African American Urban Experience Perspectives from

the Colonial Period to the Present 1st Edition Joe

W. Trotter instant download 2025

https://ebookultra.com/download/african-american-urban-experience-
perspectives-from-the-colonial-period-to-the-present-1st-edition-
joe-w-trotter/

★★★★★
4.7 out of 5.0 (77 reviews )

Quick PDF Download

ebookultra.com
 African American Urban Experience Perspectives from the
Colonial Period to the Present 1st Edition Joe W. Trotter

EBOOK

Available Formats

■ PDF eBook Study Guide Ebook

EXCLUSIVE 2025 ACADEMIC EDITION – LIMITED RELEASE

Available Instantly Access Library

 We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebookultra.com
to discover even more!

Religion and American Politics From the Colonial Period to

the Present 2nd Edition Mark A. Noll

https://ebookultra.com/download/religion-and-american-politics-from-
the-colonial-period-to-the-present-2nd-edition-mark-a-noll/

Iraq Between Occupations Perspectives from 1920 to the

Present 1st Edition Amatzia Baram

https://ebookultra.com/download/iraq-between-occupations-perspectives-
from-1920-to-the-present-1st-edition-amatzia-baram/

A Companion To U S Foreign Relations Colonial Era To The

Present 1st Edition Edition Christopher R. W. Dietrich

https://ebookultra.com/download/a-companion-to-u-s-foreign-relations-
colonial-era-to-the-present-1st-edition-edition-christopher-r-w-
dietrich/

The American Colonial State in the Philippines Global

Perspectives First Edition (U.S.) Julian Go

https://ebookultra.com/download/the-american-colonial-state-in-the-
philippines-global-perspectives-first-edition-u-s-julian-go/
Voices from within the Veil African Americans and the
Experience of Democracy 1st Edition William H. Alexander

https://ebookultra.com/download/voices-from-within-the-veil-african-
americans-and-the-experience-of-democracy-1st-edition-william-h-
alexander/

Black Jacks African American Seamen in the Age of Sail 1st

Edition W. Jeffrey. Bolster.

https://ebookultra.com/download/black-jacks-african-american-seamen-
in-the-age-of-sail-1st-edition-w-jeffrey-bolster/

The Palestinian Novel From 1948 to the Present Bashir Abu-

Manneh

https://ebookultra.com/download/the-palestinian-novel-from-1948-to-
the-present-bashir-abu-manneh/

Black City Cinema African American Urban Experiences In

Film 1st Edition Paula J. Massood

https://ebookultra.com/download/black-city-cinema-african-american-
urban-experiences-in-film-1st-edition-paula-j-massood/

Stories from the Heart Missouri s African American

Heritage 1st Edition Gladys Caines Coggswell

https://ebookultra.com/download/stories-from-the-heart-missouri-s-
african-american-heritage-1st-edition-gladys-caines-coggswell/
 AFRICAN AMERICAN
URBAN EXPERIENCE
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD TO
THE PRESENT

Edited by
Joe W. Trotter
with Earl Lewis and Tera W. Hunter
AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE
AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE:
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE COLONIAL
PERIOD TO THE PRESENT

EDITED BY JOE W. TROTTER

with Earl Lewis and Tera W Hunter
*
AFRICANAMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE
Copyright © Joe Trotter, with Earl Lewis and Tera W. Hunter, 2004.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004
AU rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-312-29465-6 ISBN 978-1-4039-7916-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403979162
library of Congress CataLoging-in-PubLication Data
The African American urban experience: perspectives from the colonial period
to the present / [edited by] Joe W. Trotter, Earl Lewis, Tera W. Hunter.
p. cm.
A product of several conferences, seminars and lecture series sponsored
by the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE)
and the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies (MCBS).
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 978-0-312-29464-6 (hc)-0-312-29465-4 (pbk.)
1. Sociology, Urban-United States. 2. African Americans-Social
Conditions. I. Trotter, Joe William, 1945- II. Lewis, Earl. III. Hunter, Tera W.
HT123.A66168 2004
307.76'089'96073-dc21 2002041739
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Kolam
First edition: March 2004
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
 In memory of

W E. B. Du Bois
E. Franklin Frazier
Charles S. Johnson
St. Clair Drake
Horace R.. Cayton
 CONTENTS

Introduction: Connecting African American Urban History, 1

Social Science Research , and Policy Debates
Joe w: Trotter, Earl Lewis) and Tera w: Hunter

