Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. First Edition 1945

St. Clair Drake Horace Cayton

First Edition

[African American] St.Clair Drake and Horace Cayton. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York, 1945. First edition. 809 pages. Landmark sociological analysis of Black life in Chicago's South Side from the 1840s-1930s. With introduction by Richard Wright. 8.5" x 6." The term "Black Metropolis" describes African-American enclaves consisting mainly of professionals, business owners, and a large working class of laborers. These spaces emerged in large industrial areas during interwar years, mostly in the Midwest. To conduct research for this text, Drake and Cayton collaborated with field workers from the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency. Drake was an acclaimed social scientist and one of only 9 Black anthropologists before WWII. He dedicated his life's scholarship to the eradication of racial inequality. This monumental book offers a comprehensive look at Black settlement and community structure, along with an ethnographic study of race relations during the first half of the twentieth century. In the introduction, Richard Wright stresses the importance of the work: "Black Metropolis is a scientific report upon the state of unrest, longing, [and] hope among urban Negroes." Very good condition.

Item #18818

Price: $450.00