Study Guide Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis This study guide is intended to help you understand The Origins of the Urban Crisis. As you begin each chapter, look at the questions and terms listed here for that chapter; then, as you read, be on the alert for these issues and terms. You do not have to turn in a set of answers to all of these questions, but I suggest that you make notes as you go along, answering the questions and defining the terms for yourself. Chapter 1: Arsenal of Democracy Questions: 1. What did Detroit look like in 1940? (Web strand: place)
2. What was the condition of manufacturing in Detroit in the 1940s? (Web strand: econ. entity) 3. What happened to African Americans' employment possibilities during World War II? (Web strands: economic and sociological) 4. What is the nature of Detroit's residential housing stock? (Web strands: place, sociology) 5. By the 1940s, what were the bases for residential segregation? (Web strand: sociology) 6. What does Sugrue point to as the underlying causes of racial inequality in Detroit? (Web strand: sociology) Terms: River Rouge Great Migration Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) Mayor's Interracial Committee Chapter 2: Detroit's Time Bomb: Race and Housing in the 1940s Questions:1. On p. 36, Sugrue offers a paragraph summarizing what he intends to do in this chapter: "To understand the processes of black occupancy, impoverishment, disinvestment, and decline, this chapter will look at the housing patterns in segregated Detroit and the role that homeowners and institutions played in maintaining racial barriers and perpetuating the social, economic, and political marginalization of African Americans." So Sugrue intends to explain the problem of residential segregation faced by black Americans as they migrated to northern cities in terms of two sets of factors: a) "the role of homeowners" and b) the role of "institutions." By the "role of homeowners," Sugrue is talking about the actions and attitudes of potential and actual white neighbors. By "institutions" he means private market institutions like banks, real estate brokerage practices, as well as practices and policies of government that helped create residential segregation. While I agree with Sugrue that private market practices and government policies are very much intertwined, separating these analytically helps us to understand how Detroit in particular (and by extension, U.S. cities generally) became so racially segregated. So - as you read this chapter, please think about these sets of factors: 1. The role of homeowners, that is attitudes and actions of individuals who were the potential and actual neighbors of African-Americans who wanted to move into neighborhoods 2. Institutional practices in the private market 3. Government's role: practices, policies, programs As you read, you may want to list the factors that fall into each category. Terms: Black enclaves Restrictive covenants Neighborhood improvement associations Ch 3: "The Coffin of Peace": The Containment of Public Housing Questions: Several groups in wartime and post-World War II Detroit worked hard to get public housing projects built that would be available for black Detroiters. These groups included some black organizations and businesspeople, some labor unions, city planning groups like the City Plan Commission and Detroit Housing Commission, and various other progressive organizations. These public housing advocates hoped that public housing would help alleviate the extreme housing problems in the overcrowded black ghettoes, and help resolve social problems more generally through integration. In this chapter, Sugrue describes several specific public housing projects planned for Detroit, and the controversies that ensued. You may skim this chapter. Do not get hung up on learning the details of these particular projects. But look at it closely enough to answer these two questions briefly. 1) Were the groups advocating public housing in Detroit successful in achieving development of public housing? Were they successful in achieving racially integrated public housing? 2) What does Sugrue mean when he says that there is a conflict between the two strains in New Deal Housing policy? Ch 4: "The Meanest & Dirtiest Jobs": The Structures of Employment Discrimination Questions: 1. What is the central argument of the chapter? Ch 5: "The Damning Mark of False Prosperities": The Deindustrialization of Detroit Questions 1. What happened to manufacturing employment in Detroit beginning in the late 1940s and into the early 1960s? 2. Where did manufacturing jobs go as they left Detroit? 3. What are some of the reasons that manufacturing employment declined? Ch 6: "Forget about Your Inalienable Right to Work": Responses to Industrial Decline and Discrimination Questions 1. Early in the chapter, on p. 156, Sugrue says that there was a "trend against a structural understanding of poverty and unemployment." Explain what it would mean to view unemployment for black Americans in Detroit as a "structural" problem. Contrast the structural view with the alternative, that unemployment results from individuals' deficiencies. Terms UAW Local 600 Detroit Urban League Detroit NAACP Ch 7: Class, Status and Residency: The Changing Geography of Black Detroit Questions: 1. What was the purpose of "restrictive covenants?" What happened to restrictive covenants in 1948? 2. What was the effect, in Detroit, of the Supreme Court's decision declaring restrictive covenants unenforceable [Shelley v. Kramer (1948)]? 3. How did the way some people and firms practiced real estate brokerage encourage white flight, thereby opening up neighborhoods for black home ownership? 4. What argument is Sugrue making in this chapter about the African-American community in Detroit? How is Sugrue's analysis different from that of William Julius Wilson (summarized in the chapter)? Terms: "race" businesses redlining land contract open housing blockbusting "testers" Thurgood Marshall Detroit Mayor's Inter-racial Committee (MIC) Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) Ch 8: "Homeowners' Rights": White Resistance and the Rise of Antiliberalism Questions: 1. What were homeowners' associations? (Also called "civic associations," "neighborhood improvement associations," "civic associations") 2. How did homeowners' associations respond to growing advocacy for open housing? 3. What does Sugrue mean when he says, on the closing page of the chapter, that the ghetto is not simply a physical construct, but also an ideological construct? That urban space became a metaphor for perceived racial differences? Terms: Homeowners' Rights Ordinance (pp. 226-227) Ch 9: "United Communities are Impregnable": Violence and the Color Line Questions: 1. What does Sugrue mean by "defended" versus "undefended" neighborhoods? 2. What was the nature of the organized harassment against black pioneers, whites who sold to blacks, real estate people who dealt with blacks? 3. What forms did violence against black home purchasers in defended neighborhoods take? Terms: defended neighborhoods undefended neighborhoods This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