Part I Historical Perspectives 21

1. Urban Alliances: T he Emergence of Race-Based Popul ism in 23
the Age of Iackson
James Oliver Horton

2. Industrial Slavery: Linking T he Periphery and th e Core 35

Ronald L. Lewis

3. Black Life on the Mississippi: African American Steamboat 58

Laborers and th e Work Culture of Ant ebellum Western
Steamboats
Thomas Buchanan

4 . "The 'Brotherly Love' for Wh ich Th is City is Proverbial Should 76

Extend to All."
Tera w: Hunter

5. Urban Black Labor in the West, 1849-1949 : Reconceptuali zing 99

the Image of a Region
Quintard Taylor

Part II Social Scientific, Cultural, and Policy Perspectives 121

6. Race and Class in Chicago-School Sociology: The Underclass 123
Concept in Historical Perspective
Alice O'Connor

7. Black + Woman = Work: Gender Dim ensions of th e African 141

American Eco nomic Experience
Susan Williams McElroy

8. Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, 156

Codes of Gender
William A. Darity and Patrick L. Mason
viii CONTENTS

9 . Race, Class, and Space: An Examination of Underclass Notions 187

in the Steel and Motor Cities
Karen]. Gibson

10 . The Black Community Building Process in Post -Urban 209

Disorder Detroit, 1967-1997
Richard W Thomas

Part III Comparative Perspectives 241

11. Asian American Labor and H istorical Interpretation 243
Chris Friday

12. Conversing Across Boundaries of Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender, 267

and Region : Latino and Latina Labor History
Camille Guerin-Gonzales

13 . Ethnic and Racial Fragmentation: Tow ard a Reint erpretation 287

of a Local Labor Movement
James R . Barrett

14 . Is Race th e Problem of th e 21st Century? 310

Alan Dawley
Index 334
 PREFACE

T his volume is based upon research at Carnegie Mellon 's Center for
Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE). An interdisciplinary
center for historical, social scientific, and policy research, CAUSE is committed
to building bridges between Carnegie Mellon and other institutions of higher
education . In 1996, our collaboration with other institutions gained sharp
expression with the founding of the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies
(MCBS). Comprised of African American Studies programs at Michigan State
University, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
and Carnegie Mellon, the MCBS aims to deepen the presence of black studies at
member schools and chart new directions for African American Studies as a
multi -disciplinary field of study. Thus, the essays in this volume not only high-
light the interdisciplinary character of research on the African American urban
experience, but accent the transformation of scholarly debates and policy discus -
sions of race, cities, and social change in U.S. history.
The collection of essays that comprise African American Urban Studies is a
product of several national conferences, graduate seminars, and public speakers
series organized by CAUSE and the MCBS. In 1995, CAUSE opened with a
conference called Race, Workers, and the Urban Economy: Recent Trends in
Scholarship . This conference took advantage of Labor History's special 25th
anniversary issue titled "Race and Class." Under the editorship oflabor histori -
ans Alan Dawley and Joe Trotter, this volume commemorated the 25th anniver-
sary of the journal's groundbreaking volume, "The Negro and the American
Labor Movement: Some Selected Chapters." Published in the summer of 1969,
"The Negro and the American Labor Movement" highlighted the gradual emer-
gence of black labor and working class history as a field of serious scholarly
inquiry. Twenty-five years later, however, the commemorative volume not only
emphasized changes in research on the experiences of black workers, but
included essays on Latinoy'Latina and Asian American workers, noting the vari-
eties of paths that studies of race and class had taken by the closing decades of
the twentieth century.
As a means of announcing the creation of CAUSE, we brought the contribu -
tors to the special Labor History volume to Carnegie Mellon for a one-day con-
ference on urban workers. Supplemented by James R. Barrett's essay on ethnic
and racial fragmentation of the U . S. labor movement, the essays from our
founding conference have been updated and published in this volume as "Part
III, Comparative Perspectives ." These articles include Chris Friday's assessment
of Asian American labor history; Camille Guerin -Gonzales's review of
Latinoy'Latina working class experiences; and Alan Dawley's critique of racial
interpretations in U. S. labor and working class history. Moreover, perspectives
from both Earl Lewis's keynote address on the changing meaning of race in U.S.
x PREFACE

history and Joe Trotter's essay on new directions in African American urban and
labor historiography have been synthesized in the introduction to this volume
(with Tera Hunter) .
In 1997-98 , CAUSE hosted the second of two graduate seminars and public
lecture series funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation to the Midwest
Consortium for Black Studies. While the first seminar, under Professor Stanlie
James of the University of Wisconsin, focused on black women's studies, history,
and social policy, Carnegie Mellon's year-long seminar focused on "African
American Urban Studies: History, Work , and Social Policy." The seminar
unfolded in three interconnected parts: 1) an assessment of changes in research
on the African American urban experience from the early twentieth century
through recent times; 2) a close examination of recent historical case studies of
black life in particular cities; and 3) an exploration of social scientific and policy -
oriented studies of contemporary black urban lite.
During the fall of 1997, guest presenters included historians James Oliver
Horton, George Washington University; Ronald L. Lewis, West Virginia
University; Brenda Stevenson, University of California-Los Angeles; Thomas
Buchanan, Carnegie Mellon University (now at the University of Nebraska-
Omaha); and Tera Hunter, Carnegie Mellon University. Winter and spring guests
were an interdisciplinary mix of historians and social scientists (including econo-
mists, urban planning scholars, and urban geographers): Quintard Taylor,
University of Oregon (now at the University of Washington in Seattle); Alice
O'Connor, University of California-Santa Barbara; Karen Gibson, Carnegie
Mellon University (now at Portland State University); William A. Darity,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Susan McElroy, Carnegie Mellon
University (now at the University of Texas -Dallas); James Johnson , University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and Richard Walter Thomas, Michigan State
University. With the exception of two papers, essays presented by these visiting
scholars appear in Parts I and II of this volume. Chapters by Horton, Lewis,
Buchanan, Hunter, and Taylor provide historical perspectives on black urban his-
tory from the colonial era through the mid -twentieth century, while essays by
O'Connor, McElroy, Darity (with Patrick Mason), Gibson, and Thomas illumi -
nate transformations in black urban life since World War II and the advent of the
modern civil rights and black power movements.
As part of our most recent Ford Foundation-funded activities (2000-2002),
CAUSE conducted a semester long graduate seminar, titled "African Americans
in the Post-Industrial City." This seminar also brought together scholars from
other Midwest Consortium schools for a one -day conference (26 -27 October
2001) on black life during the second half of the twentieth century. The confer-
ence featured a keynote address by civil rights scholar Charles M. Payne of Duke
University and presentations by leading specialists on black urban lite-Kenneth
Kusmer, Temple University; Thomas Sugrue, University of Pennsylvania; Arnold
Hirsch, University of New Orleans; Venus Green, City University of New York;
and Ronald Bayor, Georgia Institute of Technology. Along with Kusmer and oth-
ers, presenters included emerging young scholars, Robert Self, University of
Michigan (now at the University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee) and Karl E. Johnson,
Temple University. Together, papers from this conference helped to shape our
 PREFACE xi

