Synopses & Reviews
Mary Barr thinks a lot about the old photograph hanging on her refrigerator door.and#160; In it, she and a dozen or so of her friends from the Chicago suburb of Evanston sit on a porch. Itand#39;s 1974, the summer after they graduated from Nichols Middle School, and what strikes her immediatelyandmdash;aside from the
Soul Trainandndash;era clothesandmdash;is the diversity of the group: boys and girls, black and white, in the variety of poses youand#39;d expect from a bunch of friends on the verge of high school. But the photo also speaks to the history of Evanston, to integration, and to the ways that those in the picture experienced and remembered growing up in a place that many at that time considered to be a racial utopia.
In Friends Disappear Barr goes back to her old neighborhood and pieces together a history of Evanston with a particular emphasis on its neighborhoods, its schools, and its work life. She finds that there is a detrimental myth of integration surrounding Evanston despite bountiful evidence of actual segregation, both in the archives and from the life stories of her subjects. Curiously, the cityandrsquo;s own desegregation plan is partly to blame. The initiative called for the redistribution of students from an all-black elementary school to institutions situated in white neighborhoods.and#160; That, however, required busing, and between the tensions it generated and obvious markers of class difference, the racial divide, far from being closed, was widened.and#160; Friends Disappear highlights how racial divides limited the life chances of blacks while providing opportunities for whites, and offers an insiderandrsquo;s perspective on the social practices that doled out benefits and penalties based on raceandmdash;despite attempts to integrate.
Review
“An insightful look at the socioeconomic experiences of the black middle class. . . . Through the prism of a South Side Chicago neighborhood, the author shows the distinctly different reality middle-class blacks face as opposed to middle-class whites.” Ebony
Review
“[A] richly textured, thoughtful account of the precarious economic and social positions of young people in these middle-class families. . . . Pattilo knows Groveland, and she knows the literature on poverty and class. She is a careful and insightful observer. . . . Pattillos book provides a perceptive analysis of the black middle class in America in the 1990s and will be an integral part of courses on stratification, race, and poverty. But it is also an entertaining book that will appeal to general audiences interested in contemporary social issues. I recommend it.” Cynthia M. Duncan
Review
“Few studies offer extensions to an existing body of research in a manner that is both paradigm shifting and enriching to the social sciences as a whole. . . . Pattillo has succeeded in doing both. Her analysis of the black middle class revives the tradition of community studies in American sociology while skillfully shifting the dialogue concerning the inner-city from its focus on social pathologies of the poor to a more holistic discussion of stratification and social interaction.” American Journal of Sociology
Review
“The most insightful study I have read on the black middle class. Like no other author, Mary Pattillo reveals the obstacles and pressures of black middle-class families. Readers of this clearly written and engaging book will understand why these experiences are unique, and why they produce social outcomes that often differ from those of the white middle class.” Robert Mark Silverman - Critical Sociology
Review
“More than with sweeping conclusions or policy recommendations, Black Picket Fences concerns itself with turning a detailed eye to a picture that’s easily glossed over in discussions of [Chicago’s] segregation. So it’s an academic text but a lively one . . . Pattillo is an excellent listener, and anyone looking to expand their conception of the South Side beyond the dire stories of Englewood violence and the ivied island of Hyde Park should listen in as well.” William Julius Wilson, author of When Work Disappears
Review
and#8220;Barrand#8217;s
Friends Disappear is a poignant reminder of how far we have yet to travel when it comes to facing honestly the full complexity of the battles for civil rights and equality. Diving beneath the surface of what appeared to be a childhood filled with examples of racial progress, Barr uncovers a thicket of broken promises and unrealized dreams, the deflections of civic boosterism, and the tragic manifestations of structural inequalities that survived despite the and#8216;triumphand#8217; of the civil rights movement. In our putatively post-racial world we urgently need to listen to what Barr is telling us.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Barr has written a perceptive, moving, and at times turbulent portrait of Evanston, IL, a town that boasts an image of racial harmony and integration, even as it continues to produce sharp racial disparities in the life chances of its residents. In exploring the fate of her own generation of Evanstonians, Barr reveals the powerful role of race in structuring access to opportunity, wealth, and even to life itself. This story of an interracial group of childhood friends serves as a metaphor for the persistence of inequality in post-civil rights America; but we must also make it a call to action.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This bold and beautifully modulated book adds substantively to knowledge of Chicago's suburbs. It takes apart the machinery of systematic inequality with both sensitivity and patience. Barr offers more than a vivid, sociological survey of how racial hierarchy collided with the lived experience of children unaware of how it overdetermined their life chances. All the more shocking for its mildness, Friends Disappear is an innovative work about racism that deserves to be influential and very widely read.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Barr's gripping exploration of the divergent paths friends took away from a childhood snapshot combines the rigor of scholarship with the personal touch of memoir. I have rarely read a book that so effectively illustrates the persistence of racial disparities in the United States with unforgettable, wrenching life stories.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;A fascinating and painful study of one cityand#39;s struggle with integration, fair housing and equality. . . . Barrand#39;s work is a nuanced yet sometimes disturbing look at Evanstonand#39;s evolution on this important topic.andrdquo;
Synopsis
First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s
Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. Nearly fifteen years later, this book remains a groundbreaking study of a group still underrepresented in the academic and public spheres. The result of living for three years in “Groveland,” a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side,
Black Picket Fences explored both the advantages the black middle class has and the boundaries they still face. Despite arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo showed a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal.
Stark, moving, and still timely, the book is updated for this edition with a new epilogue by the author that details how the neighborhood and its residents fared in the recession of 2008, as well as new interviews with many of the same neighborhood residents featured in the original. Also included is a new foreword by acclaimed University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau.
About the Author
Mary Pattillo is the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Whoand#8217;s Who on the Porch
Introduction
1 Heavenston
2 A Salt-and-Pepper Mix
3 The Coffin Affair
4 Free to Roam
5 Bringing the Movement Home
6 Friends Disappear
7 Stuff for the Kids That Are Less Fortunate
Conclusion: Together Again, One Last Time
Notes
Index