Black on the Block: The Politics of Race And Class in the City

In Black on the Block, Mary Pattillo€”a Newsweek Woman of the 21st Century€”uses the historic rise, alarming fall, and equally dramatic renewal of Chicago€™s North Kenwood€“Oakland neighborhood to explore the politics of race and class in contemporary urban America. There was a time when North Kenwood€“Oakland was plagued by gangs, drugs, violence, and the font of poverty from which they sprang. But in the late 1980s, activists rose up to tackle the social problems that had plagued the area for decades. Black on the Block tells the remarkable story of how these residents laid the groundwork for a revitalized and self-consciously black neighborhood that continues to flourish today. But theirs is not a tale of easy consensus and political unity, and here Pattillo teases out the divergent class interests that have come to define black communities like North Kenwo