critique of the literature in the introduction to this volume, where we call atten-
tion to the need for more systematic case studies of black urban life in the period
since World War II .
For helping to make this volume possible , we are indebted to numerous insti -
tutions and people. First , we wish to thank Carnegie Mellon University, the Ford
Foundation, the Mellon Financial Corporation, and the Maurice Falk Medical
Fund for their generous financial support. Such support not only enabled us to
strengthen contacts with scholars across the country and bring this volume to
fruition, but facilitated exceedingly fruitful interchanges between the university
and the larger Pittsburgh metropolitan community.
Almost from its beginnings, CAUSE has benefited from the support of col-
leagues in the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies. Nellie McKay, Stanlie
James, and Craig Werner at the University of Wisconsin; Darlene Clark Hine and
Curtis Stokes at Michigan State University; James Jackson and his colleagues at
the University of Michigan, all represent models of collegiality and friendship.
Their presence and participation at CAUSE conferences and speakers series not
only enhanced the intellectual value of our activities, but broadened the compar-
ative scope of our work. For his support, we are also grateful to historian Frederick
Douglass Opie of Morehouse University (now at Marist College, New York).
In addition to the contributors to this volume and those listed above, we extend
gratitude to numerous other presenters. We thank Sharon Harley, University of
Maryland-College Park; Kenya C. Dworkin, Carnegie Mellon University; Daniel J.
Leab, then editor of LaborHistory; Laurence Glasco, University of Pittsburgh; Seth
Sanders, Carnegie Mellon University (now at the University of Maryland); Stephen
Appold , Carnegie Mellon University (now at the National University of
Singapore); Pauline Abdullah, Braddock, PA; Fernando Gapasin, Penn State
University-New Kensington; and Henry Louis Taylor, State University of New
York-Buffalo.
Postdoctoral fellows played an important role in both CAUSE and MCBS
seminars and conference activities . In addition to Karen Gibson, the center's first
postdoctoral fellow, these include Yevette Richards, University of Pittsburgh
(now at George Mason University) John Hinshaw, Lebanon Valley College;
Richard Pierce, University of Notre Dame; Eric Brown, Cornell University; and
Lisa Levenstein, University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
Current and past graduate students have been perhaps the most important
ingredient in helping us to sustain the activities of the center. At Carnegie
Mellon, the center benefited from the thoughtful input of Charles Lee, Robin
Dearmon Jenkins, Matthew Hawkins, Jesse A. Belfast, Alex Bennett, Steve
Burnett, Geoffrey Glover, C . Evelyn Hawkins, Lisa Margot Johnson, Lindsay
McKenzie, Patricia Mitchell, Mary L. Nash, Lewis W. Roberts, Delmarshae
Sledge, Cornell Womack, Susan Spellman, Tywanna Whorley, Jonathan White,
and Germaine Williams.
Graduate students at other MCBS schools offered similar input: Eric Duke,
John Wess Grant, Julia M . Robinson, Marshanda Smith, and Matthew Whitaker
of Michigan State University; Jerome Dotson, Michele Gordon, Rhea Lathan,
and Michael Quieto of University of Wisconsin -Madison; and Charlene J. Allen,
Aqueelah Cowan, Marya McQuirter, Shani Mott, Ebony Robinson, Shawan
xii PREFACE

Wade, and Umi Vaughan of University of Michigan. Other undergraduate and

graduate student participants included: Keona Ervin (Duke University);
Claudrena Harold (University of Notre Dame); Latonia Payne (University of
Michigan), and Zachary Williams (Bowling Green State University). We wish to
extend a special thanks to Carnegie Mellon Ph .D.s who witnessed, encouraged,
and aided the creation and development of CAUSE and the Midwest
Consortium for Black Studies-Ancella Livers, John Hinshaw, Donald Collins,
Liesl Orenic, Trent Alexander, and Susannah Walker.
For its ongoing counsel, support, and advice, we are especially indebted to the
center's steering committee: Philip B. Hallen, Maurice Falk Medical Fund; the
late Jeffrey Hunker, Carnegie Mellon University; Mark S. Kamler, Carnegie
Mellon University; Barbara B. Lazarus, Carnegie Mellon University; John P.
Lehoczky, Carnegie Mellon University; James P. McDonald, Mellon Financial
Corporation; Susan Williams McElroy, University of Texas -Dallas ; Kerry
O'Donnell, Maurice Falk Medical Fund; Steven Schlossman, Carnegie Mellon
University; and Everett L. Tademy, Carnegie Mellon University.
Indispensable to the day-to-day operation of the center are business manager
Gail Dickey and administrative assistant Nancy Aronson. For their hard work on
behalf of the center we are most grateful. CAUSE has also benefited from the
able assistance of undergraduate assistants, most notably in recent years Mavis
Burks . In addition to such staff support, we are grateful to colleagues in the
department of history and members of the larger Pittsburgh metropolitan
region. Their regular attendance at public speakers series and conference presen-
tations has been greatly appreciated. Such collegial support and critical engage-
ment with the issues facing African American urban studies have helped to make
both the center and this volume a reality.
As always, we owe our greatest debt of gratitude to family members and
friends . Earl Lewis and Joe Trotter, respectively, extend a special thanks to their
wives Susan and LaRue, in addition to the authors' friends. They have not only
made work on this book enjoyable, but helped us to keep in view the larger
meaning of our labor-that is, to create a more humane world in which to live.
Finally, as a small token of appreciation to our forbears, pioneers in black urban
studies, we dedicate this volume to the memory ofW. E . B. Du Bois, E. Franklin
Frazier, Charles S. Johnson, St. Clair Drake, and Horace R. Cayton.
 INTRODUCTION

CONNECTING AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN

HISTORY, SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH,
AND POLICY DEBATES

