Race, Poverty, and American Cities / Edition 1

by John Charles Boger, Judith Welch Wegner

Overview

Precise connections between race, poverty, and the condition of America's cities are drawn in this collection of seventeen essays. Policymakers and scholars from a variety of disciplines analyze the plight of the urban poor since the riots of the 1960s and the resulting 1968 Kerner Commission Report on the status of African Americans. In essays addressing health care, education, welfare, and housing policies, the contributors reassess the findings of the report in light of developments over the last thirty years, including the Los Angeles riots of 1992. Some argue that the long-standing obstacles faced by the urban poor cannot be removed without revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods; others emphasize strategies to break down racial and economic isolation and promote residential desegregation throughout metropolitan areas.

Guided by a historical perspective, the contributors propose a new combination of economic and social policies to transform cities while at the same time improving opportunities and outcomes for inner-city residents. This approach highlights the close links between progress for racial minorities and the overall health of cities and the nation as a whole.

The volume, which began as a special issue of the North Carolina Law Review, has been significantly revised and expanded for publication as a book. The contributors are John Charles Boger, Alison Brett, John O. Calmore, Peter Dreier, Susan F. Fainstein, Walter C. Farrell Jr., Nancy Fishman, George C. Galster, Chester Hartman, James H. Johnson Jr., Ann Markusen, Patricia Meaden, James E. Rosenbaum, Peter W. Salsich Jr., Michael A. Stegman, David Stoesz, Charles Sumner Stone Jr., William L. Taylor, Sidney D. Watson, and Judith Welch Wegner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807845783
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/09/1996
Edition description:	1
Pages:	614
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.37(d)
Lexile:	1820L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Charles Boger is professor of law at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Judith Welch Wegner is professor of law at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Part I. Looking Backward and Looking Ahead: Lessons and Questions from the Kerner Commission Report
Race and the American City: The Kerner Commission Report in Retrospect / John Charles Boger

Part II. An Urban Policy for America: Is Such a Framework Feasible?
America's Urban Crisis: Symptoms, Causes, and Solutions / Peter Dreier
The Urban Policy Challenge: Integrating across Social and Economic Development Policy / Susan S. Fainstein and Ann Markusen
The Fire This Time: The Genesis of the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 / James H. Johnson Jr. and Walter C. Farrell Jr.
Polarization, Place, and Race / George C. Galster
National Urban Policy Revisited: Policy Options for the Clinton Administration / Michael A. Stegman

Part III. Residential Mobility: Effects on Education, Employment, and Racial Integration
Can the Kerner Commission's Housing Strategy Improve Employment, Education, and Social Integration for Low-Income Blacks? / James E. Rosenbaum, Nancy Fishman, Alison Brett, and Patricia Meaden
Spatial Equality and the Kerner Commission Report: A Back-to-the-Future Essay / John O. Calmore
A Decent Home for Every American: Can the 1949 Goal Be Met? / Peter W. Salsich Jr.
A Universal Solution to the Housing Problems of Minorities / Chester Hartman
Toward Ending Residential Segregation: A Fair Share Proposal for the Next Reconstruction / John Charles Boger

Part IV. America's Social Policy: How Race Matters in Developing Health, Education, and Welfare Policies
Health Care in the Inner City: Asking the Right Question / Sidney D. Watson
The Continuing Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity / William L. Taylor
Poor Policy: The Legacy of the Kerner Commission for Social Welfare / David Stoesz

Part V. The Dual Racial Reality of the Media's Message
Thucydides' Law of History, or, From Kerner 1968 to Hacker 1992 / Charles Sumner Stone Jr.

Part VI. Do We Have the Will to Change?: A Continuing Conversation between Academics and Policymakers
Chapel Hill Symposium: Notes and Reflections / Judith Welch Wegner
Afterword: A Debate over the National Future / John Charles Boger

Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Although written for scholars and policymakers, the essays will be of interest to informed layreaders as well.—Library Journal



This book offers a sweeping and massively documented look at the growing urban racial and economic crisis that has been swept under the rug of American politics for a quarter century. In a time of failing national vision, the editors have provided a convincing diagnosis and thoughtful studies of alternatives to the present drift.—Gary Orfield, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

Although written for scholars and policymakers, the essays will be of interest to informed layreaders as well.

"Library Journal"

In a time of failing national vision, the editors have provided a convincing diagnosis and thoughtful studies of alternatives.

Gary Orfield, Harvard University

"Although written for scholars and policymakers, the essays will be of interest to informed layreaders as well.

"Library Journal""

"In a time of failing national vision, the editors have provided a convincing diagnosis and thoughtful studies of alternatives.

Gary Orfield, Harvard University"

From the Publisher

Boger and Wegner are associate dean and dean of the law school, respectively, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The papers are from the 1993 symposium on "Race, Poverty, and the American City: The Kerner Commission Report in Retrospect," sponsored by the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning and the Charles M. and Shirley F. Weiss Fund for Urban Livability. Using the 1968 Kerner Commission Report as a reference point, the essays address the need for a national urban policy; the effects of residential mobility on education, employment, and racial integration; the impact of race on health, education, and welfare policies; the influence of the media on racial conflict; and the need for policy change. Although written for scholars and policymakers, the essays will be of interest to informed layreaders as well. For academic and larger public libraries.William L. Waugh, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta

Library Journal