Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"FOREWORD by Van Jones
INTRODUCTION
ORIGINS
Lewie Taking Harlem Kids to See the Solar Eclipse
Third Grade with Mrs. Aikens
What Is Missing in the New Story?
The Story
A New Vision for the City
PART ONE: MY LIFE AND WORK
CHAPTER 1: GROWING UP IN A DYING CITY
Getting By in the City
Our New Neighborhood
Attending an Integrated Elementary School
My Passion for City Planning
Walking in the City
Driving While Black
Navigating Wonder and Shadow
Shame
Losing Hope
Attending Dobbins Vocational School
Leaving Home
First Exposure to the Segregated South
CHAPTER 2: FINDING MENTORS
Learning to Recognize Resources with Karl Linn
A New Appreciation of the Natural World
Building Neighborhood Commons
A Social Agenda in Architecture
Discovering James Baldwin
Encountering Lewis Mumford
Igniting My Passion for Architectural History
Coming of Age in a Segregated City
CHAPTER 3: MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY
Gaining a Sense of Place
Joining the Civil Rights Movement
Poised on the Racial Divide
The Message of Malcolm X
Corresponding with James Baldwin
Uncovering the Hidden Narrative of Race
My Involvement in Civil Rights Struggles
Cultural and Political Inspirations
Michaux's Bookstore
Learning about Ancient Africa
Family Changes
Meeting Jean
Joining the Community Design Movement
Creating a Neighborhood Commons in Harlem
Partnering with Jean
Civil Rights in the News
Poised on the Racial Divide
CHAPTER 4: COLUMBIA ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL
Professors and Curriculum
From the Studio to the Streets
Experimental Professional Projects
My Experience at Columbia: A Mixed Bag
Political Leadership in Architecture
Wrapping Up at Columbia
Growing Interest in African Settlements
After Graduation, Next Steps
CHAPTER 5: JOURNEY TO WEST AFRICA
Starting the Journey
A Beginner's Mind
Our Itinerary
Community Participation in Building
Cities of the Middle Niger
A Dogon Village
Anthropomorphic Layout of Dogon Buildings
The Rainy Season in West Africa
Insights about African Architecture and Human Settlements
Reflections on Our African Travels
Return to the States
CHAPTER 6: DISCOVERING THE HIDDEN NARRATIVE OF RACE
The Place of Africans in Architectural History
Looking Back at Slavery Times
The Plantation as Precursor to Industrialization
African Contributions to American Architecture
Social Dimensions of Plantation Architecture
CHAPTER 7: TEACHING, RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Moving to Berkeley
Teaching at UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design
Influential Urban-Planning Theoreticians
Tracking Innovations in Architecture and Planning
Family Matters
Hosting James Baldwin for a Month
Attempting to Introduce New Course Material on the Landscape of Freedom
Professional Practice
From Architecture to City Planning
Deindustrialization and Plant Closure Conversions
Finding Meaning in Work
PART TWO: FINDING A NEW STORY
CHAPTER 8: MY SEARCH FOR A LARGER STORY
Planning the Berkeley Waterfront Redesign
Fragmentation of the African American Community
My Moment of Truth
Places for Peace
Toward a New Story for African Americans
Telling the Story of African Americans
CHAPTER 9: DEEP TIME, SLAVERY, AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Human History Begins in Africa
Ancient and Medieval African Cultures
Deconstructing Europe's Rise to Dominance
The Columbian Exchange and the Global Economy
Cities Shaped by the Atlantic Slave Trade
Slavery and the Modern Economic System
CHAPTER 10: THE LANDSCAPE OF FREEDOM
Abolition
Emancipation
The Hope of Reconstruction
New Methods of Forced Labor
The Black Agrarian Movement
The Great Migration
CHAPTER 11: THE CITY AT THE CROSSROADS
The Racialization of Space
Suburban Sprawl and Inner-city Abandonment
The Kerner Commission Report
A Demographic Shift
The Sustainability Revolution
PART THREE: SOLUTIONS
CHAPTER 12: FORGING A NEW ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS
Joining Earth Island Institute
Positioning People of Color in the Environmental Movement
Creating the Urban Habitat Program
Protecting Jobs and the Environment in West Berkeley
The Environmental Justice Movement
The Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal
Reaching Out to People-of-Color Communities
Understanding the Metropolitan Region
Transportation Justice
Military Base Conversions
Urban Habitat Leadership Institute
Revisiting Academia
Leaving Earth Island
Forming the Social Equity Caucus
Leaving Urban Habitat
A New Opportunity for Collaboration
Next Steps for the Urban Habitat Program
CHAPTER 13: LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR REGIONAL EQUITY
Recruited by the Ford Foundation
Back to New York
Ford Foundation's Change of Direction
The Need for a Smart and Equitable Regional Perspective
A Culture of Collaboration at Ford
Grantmaking for the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative (SMCI)
Philanthropic Organizations
Regional Equity Advocates
African Americans and Other Communities of Color
Regional Equity Demonstration Projects
Community Organizing Groups
Community Development Corporations (CDCs)
Organized Labor
Farm and School Alliance
Cities Facing Abandonment
Solidifying the Movement: Communications and the Learning Community
Urbanization as a Global Trend
Global Climate Change Comes Home
Concluding Thoughts
CHAPTER 14: PLANNING HEALTHY AND JUST COMMUNITIES FOR ALL IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING
Starting Breakthrough Communities
Next Steps
Organizing for Climate Justice in California
Political Opportunity, Mobilizing Structures, and Framing the Issues
Designing Healthy and Just Communities: the Six Wins Campaign
Ending Suburban Poverty
Community Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change
The Power of Cultural Work
Inspiring the Black Community
Concluding Thoughts
CONCLUSION: DISCOVERING NEW FOUNDATIONS FOR THE GREAT WORK OF OUR TIME
References
Endnotes"
Synopsis
Carl Anthony's memoir offers a new worldview to people of color. His work is both a personal story and an exposition of ideas that will appeal to those who appreciate thoughtful writing on issues of race, including individuals exploring their own identity and activists interested in democratizing power and advancing equitable policies for historically disenfranchised communities.