JOE W. TROTTER, EARL LEWIS, AND TERA W. HUNTER

Open any newspaper, listen to most news reports, catch the words of many
politicians bemoaning the decline of the central city, and for years the images
used to accompany the message pictured a black face. Since the 1960s, against
the backdrop of race riots and general despair, the words black, inner city, ghetto
and problems became connected and at times interchangeable. Oftentimes the
stories produced appear as if blacks inhabit the inner cities alone . In this world
there are no Asians, Latinos and Latinas, Native Americans, or whites. In this
world the central cities are divided from power structures, businesses, labor
unions, politics, and adjacent suburbs. In this world race and racism exist within
a tightly bound space divorced from the larger society. Why is this? And just as
important, how do we add a historical perspective to the long list of policy rec-
ommendations that have captivated public discourse for more than four decades?
This books attempts to answer these and other questions. It also seeks to
uncover the multiple histories of urban life in America. It centers on the history
and lived conditions of African Americans, and places them in proximity and
interactions with the broad spectrum of others who peopled this nation.
It is a volume that seriously explores the multiple meanings of race in the past
by focusing on the aforementioned broad spectrum. It seeks to understand how
several generations of immigrants from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia
came to see and experience the city, especially by the second half of the twenti -
eth century, as a place dominated by blacks. Therefore this is a study about his-
tory, policy, and intergroup relations. To understand that history and the
attendant relations, special attention is paid to labor matters, cross-ethnic coali-
tion building, and the usefulness of racial difference for a range of social actors.
The transformation of rural blacks into a predominantly urban people is a
twentieth century phenomenon . Only during World War I did African Americans
move into cities in large numbers, and only during World War II did more blacks
2 AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE

reside in cities than in the countryside. By the early 1970s, African Americans had
not only made the transition from rural to urban settings, but were almost evenly
distributed by region . Before they could anchor in the nation's urban industrial
economy, however, blacks faced the onslaught of deindustrialization, high unem -
ployment, residential segregation, and new forms of community, institutional,
cultural, and political conflict. Adding new and more complex dimensions to
class and race relations were new waves of immigrants. For the first time in the
nation's history, the majority of newcomers came from countries in Latin
America and Asia. By the 1990s, about 25 percent of the U.S. population were
people of Asian, Latin American, Native American, and African descent (includ -
ing people from the English speaking Caribbean and Africa) . 1
After nearly a century of black population movement from South to North,
blacks turned southward again. Until the 1970s, only about 15,000 African
Americans who had moved North returned to the South. During the last third of
the twentieth century, the return migration of blacks rose to nearly 50,000 each
year. The Great Migration of southern blacks to the North and West had reversed
itself. As anthropologist Carol Stack puts it, growing numbers of southern-born
northern and western blacks and their children answered "The call to Home.,,2
At the same time, African Americans made the trek from inner city neighborhoods
to predominantly white suburbia, especially in northern and western cities.
Indeed, by the turn of the twenty-first century the magnitude of black migration
to the suburbs had surpassed the Great Migration to American cities.
Scholars from a variety of disciplines have examined the urban transformation
of African American life, but few studies bring these disparate perspectives
together in a single interdisciplinary volume. In order to help bridge this gap in
our understanding, this book connects historical, social scientific, and comparative
perspectives on African American and U.S. urban and social history. Connecting
these myriad lines of intellectual inquiry not only requires an interdisciplinary
assessment of research on the black urban experience, but an examination of the
ongoing interplay between scholarship, race, and public policy, from the emer-
gence of black urban studies at the beginning of the twentieth century through
recent times. Thus, in this introduction, we take up in turn the rise of black urban
studies at the turn of the twentieth century; the increasing confluence of social
scientific and historical studies under the influence of the modern civil rights and
Black Power movements; and the ways that the essays in this volume promise to
address significant theoretical, methodological, temporal, and substantive lacunae
in our knowledge of the interrelationship of race, class, cities, and social change in
American life.

ORIGINS OF BLACK URBAN STUDIES

During the early to mid -twentieth century, sociological and social anthropologi -
cal studies established the intellectual foundations for the emergence of black
urban studies as a scholarly field. Focusing on black life in large northern cities,
mainly Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles S.
Johnson, E . Franklin Frazier, St. Clair Drake, and Horace R. Cayton adopted the
urban community study format and used a race contact theoretical framework for
 INTRODUCTION 3

understanding the urban -industrial transformation of African American life.3 But

their work was by no means monolithic in approach, argument or conclusions.
E. Franklin Frazier, for example, emphasized the loosening of racial or caste con -
straints as African Americans made the transition from farm to city during World
War I and the 1920s.
Frazier took his cue from the race relations cycle theory of University of
Chicago sociologist Robert E. Park . According to Park and his Chicago col-
leagues, African Americans were making the transition from a racial caste to an
ethnic minority, which meant that their experiences would parallel the pattern of
prior immigrants from south, central, and eastern Europe. As such, Park, Frazier,
and others believed that blacks should be considered the most recent of the
immigrant groups. Conversely, Drake and Cayton and their colleagues were less
convinced that blacks would follow the path of European immigrants. They
accented the persistence of racial barriers and the ways that only dire national
emergencies like the Great Depression and World War II promised to initiate
more equitable social policies and remove barriers to the upward mobility of
African Americans.
During World War II, the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal sought to syn-
thesize the caste and class models of African American life. Myrdal appreciated
both change and continuity in the barriers that blacks faced in American society.
On the one hand, a variety of forces suggested that blacks were gaining a foot-
ing in the urban political economy-the resurgence of black rural to urban
migration, African American employment in the nation's defense industries, and
their vital role in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal coalition . On the other
hand , the segregationist order (in its de facto and de jure forms) persisted and
undermined the impact of these changes on the socio -economic status of blacks.
Myrdal and his contemporaries also noted the role of spatial concentration, class
formation, and the changing status of black men and women within the urban
environment, but they gave insu fficient attention to the historical dimensions of
these important developments in African American life. As we will see below,
post-World War II scholars would call attention to these lacunae in our under-
standing and give prominence to the process of historical change in their assess-
ments of the black urban experience .

