To Place Our Deeds – The African–American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963 (George Gund Foundation Book in African American Studies) - Hardcover

Moore, Shirley A W

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520215656 ISBN 13: 9780520215658

Publisher: University of California Press, 2000

Synopsis

"To Place Our Deeds" traces the development of the African American community in Richmond, California, a city on the San Francisco Bay. This readable, extremely well-researched social history, based on numerous oral histories, newspapers, and archival collections, is the first to examine the historical development of one black working-class community over a fifty-year period. Offering a gritty and engaging view of daily life in Richmond, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore examines the process and effect of migration, the rise of a black urban industrial workforce, and the dynamics of community development. She describes the culture that migrants brought with them - including music, food, religion, and sports - and shows how these traditions were adapted to new circumstances.Working-class African Americans in Richmond used their cultural venues - especially the city's legendary blues clubs - as staging grounds from which to challenge the racial status quo, with a steadfast determination not to be 'Jim Crowed' in the Golden State. As this important work shows, working-class African Americans often stood at the forefront of the struggle for equality and were linked to larger political, social, and cultural currents that transformed the nation in the postwar period.

About this title

Review:

"The great virtue of Moore's work is its concentration on the effects of broad national and international developments on the everyday lives and times of ordinary people. Her analysis is both an important piece of social history and a point of departure for future studies of how African American communities respond to the new realities of the post-industrial era."--Charles Wollenberg, CALIFORNIA HISTORY

About the Author:

Shirley Ann Wilson Moore is Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0520215656
• ISBN 13: 9780520215658
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246