Title: Crucibles of black empowerment : Chicago's neighborhood politics from the New Deal to Harold Washington /
Authors: Helgeson, Jeffrey,
Year: 2014
Subjects: African Americans Political activity Illinois Chicago.; Chicago (Ill.) Politics and government
Abstract: In 1983, black Chicagoans elected Harold Washington as the city's first black mayor. In the process, they overthrew the white Democratic machine and its regime of 'plantation politics'. This book details the long-term development of black Chicago's political culture, beginning in the 1930s, that both made a political insurrection possible in the right context, and informed Mayor Washington's liberal, interracial, democratic vision of urban governance.
Contents: Introduction -- The politics of home in hard times -- Community development in an age of protest, 1935-40 -- "Will 'our people' be any better off after this war?" -- A decent place to live : the postwar housing shortage -- Capitalism without capital : postwar employment activism -- Sources of black nationalism from the 1950s to the 1970s -- Harold Washington : black power and the resilience of liberalism -- Postscript: The Obamas and black Chicago's long liberal tradition.