Synopses & Reviews
Black Picket Fences is a stark, moving, and candid look at a section of America that is too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. After living for three years in "Groveland," a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, sociologist Mary Pattillo-McCoy has written a book that explores both the advantages and the boundaries that exist for members of the black middle class. In the face of arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo-McCoy shows a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal.
About the Author
Mary Pattillo-McCoy is an assistant professor of sociology and African American studies and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Black Middle Class: Who, When, and Where?
2. The Making of Groveland
3. Generations through a Changing Economy
4. Neighborhood Networks and Crime
5. Growing Up in Groveland
6. In a Ghetto Trance
7. Nike's Reign
8. William "Spider" Waters, Jr.: Straddling Two Worlds
9. Typical Terri Jones
Conclusion
Appendix A: Research Method
Appendix B: Groveland Neighborhood Characteristics
Notes
References
Index