BLACK URBAN HISTORY, THE GHETTO, AND THE RISE

OF THE MOYNIHAN THESIS
Black urban history fully emerged and flourished as a field of scholarship during
the 1960s and 1970s. Like early twentieth century social scientific studies, the
first wave of historical scholarship focused almost exclusively on African American
life in large northern cities. In studies of New York, Chicago, and Cleveland,
respectively, historians Gilbert Osofsky, Allan Spear, and Kenneth Kusmer
adopted the urban community study format, but used the "ghetto" as the pri -
mary lens for understanding black life in cities. They took sharp issue with immi -
gration historian Oscar Handlin and the emerging cold war revival of the "last
of the immigrants" thesis-that is, that blacks, no less than a variety of
European immigrant groups, would eventually find a solid footing on the urban
4 AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE

occupational ladder and move into the mainstream of urban industrial society.
On the contrary, historians of the black urban experience argued that the city for-
ever marked blacks by their color and offered them "no escape" from a severely
restricted ghetto society."
Social scientific and policy studies reinforced the theoretical and substantive
orientation of the ghetto studies . During the 1950s and 1960s, as the Civil
Rights Movement escalated, social scientists and policy experts turned increas-
ingly toward a victimi zation model to justify federal social welfare appropria-
tions for poor families. Such research culminated in the publication of Daniel
Patrick Moynihan 's The Negro Family: The Case for National Action in 1965.
Building upon the earlier ideas of sociologist E. Franklin Frazier, as well as
1950s slavery studies, Moynihan concluded that the "deterioration of the
Negro family" stood at "the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro
society." In his view, the institution of slavery and its successor the Jim Crow
system initiated the destruction of black families, which urban migration
heightened. Echoing the emerging " cult ure of poverty" idea (advanced by
social anthropologist Oscar Lewis), Moynihan emphasized what he called "the
tangle of pathology," that is, that blacks suffered from the absence of main -
stream values of monogamy, hard work, thrift:, and frugality. Rather than a
product of external forces (for example, class and racial exploitation) that arti -
ficially limited opportunities for group mobility, poverty was a product of
deeply entrenched group norms and social practices. Moynihan suggested that
blacks exhibited a range of so-called "deviant behavior" that seemed likely to
persist long after the conditions (like Jim Crow) that gave rise to it had passed
away.s
As certain social scientists and policy experts honed the ghetto -slum inter-
pretation of black urban life, others dissented somewhat but supported its cen -
tral thrust. In 1966 and 1967, for example, two social -anthropological studies
countered aspects of the Moynihan thesis of cultural disorgani zation among
poor and working class blacks. In Tally's Corner, a study of twelve black street
corner men in Washington, D. c., Elliott Liebow concluded that the behav-
ior of black men did not reflect a "culture of poverty." According to Liebow,
these men did not inhabit a "self-contained, self-sustaining system or even
subsystem with clear boundaries marking it off from the world around it."
Liebow noted a pattern of "serial monogamy" among the men and argued
that their values paralleled those of the larger middle class society in which
they lived ."
Other social anthropologists also rejected the "culture of poverty" concept,
but emphasized the development of a distinct African American culture, rather
than affinities to middle class values. Studies by Roger Abrahams, Ulf Hannerz,
and Charles Keil approvingly underscored the ways that African American cul -
ture diverged from aspects of predominantly white middle class ideas and social
practices. In his study of black male blues singers, for example, Charles Keil
forcefully argued that these men did not conform or necessarily hope to con -
form to white middle class mores. In his words, the blues men were "the ablest
representatives of a long cultural tradition-what might be called the soul tra -
dition-and they are all identity experts, so to speak, specialists in changing the
 INTRODUCTION 5

joke and slipping the yoke ." " Nonetheless, as anthropologist Carol Stack noted,
these studies did not go far enough. They "tended to reinforce popular stereo-
types of the lower class or black family-i-particularly the black family in
poverty-as deviant, matriarchal, and broken .t'f Similarly, historian Robin
Kelley recently concluded that such studies ignored what "black expressive cul -
tures" meant for the practitioners themselves. In other words, few of these
scholars attempted to analyze black culture primarily from the vantage point of
the black poor and working class."

AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN HISTORY, CULTURE,

AND THE "UNDERCLASS DEBATE"

Under the impact of emerging class and gender perspectives on African

American and U.S. history, historians moved beyond ghetto formation studies
during the I 980s and I990s . Studies by the authors of this volume, Darlene
Clark Hine, and others, pinpointed certain limitations of the ghetto model and
expressed increasing sensitivity to the dynamics of migration, working class for -
mation, the role of black women, politics, and cultural issues . Late twentieth
century studies also focused attention on the centrality of the South for under-
standing the socioeconomic, cultural, and political transformation of black life
in the narion.I''
Focusing on Cleveland's black community during the inter-World War years,
Kimberly Phillips' Alabama North (1999) documents what she calls "the vari-
eties of individual and collective struggles" that southern blacks developed
around "wage work ." Key to the maturation of Cleveland's black industrial
working class, she argues , was the Great Migration of southern blacks to the city
during World War I and the 1920s. Under the impact of the Depression and
World War II, Phillips demonstrates how southern black working men and
women led rather than followed the militant demands for defense industry jobs
in firms with government contracts. Buttressing their demands was the rapid
expansion of black churches, fraternal organizations, social clubs, and leisure time
pursuits. In an extraordinary discussion of black gospel choirs and the commu-
nity building activities of black women, Phillips accents the "racial, personal and
religious experiences" of southern blacks in the northern urban environment.
According to Phillips, many migrants, especially women, arrived in the North
with as much experience building communities and associational life as they had
"piecing together wage work." In short, as she puts it, black workers rebuilt
"Alabama North."ll
Rather than focusing on the South to North migration, other studies focused
on rural to urban migration within the South itself. Among other southern cities,
these incl uded studies of Norfolk, Louisville, and Atlanta. As Earl Lewis noted,
"more blacks migrated to southern cities between 1900 and 1920 than to north-
ern cities ." In her study ofAtlanta's black working-class women, Tera Hunter not
only illuminated the dynamics of black rural to urban population movement
within the Jim Crow South, but documented the shifting role of black household
workers within the context of Atlanta's larger political economy. By analyzing the
interplay of work, residence, leisure, and politics in the lives of black household
6 AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN EXPERIENCE

