In Their Own Interests

by Lewis, Earl

• ISBN13: 9780520084445
• ISBN10: 0520084446
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

Since the Civil War, African Americans have made great efforts to empower themselves. Focusing on Norfolk, Virginia, Earl Lewis shows how blacks have had to balance competing inclinations for conscious inaction and purposeful agitation as they sought to promote their own interests at home and in the workplace. In Their Own Interestspresents a cross-section of southern urban blacks--the power-brokers and lesser-knowns, Garvey followers and communist enthusiasts--who came to live in Norfolk between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Lewis seeks to recreate the texture of African-American life by examining the lives of the people after they moved to the city--the jobs and assistance they secured, the houses, families, and institutions they built, the battles they waged, and the culture they shared. In Their Own Interestsmoves African-American urban and social history beyond the current intellectual crossroads. Drawing on a variety of sources, Lewis tells the interconnected story of race, class, and power in twentieth-century Norfolk. His study has far-reaching implications and should be of wide interest.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Tables and Graphs	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(7)
Framing a Perspective, 1862--1910	8	(21)
Migration, Jobs, and Race-Conscious Urban Workers, 1910--1930	29	(37)
Race Relations, Institutions, and Development in the Home Sphere, 1910--1930	66	(23)
Culture and the Family: Defining Their World, 1910--1930	89	(21)
Unemployment, Migration, and Material Decline: The Foundation for Change, 1929--1941	110	(16)
The Depression Years: Toward a Restructuring of Social Relations, 1929--1941	126	(41)
World War II and the Crystallization of a New Perspective, 1941--1945	167	(42)
Conclusion: Everything has Changed, But Everything Remains the Same	199	(10)
Notes	209	(48)
Bibliographic Essay	257	(6)
Index	263