During the Roaring '20s, African Americans rapidly transformed their
Chicago into a "black metropolis." In this book, Christopher Robert Reed
describes the rise of African Americans in Chicago's political economy,
bringing to life the fleeting vibrancy of this dynamic period of racial
consciousness and solidarity. Reed shows how African Americans rapidly
transformed Chicago and achieved political and economic recognition by
building on the massive population growth after the Great Migration from
the South, the entry of a significant working class into the city's
industrial work force, and the proliferation of black churches. Mapping
out the labor issues and the struggle for control of black politics and
black business, Reed offers an unromanticized view of the
entrepreneurial efforts of black migrants, reassessing previous accounts
such as St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's 1945 study Black
Metropolis. Utilizing a wide range of historical data, The Rise of
Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1920-1929 delineates a web of dynamic
social forces to shed light on black businesses and the establishment of
a black professional class. The exquisitely researched volume draws on
fictional and nonfictional accounts of the era, black community guides,
mainstream and community newspapers, contemporary scholars and
activists, and personal interviews.