Race and Place in Birmingham: The Civil Rights and Neighborhood Movements

This pioneering book explores the implications of postmodernism for the black community through an analysis of the civil rights and neighborhood movements in Birmingham. Grounded not only in class struggle, the Civil Rights Movement was tied to the politics of racial identity, the neighborhood movement to the politics of place identity. Bobby M. Wilson critically examines these two movements, which together transformed race and place in Birmingham. He shows that although the civil rights struggle and neighborhood empowerment served a valuable purpose, they cannot now overcome post-Fordist forces of domination and exclusion. Successful political movements, the author argues, must venture beyond the politics of identity and difference based on race and neighborhood.

This pioneering book explores the implications of postmodernism for the black community through an analysis of the civil rights and neighborhood movements in Birmingham, Alabama. Grounded not only in class struggle, the Civil Rights Movement was tied to the politics of racial identity, the neighborhood movement to the politics of place identity. Bobby M. Wilson critically examines these two movements, which together transformed race and place in Birmingham. He shows that although the civil rights struggle and neighborhood empowerment served a valuable purpose, they cannot now overcome post-Fordist forces of domination and exclusion. Successful political movements, the author argues, must venture beyond the politics of identity and difference based on race and neighborhood.

Bobby M. Wilson is associate professor of geography and public affairs, University of Alabama at Birmingham.