Mary Pattillo Marcus Hunter Northwestern University
This dissertation project, a historical ethnographic revisit of W.E.B. DuBois' The Philadelphia Negro (1899 [1996]), examines the socio-political and cultural factors that gave rise to racial and socioeconomic change in Philadelphia generally and specifically the 7th Ward, DuBois' primary field site. Using the 7th Ward -- one of the oldest black urban neighborhoods and first neighborhood of any kind to be studied extensively by an American sociologist -- as a case study, this study focuses on answering the following question: How did the heterogeneity and residential decisions of blacks in Philadelphia affect neighborhood change and patterns of within-city migration from 1880 to 2000? While many scholars have focused on national economic trends and policy decisions, this research focuses on what black people were saying to each other and the decisions amongst themselves as central to an understanding of urban neighborhood change. Furthermore, while other studies consider one historical period of urban change in a city, this research charts the effects of the black migration north and internal divisions within Philadelphia?s black community and patterns of within-city migration on neighborhood change over many historical periods. To uncover the effects of the heterogeneity and residential practices of blacks on neighborhood change, this research studies the socio-political history of the 7th Ward between two empirically driven time points derived from census data and urban sociological literature: 1880, which marks the prominence of the 7th Ward as a black residential neighborhood and begins a period of increased in-migration rise of southern black migrants to Philadelphia and immediately precedes DuBois' study, and 2000, which marks the disappearance of black residents and follows the publication of the centennial edition of The Philadelphia Negro (1996). The project uses archival data (e.g. census data, local newspapers, institutional records, city and neighborhood maps, church records and oral histories) and secondary data located in Philadelphia, Pa and Washington D.C.
Broader Impacts: This research sheds light on the lasting and latent effects of black migration both into and within Philadelphia and cities of the like. While latent and lasting effects of social phenomena, particularly those involving mass movement, are often opaque and difficult to track, this research helps to clarify these effects and their implications for the current and future spatial mobility of urban blacks. Highlighting the impact of black migratory patterns and intra-racial divisions this research promises to yield information pertinent to contemporary spatial patterns and urban changes. This study will also be instructive for understanding the potential effects of contemporary migration south by urban blacks.
