Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville

246 Pages·2008·1.67 MB·English

by  Michelle R. Boyd

Jim Crow Nostalgia
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Jim Crow Nostalgia
Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville
Michelle R. Boyd
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
Portions of chapter 3 have been previously published as “Reconstructing Bronzeville: Racial
Nostalgia and Neighborhood Redevelopment,” Journal of Urban Affairs22, no. 2 (2000): 107–22;
copyright 2000 Urban Affairs Association. Portions of chapter 5 have been previously published
as “The Downside of Racial Uplift: The Meaning of GentriWcation in an African American
Neighborhood,” City and Society17, no. 2 (2005): 265–88; copyright 2005 by the American
Anthropological Association.
Copyright 2008 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boyd, Michelle R.
Jim Crow nostalgia : reconstructing race in Bronzeville / Michelle R. Boyd.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-4677-7 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-4678-4 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Bronzeville (Chicago, Ill.)—Social conditions. 2. Bronzeville (Chicago, Ill.)—Politics and
government. 3. African Americans—Race identity—Illinois—Chicago. 4. African Americans—
Segregation—Illinois—Chicago—History. 5. Community life—Illinois—Chicago—History.
6. African Americans—Illinois—Chicago—Politics and government. 7. African American
leadership—Illinois—Chicago—History. 8. Nostalgia—Social aspects—Illinois—Chicago.
9. Nostalgia—Political aspects—Illinois—Chicago. 10. Chicago (Ill.)—Race relations. I. Title.
F548.68.B76B69 2008
305.8009773’11—dc22
2008004244
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Race, Nostalgia, and
Neighborhood Redevelopment xi
1. The Way We Were: Political Accommodation
and Neighborhood Change, 1870–1950 1
2. When We Were Colored: Black Civic Leadership
and the Birth of Nostalgia, 1950–1990 39
3. Back to the Future: Marketing the Race for
Neighborhood Development 67
4. Ties and Chitlins: Political Legitimacy and
Racial Authentication 99
5. We’re All in This Mess Together: Identity
and the Framing of Racial Agendas 131
Conclusion: Nostalgia and Identity in the
Twenty-first Century 155
Notes 165
Bibliography 171
Index 191
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Acknowledgments
The most delightful moment in writing this book came when I drew near
enough to the end to begin contemplating the composition of this thank-
you letter.
My Wrst debt is to the residents of Douglas/Grand Boulevard, men
and women who opened their lives to me and gave unstintingly of their
time, kindness, and insight. Promises of conWdentiality prevent me from
calling them by name, but my silence does nothing to diminish my grati-
tude. While they gave me lessons in race and community, my dissertation
committee helped me make sense of all I was learning. My advisor, Adolph
Reed, challenged my thinking about race, pushed me beyond my self-doubt,
and insisted I continue taking my own intellectual route, even when it was
uncomfortable to do so. He and Henry Binford undid the damage of several
years of K–12 history courses and taught me to respect the past, especially
that of the city of Chicago. Susan Herbst kept me grounded in political
science when my interdisciplinary leanings threatened to run away with
me. And Mary Patillo jumped merrily on board during last-minute com-
mittee restructuring and responded to my work with an engagement un-
usual for a reader. The tasks they set me to were made easier by funding
from the National Science Foundation, the Northwestern University Grad-
uate College, and the Illinois Consortium for Educational Opportunity
Program; time to write up the Wndings was generously provided by the
Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
VII
VIII– ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One would have thought I’d used up my life’s portion of good luck
with that committee, but I apparently had some leftovers. Imagine an aca-
demic department in which your colleagues constantly challenge you to
give your best rather than prove your worth; where intellectual engage-
ment and professional mentorship are the norm rather than the exception;
and where you count your colleagues among your closest friends. Now
click your heels three times and you’ll be in the African American Studies
Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As the head of the
department while I was writing this book, Beth Richie repeatedly took time
out of her overloaded schedule to help me think through my professional
goals and work through intellectual and practical dilemmas. Kerry Ann
Rockquemore is perhaps the only person I know whose love of order and
organization surpasses my own. She has used those gifts to help me boost
my productivity as both a writer and a teacher. There is absolutely no limit
to Amanda Lewis’s energy, attention, and commitment to her colleagues,
and I’m lucky to be one of them: she is a one-stop shop for professional
advice, rides home, critical feedback, and wacky e-card support. Cynthia
Blair’s mellow demeanor masks an effortless habit of razor-sharp reXection;
this project has been improved by long conversations in which we tussled
with both the intellectual and emotional challenges of my writing it. Helen
Jun’s spot-on analyses of my writing and my writing failures are as hilari-
ous as they are insightful. I’m indebted to these women and other writing
group members (Dave Stovall, Corey Capers, and Badia Ahad) for helping
me complete this work.
The gifts given me by these men and women were enhanced by the
support I received from colleagues in the city of Chicago and beyond. I am
particularly indebted to Gina Pérez, whose friendship is a lighthouse that
has guided me through this and countless other storms. An ethnographer by
training and by nature, she helps me see what is true about me and my work.
She, along with Regina Deil, Deborah Parédez, and Heather McClure,
helped me maintain my center during graduate school and shepherded
this project through its infancy. Larry Bennett has for years managed to de-
liver unXinching criticism of my work along with unyielding support for
it. Although he has never formally been my teacher, I consider him among
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS – IX
the most signiWcant of my mentors. John Jackson read several versions of
this work and asked pressing, pointed questions that required me to reach
even further past disciplinary boundaries. Long talks with Ellen Berrey
reminded me why this work is important and fun, but ultimately not the
center of the universe. The good-humored and sharp-eyed editing of Erin
Starkey caught the worst of my writing errors, while the professionalism
of the University of Minnesota Press staff helped me navigate the multi-
ple and mysterious stages of book publishing. None of these good works
would have meant a thing had it not been for a family who maintained a
sometimes puzzled but always enthusiastic support for me, as well as out-
right disbelief in any uncertainty I had about this project. My parents,
Sandra and Woody Boyd, and my big brother, Marc Boyd, are proud of me
whether or not I Wnish this book, which is of course the very thing that
made me able to do it at all.
Everyone I’ve mentioned has—at least once—picked me up, dusted
me off, and set me back on the path to completing this project. For every
time they have done so, my husband, David Stevens, has done it twice. At
3:38 in the morning. Amid tears of frustration. A book is a wretched thank-
you gift after all he’s done. But Wnishing it seemed the most likely path to
ending his suffering—so here it is.