Anthony interweaves urban history, racial justice, and cosmology with his experiences as an architect, regional planner, environmentalist, and Black American. These include life as an African American child in post-World War II Philadelphia, a student and civil rights activist in 1960s Harlem, a traveling student of West African architecture, and a pioneering environmental justice advocate in Berkeley and New York.
This is a rich, insightful portrait of an American urbanist with a uniquely expansive perspective on human origins, who sets forth what he calls an "inclusive vision for a shared planetary future."
Carl C. Anthony is revered as a social justice leader and the founding director of Urban Habitat, one of the country's first environmental justice organizations, known for pushing the mainstream environmental movement to confront issues of race and class. With colleague Luke Cole, Anthony published and edited the seminal Race, Poverty and Environment Journal. He is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Initiative. Anthony has been president of Earth Island Institute, founded by David Brower, led the Ford Foundation's Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative, and served as a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of California, Berkeley.
Synopsis
This book by Carl C. Anthony offers a new story about race and place intended to bridge long-standing racial divides. The long-ignored history of African-American contributions to American infrastructure and the modern economic system is placed in the larger context of the birth of the universe and the evolution of humanity in Africa.
The author interweaves personal experiences as an architect/planner, environmentalist, and black American with urban history, racial justice, cosmology, and the challenge of healing the environmental and social damage that threatens the future of humankind. Thoughtful writing about race, urban planning, and environmental and social equity is sparked by stories of life as an African American child in post-World War II Philadelphia, a student and civil rights activist in 1960s Harlem, a traveling student of West African architecture and culture, and a pioneering environmental justice advocate in Berkeley and New York.
This book will appeal to everyone troubled by racism and searching for solutions, including individuals exploring their identity and activists eager to democratize power and advance equitable policies in historically marginalized communities. This is a rich, insightful encounter with an American urbanist with a uniquely expansive perspective on human origins, who sets forth what he calls an "inclusive vision for a shared planetary future."
Synopsis
Carl Anthony interweaves urban history, racial justice, and cosmology with personal experiences as an architect/planner, environmentalist, and Black American. By connecting the struggles for social and racial justice to the universe story, it creates new story for out time. In this work, Carl Anthony shares his perspectives as an African-American child in post-World War II Philadelphia; a student and civil rights activist in 1960s Harlem; a traveling student of West African architecture; and an architect, planner, and environmental justice advocate in Berkeley. He contextualizes this within American urbanism and human origins, making profoundly personal both African American and American urban histories as well as planetary origins and environmental issues, to not only bring a new worldview to people of color, but to set forth a truly inclusive vision of our shared planetary future. The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race connects the logics behind slavery, community disinvestment, and environmental exploitation to address the most pressing issues of our time in a cohesive and foundational manner. Most books dealing with these topics and periods silo issues apart from one another, but this book contextualizes the connections between social movements and issues, providing tremendous insight into successful movement building. Anthony's rich narrative describes both being at the mercy of racism, urban disinvestment, and environmental injustice as well as fighting against these forces with a variety of strategies. Because this work is both a personal memoir and an exposition of ideas, it will appeal to those who appreciate thoughtful and unique writing on issues of race, including individuals exploring their own African American identity, as well as progressive audiences of organizations and community leaders and professionals interested in democratizing power and advancing equitable policies for low-income communities and historically disenfranchised communities.