Better Lives, Broken Promises and the Struggle for Equality

Lessons from the Black Migration to Saginaw, Michigan
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-74841-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 353, 226 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies in Critical Social Sciences

Through a case study, this ethno-historical analysis uses the oral histories of three generations of African American migrants to Saginaw, Michigan to show how social processes within the African American community changed in response to the local race-based opportunity structure. This study focuses on the black migration to this northern industrial community that occurred in two waves between 1915 and 1960 and argues that different levels of expectations informed how each wave responded to the local social structure and the resulting demands for change.
What will be made clear is that the social landscape for African Americans coming north at the start of the second half of the last century changed drastically, based upon a foundation laid by the migrants arriving in the first half of the twentieth century. This book suggests that the earlier cohort served to fill the social spaces created by the pre-1915 migrants and learned how to ‘get by’ in a society that offered few real opportunities for its Black citizens. The second wave arrived after World War II into a society that promised more, even as it failed to deliver, and demands for social justice became louder. This book details the impact of each wave through interviews and secondary data. Then it locates the origins of an activist black church and middle-class demands in the changes to material conditions of the city’s Black residents and hence, cultural change over time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McKether, Willie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtswissenschaft: Theorie und Methoden
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen

Über Autor(innen)

Willie L. McKether (2005), The University of Toledo, is a Professor of Anthropology at The University of Toledo. He has published monographs and articles on the Black Migration to Saginaw, Methods in Social Science Research, and a book chapter on global business.