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RACE, SPACE, &
POWER
PRESENTED AT THE FALL NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM
CONVENTION AT WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN RESORT HOTEL
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
JULIAN C. CHAMBLISS
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
ROLLINS COLLEGE
COORDINATOR, AFRICA AND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
NARRATIVES
LINKS TO RACE
STEREOTYPES
CONTROL &
PUBLIC SPACE
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
W.E.B. DUBOIS
“… the police system of the
South was originally designed
to keep track of all Negroes, not
simply of criminals; and when
the Negroes were freed and the
whole South was convinced of
the impossibility of free Negro
labor, the first and almost
universal device was to use the
courts as a means of re-
enslaving the blacks.”
Souls of Black Folks (1903)
THE CONVICT LEASE
SYSTEM
RACE, SPACE,
&
OPPORTUNITY
De-industrialization
NORTH
LAWNDALE
-Established in 1857
-Population
1910 46,000
1920 93,000
1930 112,000
-Racial Identity
White Ethnic (Russian Jews)
By 1950s African Americans replaces
Jewish Residents
-White Flight
White Population dropped
87,000 in 1950
11,000 in 1960
African Population
13,000 in 1950
113,000 in 1960
By mid-1960s North Lawndale was at its all-
time population high, nearly 125,000, and
was 91% African-American.
LOSS OF WORK,
RISE OF TENSION
THE WAR
ON DRUGS
SILENT MAJORITY
THE “UNDERCLASS” ARGUMENT
Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950 -1980 (1984)
• In the 1960s, argued Murray, the federal government expanded cash and in- kind benefits for the poor. In so doing, it lowered the economic sanction for behaviors leading to poverty - unemployment, illegitimate childbirth, divorce, and dropping out of school - and reduced the relative rewards of marriage, hard work, and traditional family structures. In other words, government began subsidizing failure while doing nothing to reinforce success.
QUALITY OF LIFE
POLICING
NUMBERS
- According to the Brookings Institution
- Crime rates has been in decline since the 1990s.
- The poor (people with incomes below 15,000) have the highest rate of criminal victimization.