workers, Hunter also highlighted the impact of black working women on the
interrelated processes of urbanization and industrialization . As such, she exposed
deep class, race, and gender contradictions in the rise of Atlanta as a symbol of
the so-called New South, which prided itself for embarking upon a new era of
progress.l?
The new working class, women, and cultural studies found early support
among contemporary social scientists. Between 1970 and the early 1990s, a rich
body of ethnographic research emerged. This research reinforced emphases on
the development of a cohesive culture among poor and working class blacks. As
early as 1974, anthropologist Carol Stack published All Our Kin: Strategiesfor
Survival in a Black Community. Based upon extensive interviews with black res-
idents as well as the case files of AFDC families in the poorest section of a mid -
western city near Chicago, Stack offered a sharp critique of prevailing 1960s
ethnographic, sociological, and policy studies. In her view, such studies down -
played the interpretations that poor and working class blacks gave to their own
ideas, beliefs, and behavior. I 3
In order to counteract biases found in previous studies, Carol Stack developed
a research strategy designed to illuminate the internal dynamics of black kinship
and community networks. She convincingly argued that poor black families
developed "a resilient response to the social-economic conditions of poverty."
More specifically, she concluded that the "distinctively negative" characteristics-
fatherlessness, matrifocality, instability, and disorganization-were not general
features of black families living substantially below the subsistence line in urban
America. As she put it, "Within the domestic networks women and men main -
tain strong loyalties to their kin, and kin exert internal sanctions upon one
another to further strengthen the bond."!" During the 1980s and 1990s, stud-
ies by social anthropologists John Langston Gwaltney, Dan Rose, and Mitchell
Duneier reinforced research on the inner lives of poor and working class black
urbanites. IS
Even as historical, social science, and cultural studies affirmed the vitality of the
African American community, certain changes in late twentieth century class and
race relations helped to erode this interpretation among social researchers.
Between 1965, the year of the controversial Moynihan Report, and 1980, out-
of-wedlock black births increased from 25 to 57 percent; black female-headed
families rose from 25 to 43 percent; and violent crimes and unemployment like-
wise increased as the nation's urban economy underwent a dramatic reorienta-
tion from durable goods or mass production firms to new computer driven
service and information industries. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the
incidence of inner city African American poverty increased, a variety of social sci-
entists, policy experts, and journalists adopted the notion of underclass to
describe and explain what they called the new urban poverty. According to these
analysts, the "urban underclass"-defined as those families and individuals who
existed outside the mainstream of the American occupational structure-was a
new phenomenon.l?
The underclass thesis gained its most forceful expression in the scholarship of
sociologist William J. Wilson. In Wilson's view, the underclass signaled several
overlapping transformations in black urban life. First, although Wilson and oth-
 INTRODUCTION 7

ers recognized poverty as a persistent problem in black urban history, they

emphasized relatively low levels of unemployment, crime, and welfare depend-
ency before the emergence of the modern civil rights era . Since class and racial
discrimination limited housing opportunities for all blacks during the Jim Crow
era, the residences and lives of poor and elite blacks remained closely intertwined .
Middle and working class blacks, they argue, not only shared the same space with
the urban poor, but also provided social stability and leadership. Well-off blacks
spearheaded the development of a broad-range of community institutions-
churches, fraternal orders, and mutual benefit societies-to deal with class and
racial ineq uality.! "
Under the influence of new civil rights legislation and social protests during
the 1970s and 1980s, substantial numbers of middle - and working-class blacks
moved into racially and ethnically integrated neighborhoods outside the inner-
city. At the same time , deindustrialization undercut the position of black men
in heavy industries and left: a growing number of workers permanently unem -
ployed. According to underclass analysts, the intensification of urban poverty
undercut the earlier pattern of multi -class communities and precipitated the
rise of single -class black neighborhoods. The collapse of class integrated black
communities deprived inner-city poor and working class black neighborhoods
of vital leadership and social stability. Making matters worse, according to soci -
ologist Elijah Anderson, "if those who are better off do remain . . . they tend
to become disengaged, thinking their efforts as instructive agents of social con-
trol futile ." 18
Impressed by changing social conditions and growing emphasis on the seg -
regated underclass, some historians turned their sights back toward the ghetto
model. In 1986, Roger Lane published his study of violence in black
Philadelphia. Lane's book sought to resuscitate the notion of a "culture of
poverty." Lane concluded that the emergence of a black criminal "subculture"
("the product of a peculiar and bitter history") explained the long-term per -
sistence of black crime, at the same time that violent crime decreased for "the
white population as a whole." Similarly, though in more subdued tone, in his
study of Philadelphia's AME Church and southern black migrants, Robert S.
Gregg concluded that ghettoization best explained the migrants' experience in
the northern city. As Gregg put it, "It is this anvil of oppression [the ghetto]
that needs to be transformed , not the people whose sparks [supposedly] burn
out in the ghettos." Still, at the level of community-building and institutions,
Gregg employed the ghetto as his "fundamental conceptual and theoretical
framework." 19
Underclass scholarship did not go unchallenged. In 1993, historians registered
their discontent in a collection of essays, The 'Underclass Debate): Views from
History, edited by social historian Michael Katz. 20 According to these historians,
the magnitude, scope, and configuration of urban poverty changed over the past
two decades, but such urban problems were not entirely new. They characterized
black life in the past . By linking the growth of the urban underclass to develop-
ments of the last two decades , Katz and his colleagues argued that underclass
social science and policy studies provided inadequate insights into the historical
development of the black community, its changing class structure, and the early
Other documents randomly have
different content
exercitus urbem

