalized underclass and a sign of the depth of American segregation. Yet while black urban neighborhoods have suffered from institutional racism and economic neglect, they have also been places of refuge and community.
In A Haven and a Hell, Lance Freeman examines how the ghetto shaped black America and how black America shaped the ghetto. Freeman traces the evolving role of predominantly black neighborhoods in northern cities from the late nineteenth century through the present day. At times, the ghetto promised the freedom to build black social institutions and political power. At others, it suppressed and further stigmatized African Americans. Freeman reveals the forces that caused the ghetto’s role as haven or hell to wax and wane, spanning the Great Migration, mid-century opportunities, the eruptions of the sixties, the challenges of the seventies and eighties, and present-day issues of mass incarceration, the subprime crisis, and gentrification. Offering timely planning and policy recommendations based in this history, A Haven and a Hell provides a powerful new understanding of urban black communities at a time when the future of many inner-city neighborhoods appears uncertain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this informative sociohistorical analysis, Freeman (There Goes the Hood), a professor of urban planning, traces the history of northern "ghettos" predominantly black urban neighborhoods to reveal the ghetto's complicated place in U.S. society. He argues that, from their beginnings in the segregated neighborhoods in northern cities, ghettos have both been places for community and the advancement of African Americans' fortunes, and also riddled with poverty, overcrowding, and other problems. Through the Great Migration, white flight, and federally sanctioned redlining all the way to urban renewal, the subprime mortgage crisis, gentrification, and mass incarceration, Freeman tracks the forces that have shaped ghettos, never forgetting the agency of black Americans in shaping their own environments. The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s; a nationwide outpouring of support for black congressmen in the 1950s; and even black gentrifiers today demonstrate the ghetto's importance in advancing the role of black Americans in politics, business, and the arts. While Freeman belabors the haven-hell dichotomy, obscuring some of the complexities of his argument, his impressive array of primary sources (he makes excellent use of letters to prominent black newspapers) combines well with an assortment of peer-reviewed research from various fields. For readers of urban history and black history, this is an excellent look at the ghetto's multifaceted place in American history.
