|
The Newberry Library Labor History Seminar is co-sponsored by the Chicago and Urbana campuses of the University of Illinois
American Babylon: Race and Power in Postwar Oakland and the East Bay
Robert Self,
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
February 21, 2003 3:00-5:00 PM
In the decade between the end of World War II and the middle 1950s, a fundamental question confronted urban Americans. How would the class cleavages that had divided the nation in the 1930s be resolved, and would trade unionism remain an instrument of working-class mobility? For African Americans, there was an additional question. Could New Deal liberalism be expanded to encompass racial equality, including in the economic realm? The resolution of these basic issues would shape the terrain of urban politics for a generation. This paper, a chapter in a larger manuscript on race and class in postwar Oakland, follows the rise and fall of a liberal coalition, highlighting both its potential and its debilitating contradictions.
We will pre-circulate papers (electronically whenever possible) to those planning to attend. If you cannot attend and want to read a paper, please contact the author directly. E-mail or call to receive a copy of the papers. Please include your e-mail address in all correspondence.
The full schedule for this and other Scholl Center seminars is available at
our website.
| 
