In Search of The Philadelphia Negro: Black Philadelphia and Urban Change (1900--2000)

摘要

While much of urban scholarship has focused on cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, this research attempts to develop and challenge current theories of neighborhood change with a sharp focus on a less-studied metropolis---Philadelphia. Whereas existing theories and explanations of urban and neighborhood change emphasize the role of exogenous, or extra-neighborhood factors (i.e. local/national political regimes, local/national economies, suburbanization, and urban renewal) this research seeks to challenge and supplement these analyses and theories by highlighting the role that black residents and urban black neighborhoods play on patterns of urban development and the racial geography of the city. Employing W.E.B. DuBois's keen observations and findings, provided in The Philadelphia Negro, as its empirical and intellectual springboard, this dissertation is a historical ethnographic revisit examining patterns of urban change in Philadelphia from 1900-2000 with a focus on the 7 th Ward neighborhood---the historic black neighborhood upon which DuBois based his study. Drawing from a combination of census and archival data (i.e. newspapers, institutional and organization records, personal letters, and oral histories) and personally and previously taken photographs, In this dissertation I focus on the following question: How did the heterogeneity, actions, and attitudes of black Philadelphians affect patterns of urban and neighborhood change? To this end, I examine the social, cultural and political history of the black 7th Ward during the 20th century, in order to understand and analyze the role that black residents and black neighborhoods play in local politics, patterns of within-city migration, and patterns of urban and neighborhood change. Centering the importance and impact of black agency over time, this dissertation offers a new conceptual model of urban change, referred to as the urban black agency perspective, to examine, understand, and explain patterns of neighborhood and urban change predicated on the impact of urban black agency and the significant ties and interdependence amongst urban black neighborhoods and residents.