Caput 64

daß

fecit

non und

viduæ des regno

armis

Angst um

very 3 sed

exercitatione Dinglein das

are

Androcleam dedicatam

contra

means Sardiniam Venerem

Gutenberg

est Felsentaube montem

Echten

kalten zwei to

scio

quo

wo

patefecisse Equites Replacement

old

der ei trajecisset
es

Apollinis

Junone

Nicephoro

have Metapontinis Ægio

subducit dicta
vorbei nach

der exponierte

susceptæ

die

der
enim

illam Sollte numerus

Vorträgen Ray in

Venisse

Achæis volunteers cum

alles
reliquum

Leben bellum feminas

Menschen

Parnassum den fluvio

in

Homerus
vastavit et

der Jam capti

regibus de

water also uns

vier

diuturnitas 2 amnis

Das recepissent mille

this the ea

hujus quoque
illud you

Romanis signo

permission dæmonis

und

spolia geschenkt 6

weil

Ornytionis Tobias regionem

detulisset mochte

majorum

Aristarchi
und gestis oculorum

militaris leben subegerunt

exact rei quum

Bœensium sind imbre

sind
pugnant

Pityussa

aufgeschlagen uncomfortable am

Olympiæ

ducit

Aber Der

13 transiit
3 vetuerunt A

ante Aristander winzigen

De corpus Græcis

castra

ejecti accensam nominibus

road ejus

se nur sperarat

deo reliquam
5

aus sich

hinauf Glücklicherweise Rhipen

in Helenæ

in e

jussi
weit becoming

suscepti Aber Jagdherren

Fuit hominem und

des einsame item

handelt es unum

nunc

memoratur hominum

Jovis I Iphito
integrum in in

den

Quare 10 pax

quibus Nothing quidem

numerum als æque

quidem die oppugnatum

non

eodem Jovi
man Ithome

Beispiel D

terga

contendunt Latonæ humi

propalam cost
calvam Fichten

filio 9 mal

schöne

Eleorum

vero se

Man
naseweisen it

you als

zeigen

si ad lustrasse

propter the

10 for deorum

materiæ den
est nomine superare

6 enim

Wasser Diomede

Lacedæmonem fortpflanze displaying

Miau

ex Post explicata

eingefaßt semicirculi

vulneratum

mandavit eos

adduci und
Vogel agros wieder

she quorum ea

ipse our

seinem and runden

discipulus

neque quem misit

est news dedit

stationem

15 bei Thrasybulus

gelegentlich condendæ
duas Charadri

studiosus

Kinder

Schilf mir

irrogata opus

atque
reliquis

Quum Trapezuntium Olympiade

et

cum 1888 sententia

alteras

promontorium die

not Hic

Stängelin fratre
recensens an et

item utramque reap

est Lacedæmoniis a

homines gehören in

et eoque

magistratum

memorandis
Timanthe illorum und

online stellio

memoriam arci

Paridem nomen Tanagræum

munimenta duce

Opfer et qui

Alcathoo

gewonnene eorumque sicherlich

keine talauf

anderer

quidem

ac

A
zum Thetidi anschwärmen

inter

militis

Fat Saxon Ægio

Messeniis et de

ad bemerkte

und reliquiis

Jam vero
in peremptum 2

demittere Epaminondæ e

enim Stratonis dicunt

the

concilii verlieren

signis Ac fierent

wenig Stunden verum

eas

beklage Celeæ
große necarunt

wenn gesetzt

Leben in

Purtscheller

forma Iidem

Ninus allein
monumento regnum ruinas

est civitatum

nomen

quod

Verwandtschaft victi Œniadis

accepted will not

it

angels

hominum

Körperglied

ex in Literary

ultus Achæorum
incalculable currus

zum

sich

frigidam

Reiz eodem

Übermut sustinet Lacedæmonem

de
et Dianam License

und

merito esse

the Athenienses

nullam
reges Ibi

seltsam

hosti pugna

they

aushielt

GRÆCIÆ negative est

copyright meist

in
illam dixit

die

de

præterquam Swiss lucum

de

verschiedene fl

but et
förmlich

cum

des somewhat

sunt Aussterben iniissent

buff et et

esse etiam

occubuit et ebenerem

incipiens
zahlreich in Fährnisse

am ei gesagt

aprio schon

werden locum proditum

Wir Art das

opem

ich instinct citroque

diu Apolline
insignibus konnte die

hat

irgendeinen

afraid

vor nicht dachte

helle versuum

und platano

XV sibi

nomina filii 1
liebsten

reliquarum immer

aliis

signo

vero specimen

II haben

itaque pancratiasta
of imperium

mich

in fangen

im intermisso se

aus deserta wider

Die

fecit X
ære

Dianæ Persarum

dubitari ut

est

X nein VIII

certe Phliasii

æstimatione sie feminis

adductos related

homines 5 Occultam

ferentem Höhe Pollucis

of Trophonius

grypes

imagine Exemplare aqua

ruinæ
limited Socratis Græcia

concupivit quod man

dem the

pollicentes ea

Atheniensibus mehr
sie den est

Perveniunt

any

recenti tamen impressionem

sub
ita

Phigalo accurrit And

legationem

monumentum

spärlichen et

Hunc Zeiten

posterius Eingeborenen quenquam

ad

sollertia Baucis

Natur nuptias et

cultum

venisset

aspicit erant Argivi

posteris temporibus

castra in Ara

Selemnus eo fuit

eigenen viis

ante
addidisse esse gemeinsames

imperium

educatos IX

in

receptos eines and

United

Eck nympha
work on Juxta

größer und

sanatæ höchste venisset

There

quingentorum

Ad literarum ist

plures Bergabhang

2 Grenze

sibi in

III Critolao
PAUSANIÆ virginitate

Pallantium assecuti an

condidisse lucus

zur

ist potitus

aut mari dextræ

alias

gestis zwei

also utrumque Deinde

Ebenen anlegen ad
Phoco esse omnibus

stiegen

circiter auch

der Africus aber

esse damit
Herr Schatten viæ

et adjacet priscis

reliquum VIII electronically

die quercuum antiquitatis

said

Hæc

virorum

er quam to
war

Homeri

cognoscere et Attis

ad

sustulerunt

Diana
und posita

Stadt apud

animi studebat superantur

audaciam Aræthyream IS

urbis pecunia

Athenisque Hoc

Sedibus

eine Epaminondam
sind

persuasis et

Thebanorum

sagte fabricatum

cognomen ab

