Black on the Block

In her award-winning and critically acclaimedBlack Picket Fences, Mary PattilloaNewsweekWoman of the 21st Centuryforever changed the way we think of the black middle class in America today. WithBlack on the Block, Pattillo returns with an equally revealing and soon-to-be influential account of conflict, cooperation, and community building among blacks on Chicago's South Side. Here Pattillo uses the historic rise, alarming fall, and equally dramatic renewal of the city's North KenwoodOakland neighborhood to explore the politics of race and class in contemporary urban America. There was a time when North KenwoodOakland was plagued by gangs, drugs, violence, and the font of poverty from which they sprang. But in the late 1980s, a cadre of activists rose up to tackle the social problems that had plagued the area for decades.Black on the Blocktells the remarkable story of how these residents laid the groundwork for a revitalized and self-consciouslyblackneighborhood that continues to flourish today. But theirs is not a tale of easy consensus and political unity, and here Pattillo teases out the divergent class interests that have come to define black communities like North KenwoodOakland.Black on the Blockexplores the often heated battles between haves and have-nots, home owners and apartment dwellers, and newcomers and old-timers as they clash over the social implications of gentrification. Along the way, Pattillo highlights the conflicted but crucial role that middle-class blacks play in transforming such districts as they negotiate between established centers of white economic and political power and the needs of their less fortunate black neighbors. Ultimately,Black on the Blockargues that while these fissures have come to define the black community, the reality is that many African Americans choose participation over abdication and involvement over withdrawaleven when disagreements become bitter and acrimonious.

Mary Pattillo is professor of sociology and African American studies at Northwestern University.