William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America
Lane here illuminates the African-American experience through a close look at a single city, once the metropolitan headquarters of black America, now typical of many. He recognizes that urban history offers more clues, both to modern accomplishments and to modern problems, than the dead past of rural slavery. The book's historical section is based on hundreds of newly discovered scrapbooks kept by William Henry Dorsey, Philadelphia's first black historian. These provide an intimate and comprehensive view of the critical period between the Civil War and about 1900, when African-Americans, formally free and increasingly urban, made the biggest educational and occupational gains in history. Dorsey's tens of thousands of newspaper clippings and other sources, detail records of high culture and low, success and scandal, personal and public life. In the final chapters Lane outlines the urban situation today, the strong parallels between past and present that suggest the power of continuity and the equally strong differences that point to the possibility of change.
"1000544680"
William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America
Lane here illuminates the African-American experience through a close look at a single city, once the metropolitan headquarters of black America, now typical of many. He recognizes that urban history offers more clues, both to modern accomplishments and to modern problems, than the dead past of rural slavery. The book's historical section is based on hundreds of newly discovered scrapbooks kept by William Henry Dorsey, Philadelphia's first black historian. These provide an intimate and comprehensive view of the critical period between the Civil War and about 1900, when African-Americans, formally free and increasingly urban, made the biggest educational and occupational gains in history. Dorsey's tens of thousands of newspaper clippings and other sources, detail records of high culture and low, success and scandal, personal and public life. In the final chapters Lane outlines the urban situation today, the strong parallels between past and present that suggest the power of continuity and the equally strong differences that point to the possibility of change.
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William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America

William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America

by Roger Lane
William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America

William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America

by Roger Lane

Hardcover

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Overview

Lane here illuminates the African-American experience through a close look at a single city, once the metropolitan headquarters of black America, now typical of many. He recognizes that urban history offers more clues, both to modern accomplishments and to modern problems, than the dead past of rural slavery. The book's historical section is based on hundreds of newly discovered scrapbooks kept by William Henry Dorsey, Philadelphia's first black historian. These provide an intimate and comprehensive view of the critical period between the Civil War and about 1900, when African-Americans, formally free and increasingly urban, made the biggest educational and occupational gains in history. Dorsey's tens of thousands of newspaper clippings and other sources, detail records of high culture and low, success and scandal, personal and public life. In the final chapters Lane outlines the urban situation today, the strong parallels between past and present that suggest the power of continuity and the equally strong differences that point to the possibility of change.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195065664
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 08/15/1991
Pages: 512
Product dimensions: 9.64(w) x 6.44(h) x 1.56(d)
Lexile: 1590L (what's this?)

About the Author

Haverford College

Table of Contents

Introductionxi
Part IThe Medium and the Message: The Dorsey Collection and the Black Portrait in the Popular Press
1.Of Politics, Religion, and Popular Culture5
2.Of Race, Sex, and Lynching33
Part IIOccupations and Making a Living
3.The "Unskilled" Majority63
4.Owners, Artisans, and Entrepreneurs98
5.Education and Educators134
6.The Learned Occupations166
7.Politics, Politicians, and Civil Servants197
Part IIIThe Web of Organization: Religion, Race, Class, and Recreation
8.The Churches231
9.Race Pride and Race Relations253
10.Organization and Social Class279
11.Recreation, Entertainment, and Postscriptum to William Henry Dorsey309
Part IVWilliam Dorsey's City and Ours
12.Survivals and Evolution: The Black City Today337
13.Transition: From There to Here354
14.A Common Destiny: Prospects for the Black City374
Appendix I.The William Henry Dorsey Collection at Cheyney State University411
Appendix II.Sources for William Dorsey and His Family413
Appendix III.Philadelphians Most Noted in the Dorsey Collection416
Appendix IV."Elite" Philadelphians, 1860s and 1890s420
Notes423
Index459
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