Economic Conditions in the United States, United States - Ethnic & Race Relations, New York City - History, Regional Studies - Northeast & Middle Atlantic U.S., Social Classes - General & Miscellaneous, African Americans - Social Conditions

A Covenant with Color

Name: A Covenant with Color
Author: Craig Steven Wilder
ISBN: 9780231119061

by Wilder, Craig Steven

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Overview

Spanning three centuries of Brooklyn history from the colonial period to the present, A Covenant with Color exposes the intricate relations of dominance and subordination that have long characterized the relative social positions of white and black Brooklynites. Craig Steven Wilder -examining both quantitative and qualitative evidence and utilizing cutting-edge literature on race theory -demonstrates how ideas of race were born, how they evolved, and how they were carried forth into contemporary society.
In charting the social history of one of the nation´s oldest urban locales, Wilder contends that power relations -in all their complexity -are the starting point for understanding Brooklyn´s turbulent racial dynamics. He spells out the workings of power -its manipulation of resources, whether in the form of unfree labor, privileges of citizenship, better jobs, housing, government aid, or access to skilled trades. Wilder deploys an extraordinary spectrum of evidence to illustrate the mechanics of power that have kept African American Brooklynites in subordinate positions: from letters and diaries to family papers of Kings County´s slaveholders, from tax records to the public archives of the Home Owners Loan Corporation.
Wilder illustrates his points through a variety of cases, including banking interests, the rise of Kings County´s colonial elite, industrialization and slavery, race-based distribution of federal money in jobs, and mortgage loans during and after the Depression. He delves into the evolution of the Brooklyn ghetto, tracing how housing segregation corralled African Americans in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The book explores colonial enslavement, the rise of Jim Crow, labor discrimination and union exclusion, and educational inequality. Throughout, Wilder uses Brooklyn as a lens through which to view larger issues of race and power on a national level.
One of the few recent attempts to provide a comprehensive history of race relations in an American city, A Covenant with Color is a major contribution to urban history and the history of race and class in America.

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Editorials

American Historical Review

A major contribution to the history of race . . . Wilder's stylish and inventive book stands out.

Choice

Readers, casual students and scholars alike will surely benefit from his compilation of sources and his well-articulated interpretation of the power of race in shaping social and economic conditions in Brooklyn over three centuries.

Clarence Taylor

Craig Steven Wilder's A Covenant of Color is one of the best books to date examining the relationship between race and class and their evolution over time in New York City. Its major theme of how racism and white privilege were used to subordinate and keep blacks in the lowest political, social and economic position over time is persuasively argued from the first to the last chapter.

Journal of Social History

While a few scholars have tackled elements of Brooklyn's demographic tensions, none has attempted to survey four centuries of urban history with the depth accomplished by Wilder. . . . Fills a real gap in the social history of American cities. . . Appealing for its deft interweaving of personal with broadly demographic data and for Wilder's unusually compelling narrative style.

Booknews

A social history, from the 1630s to the present, of Brooklyn, contending that power relations are the best starting point for reaching an understanding of the area's turbulent racial dynamics. Wilder (history, Williams College) draws on letters, diaries, records of black-owned businesses, and public archives of the Home Owners Loan Corporation to show how slavery rooted the system which still effects the conditions in the Brooklyn Ghettos today. Specifics include looks at relations with the Irish, Jim Crow, the Bourgeois, labor segmentation and exclusion, and the effects of the New Deal. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)