Suburban Erasure by Walter David Greason
For generations, historians believed that the study of the African-American experience centered on the questions about the processes and consequences of enslavement. Even after this phase passed, the modern Civil Rights Movement took center stage and filled hundreds of pages, creating a new framework for understanding both the history of the United States and of the world. Suburban Erasure by Walter David Greason contributes to the most recent developments in historical writing by recovering dozens of previously undiscovered works about the African-American experience in New Jersey. More importantly, his interpretation of these documents complicates the traditional understandings about the Great Migration, civil rights activism, and the transformation of the United States as a global, economic superpower. Greason details the voices of black men and women whose vision and sacrifices made the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. possible. Then, in the second half of this study, the limitations of this dream of integration become clear as New Jersey--a state that took the lead in showing American how to overcome the racism of the past--fell victim to a recurring pattern of colorblindness that entrenched the legacy of racial inequality in the consumer economy of the late twentieth century. Suburbanization simultaneously erased the physical architecture of rural segregation in New Jersey and ideologically obscured the deepening, persistent injustices that became the War on Drugs and the prison-industrial complex. His solution for the twenty-first century involves the most fundamental effort to racially integrate state and local government conceived since the Reconstruction Era. Suburban Erasure is a must read for people concerned with democracy, human rights, and the future of civil society.
Suburban Erasure is an impressive work of cultural historyGreason compliments his obviously extensive knowledge about American history and the Civil Rights movement with statistics from local sources and oral histories. The book’s greatest strength is that the author illustrates the daily struggles and small victories of individuals with detailed stories, and then references those stories throughout the book as evidence to support his larger point.... Walter Greason’s book will no doubt make a significant impact in the fields of American history and African-American studies. I am equally convinced of its importance for urban historians, such as myself, who may have been teaching an over-simplified version of the urban–suburban/black–white narrative to students. The truth is complicated, but the extraordinary commitment of Black rural communities in the flight towards racial equality is a story that begs to be told. * New Jersey Studies *
In Suburban Erasure Walter David Greason 'examines the roles of African Americans in transforming the culture, politics, and economics of rural New Jersey in the twentieth century (p. 2). He uses the first half of the book to explore the history of women, churches, and schools. . . .[T]he second half of the book picks up as Greason analyzes larger social trends such as suburbanization and the culture of consumption and their impact on African Americans. . . .[T]the second half brings together newer historio-graphical insights about suburbanization and consumption and makes more nuanced arguments about them. Historians of the African American experience, especially in New Jersey, will find these chapters to be of greater value. * Journal of American History *
Greason's argument resonates with the best recent scholarly literature. . . .Having unearthed sources that are often obscure or fragmentary, Greason's account of black resilience and persistence is impressive. * American Historical Review *
This is an ambitious, admirably researched and analyzed history of African American communities, their development, consolidation, and subsequent centrifugal diminution. Greason writes objectively, but one can sense the passion motivating it. -- Kalman Goldstein, Fairleigh Dickinson University
In Suburban Erasure Walter David Greason 'examines the roles of African Americans in transforming the culture, politics, and economics of rural New Jersey in the twentieth century (p. 2). He uses the first half of the book to explore the history of women, churches, and schools. . . .[T]he second half of the book picks up as Greason analyzes larger social trends such as suburbanization and the culture of consumption and their impact on African Americans. . . .[T]the second half brings together newer historio-graphical insights about suburbanization and consumption and makes more nuanced arguments about them. Historians of the African American experience, especially in New Jersey, will find these chapters to be of greater value. * Journal of American History *
Greason's argument resonates with the best recent scholarly literature. . . .Having unearthed sources that are often obscure or fragmentary, Greason's account of black resilience and persistence is impressive. * American Historical Review *
This is an ambitious, admirably researched and analyzed history of African American communities, their development, consolidation, and subsequent centrifugal diminution. Greason writes objectively, but one can sense the passion motivating it. -- Kalman Goldstein, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Walter David Greason is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Center for Metropolitan Growth.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781611477290 |
| ISBN 10 | 1611477298 |
| Title | Suburban Erasure |
| Author | Walter David Greason |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |
| Year published | 2014-07-30 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |