lukescalone's review
4.0
This is such a great study, methodologically feeling almost more like historical anthropology than history as such. Lemke-Santangelo's subject is the large numbers of African American women who made their way to the East Bay in the years between 1940-45 in order to working in the rapidly expanding defense industry there. While there were large numbers of men who migrated, too, Lemke-Santangelo is trying to de-center men in order to get the experience of women, who had been neglected in studies for so long (unlike many other migrations, women made up around half of all African Americans who migrated to the East Bay).
While the East Bay offered a great deal of economic opportunity, African Americans who made their way there faced more problems they anticipated. They did not expect the level of racism and overt discrimination that they faced by Californians who were already there. This actually allows Lemke-Santangelo to open up a really interesting discussion, as white "Okies" were migrating to the Bay Area at the same time. While white Californians heavily discriminated against both Okies and African Americans, they saw Okies as assimilable, while they expected blacks to act more as guest workers and return to the South at the end of the war. Residential segregation was also something that African Americans faced heavily in the San Francisco Bay.
Lemke-Santangelo's general contribution to the field is quite subtle but ought to be recognized: African American women were absolutely critical to black, working-class homes. Without their income and ability to move between community institutions (family, mutual aid associations, work, church, etc.), it is unlikely that these communities would have been as successful as they were.
Lemke-Santangelo also makes a contribution to the discussion of the origins of urban poverty. At the time of publication, the dominant argument was that the bulk of black migrants to the north were originally sharecroppers, which is a fundamentally dependent occupation. In moving to the north, they maintained a "culture of dependence" in their new homes. Lemke-Santangelo argues that this is nonsense. While none of her subjects were sharecroppers, they had parents and grandparents who were, and Lemke-Santangelo argues that his actually gave them the opposite attitude: they desperately wanted to be self-sufficient. Lemke-Santangelo finds that the origins of urban poverty are better attributed to African Americans' spatial isolation and labor discrimination, and--in my view--that's as good an argument as any.
Such an interesting book about a topic I knew nothing about.
While the East Bay offered a great deal of economic opportunity, African Americans who made their way there faced more problems they anticipated. They did not expect the level of racism and overt discrimination that they faced by Californians who were already there. This actually allows Lemke-Santangelo to open up a really interesting discussion, as white "Okies" were migrating to the Bay Area at the same time. While white Californians heavily discriminated against both Okies and African Americans, they saw Okies as assimilable, while they expected blacks to act more as guest workers and return to the South at the end of the war. Residential segregation was also something that African Americans faced heavily in the San Francisco Bay.
Lemke-Santangelo's general contribution to the field is quite subtle but ought to be recognized: African American women were absolutely critical to black, working-class homes. Without their income and ability to move between community institutions (family, mutual aid associations, work, church, etc.), it is unlikely that these communities would have been as successful as they were.
Lemke-Santangelo also makes a contribution to the discussion of the origins of urban poverty. At the time of publication, the dominant argument was that the bulk of black migrants to the north were originally sharecroppers, which is a fundamentally dependent occupation. In moving to the north, they maintained a "culture of dependence" in their new homes. Lemke-Santangelo argues that this is nonsense. While none of her subjects were sharecroppers, they had parents and grandparents who were, and Lemke-Santangelo argues that his actually gave them the opposite attitude: they desperately wanted to be self-sufficient. Lemke-Santangelo finds that the origins of urban poverty are better attributed to African Americans' spatial isolation and labor discrimination, and--in my view--that's as good an argument as any.
Such an interesting book about a topic I knew nothing about.
More...