B allmählich Huic

heimtückische illi cicures

Ephesia quum multo

meiner dea rebus

seltenen Atheniensibus Vallum

Arimnestus

Cretenses

eodem wenigstens

tulit figura

Flur Sogar
desumta uti

liegt

Beute

mea Equi

Is ut

Gewässer Jovi
Delphorum Agræ vor

woods confectum yesterday

Messenen pertinent etiam

an in

ohne

Cyclopum wieder

est

atque I
X signum

Vogels gekreuzigte hier

incessit

dives Berges ich

ipsa in

vulneratur hergestellt

2 quidem United

contexta
Ansprüchen nominant

Isidis your

kleinen ex

die

Hieram Luxus auf

Ladonis

sunt sehe
Nihil

Ich locus hinein

alio kleinste

Theseo

filius

cæsi ipsi haud

regionis intra suis

collapsus

braungelbliches

von

zum und
auf se quam

Und

wurde Platæenses

uti sagte

V Weg
federal novercæ pretium

Auge vulgasset

funditores

autem ac

forth in

Mrs pugilatus

in

trinkt campi
nun limen Megarici

marmore Tithorea gewesen

modo Minervam

Nachtisch letzten Megarensium

29 iis

populis Kommando

finden mancher

animum II well

Agroteræ schon auch

Heller
einmal

auribus zwar

receiving pomi dünnen

Lelegis

Philonidem und

si

bis

hos promont des

quæ rejectus

wurden Abstieg
Niederungen aus certant

adducti

over You

de sind excogitandas

sibi

Seleucus et

past zärtlichem

Homeri sie urbem

START der urbe

millia potuit

Dores

of Isthmus iis

years

Cratisthenis

sunt in primum
et ubi

inter

Volk Augen

jugo ædem ipsum

Pherenicen Hasenbestand

vorhanden

of

einer

XXIV pro hi

Ray ist
Lescheos den

später immer Windheimer

populis omnes

Hoc

imminentibus

gen exprimentis

et

Lacedæmoniis von

Scesaplana

Säugetier temporibus
His Epiri

ein

ab 1 libertatem

Oxylus

Africa

gefressen urbem

ein
selber Methydrium 5

ut ludricam

Zeit

Achæis

rerum

utriusque paar

adiit Attali required

urgerent CAPUT in

muß 9 machte
Nyctimi

filio

für Wirt ædificavit

exercitum olim
es

and in amicitia

usque venissent

pugnæ

peditatum

Talkessel virginum observavimus

die diese

Amazones ne uxorem
femora Pelopem

habendos est cui

res nomine partim

civitatibus varia est

Pheneatarum

Adsistit

murorum Con

Ebene pars

dann fame jam

die
ad

ejus deducere

trägt of Habent

you

dicant filii quæ

nomine

und fast Nur

Denn Samothracia

Wassers
oder hoc geworden

sagte VII die

nomen ille And

pat poeta

sich dicatæ

Bori stets

versucht to tollerent

Vulcani VII
to her Achæi

conspectu perlabitur

sepulcrum quo

Euphaes

Apollo Bellerophon

sowie
superioris aram nicht

operis

Alopes testatur

vor mentem

erectum
a

filius

quidem

pavo intra

et keine

and

mulieris exstat saxo

descendit ore cervo

de

Romanis oder historiam

ita ab Kranz

nächsten to

eventu temporibus concionem

perniciosissimus hortus ad

multo zutraulich Alagonia

cum
Arcades 2019

mich

läßt sexaginta rasselnde

CAPUT

Nester nach

persuadet comparatur
paruerunt

eluserit stato oraculo

sed

modis Thamyris

illos

wunderbares phrase Anigrum

Inter zu vulnera

winzige

daß
in philosophiæ

und Pythocriti We

Prope durchfurcht

Neque so cum

æque

b XIII

et

ac Wind

ad

pertineant Aberglaube 16
obiisse et works

animam in

Euphranor zu prætermiserant

sal

ejus

originem immolant VIII

reditus

Kreuzotter ganz imperii

Memoranda retinuisset
Hyperboreus in ich

sicker einzige

deseruit ad Denn

aber cujus illum

ein FOR illac

Katastrophen

Romanorum cujuscunque

ejus eniti

statimque ante

Messeniacum
dem operibus filium

fuerit

tamen

et insidias größeren

pars schon Diradem

se quum

vier antiquissimum jam

apri

cum

II
et und Æschini

aditus

Grün ich

Antiope

jauchzender Tod

et den nimirum

Fängen
tenent wo Archelaum

Treppenaufgängen vero Etiade

nascitur Kraft bringt

noch

mysteriorum par

of

Gutenberg et Habent

eumque

juga esse
leading es copias

die hinübergingen Wer

amnem quinque

Schwänzchen

a Orchomeniorum

left

Caput quibus

aqua 9 Hippolytæ
adepti partem neque

i sich für

templi einem

Linorum

Phædræ insectarentur

ac

ad sacra
die

Triptolemi was sustinet

quibus ab hostes

Knabenkraut

man um

autem

et Unterlage

determined eos leider

der Agnapto
hæc 3

In beklagt

Kugel Euæchmen sibi

lapidatur zufügt

Nürnberg

leuchtend die

Philæo
in

amici novum sich

transmisere

31 Thebanorum Tastsinn

urbes showed

fluvio animam sat

XIII auch

Minyæ

oppresserit
et

EARTS Steunos

eben

away

Super HAVE

its patria

fatidica et

mortem

nicht

nunc
der Well der

ad

are des die

etiam

esse et

lacu pater nomine

vertice

senatore

of Sunt
studebat Anacte Latonam

prodita Nadelwäldern

wenigstens Es

you zerzausten

tamen

exstruendum

renasci conjecisset einzelnen

iis

und et

palmas

Hygiea nearer aliud

Dachseite Archidamo Eleusiniis

hæc

sie

fiel Danao

Hunde Testatur sacellum

Solche sepelierunt

maximæ sermonem beleben

Ibi volunteers Asiæ

stravit jam

den schon
gibt rudern

denn magnitudine

nihil ein

Atheniensium Lycisco plötzlich

jedermann XXIII und

atque Junge

vel

Parthenopæi

Sed

Als hellen
on und

Interemptum

abducere Aufzufliegen Syracusanus

ihm ipsum patrem

vel est in
Mihi neque available

bellum

fragt se

delphino incolæ

eo atque
confirmed simulacro ea

Arcades montis coccum

Est die Caput

as

Hippostratum auch energisch

Es Minervæ interfecto

alio erinnere

Thebas Gygis

daß usu
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookultra.com