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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Community Consumed: Sunbelt Capitalism, A Praxis For Community Control, And The (dis) Integration Of Civic Life In Maryvale, Arizona Anthony Charles Pratcher Ii University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Public Policy Commons, United States History Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Pratcher Ii, Anthony Charles, "Community Consumed: Sunbelt Capitalism, A Praxis For Community Control, And The (dis) Integration Of Civic Life In Maryvale, Arizona" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2536. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2536 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2536 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Community Consumed: Sunbelt Capitalism, A Praxis For Community Control, And The (dis) Integration Of Civic Life In Maryvale, Arizona Abstract Civic activists have worked to embed community institutions in the Phoenix area from the time of initial Anglo settlement in the Salt River valley. Civic elites sought to monopolize control over regional development via municipal governance in the period after the Second World War. This dissertation places qualitative sources on community life in conversation with quantitative sources on political economy to explain how civic elites, as manifest in the civic organization of Charter government, worked with suburban activists to maintain spatial racialization in Phoenix. This process reveals that the socio- political value of civic life has waned in metropolitan Phoenix after the political ascent of Charter government. The outcome of this change is that marginalized Anglo communities like Maryvale, the first master-planned community built in Phoenix after World War II, were consumed by racial transition once local civic activists lost control over neighborhood economies. John F. Long began to construct Maryvale atop cotton and cantaloupe fields on the rural periphery of metropolitan Phoenix in the mid-fifties. The sweat equity of civic participation helped Long provide residents with access to affordable community amenities. He hoped that annexation into Phoenix would benefit Maryvale, but continued political marginalization hindered local efforts to provide civic services, like community healthcare, without burdensome debt. Soon, political engagement declined and outside investors acquired operational ownership of civic institutions; moreover, the social capital which traditionally remunerated civic activity declined in value as racial minorities challenged Anglo hegemony over local civic life. By the late seventies, when racial tensions among local youth boiled over into overt violence, civic leaders lacked the social capital to ameliorate racial conflict, and Anglos abdicated civic authority to law enforcement to pacify hostilities. This shift in community praxis, from civic participation to private consumption, transformed local patterns of racial integration into regional patterns of social segregation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Mary F. Berry Keywords Community, Metropolitan Studies, Phoenix, Racial Integration, Sunbelt, Urban Policy Subject Categories Public Policy | United States History | Urban Studies and Planning This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2536 COMMUNITY CONSUMED: SUNBELT CAPITALISM, A PRAXIS FOR COMMUNITY CONTROL, AND THE (DIS)INTEGRATION OF CIVIC LIFE IN MARYVALE, ARIZONA Anthony Charles Pratcher II A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Mary Frances Berry Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought, Professor of History Peter Holquist, Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Eiichiro Azuma, Alan Charles Kors Term Associate Professor of History N.B.D. Connolly, Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University Thomas J. Sugrue, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, History; Director, American Studies, New York University COMMUNITY CONSUMED: SUNBELT CAPITALISM, A PRAXIS FOR COMMUNITY FORMATION, AND THE (DIS)INTEGRATION OF CIVIC LIFE IN MARYVALE, ARIZONA COPYRIGHT 2017 Anthony Charles Pratcher II This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License iii For my parents, from your son iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT Before entering graduate school, I was told that dissertation deposit is like the sprint at the end of a marathon. I hoped that might be able to avoid the sprint if I deposited my dissertation in summer—a false hope if there ever was one. So here I am, with days left ‘til deposit, looking to finish my acknowledgements for a project my lifetime has been spent making. I must begin by thanking the supreme power in the universe for setting me down this path. My initial understanding of institutional life came from childhood experiences at Prayer Assembly COGIC, Azusa World Ministries, and Word of Abundant Life Christian Center. My time at these churches provided me with a facsimile of Black liturgical traditions my parents learned in our familial home of Memphis, TN. Additionally, there were numerous families, including the Harris family, the Liggins family, the Mitchell family, the Parris family, the Smith family, the Spell family, and the Teasley family, who helped ensconce me in a community of black Phoenicians. My teachers in Glendale Elementary School District, particularly Mrs. Nancy Pape, Mrs. Cheryl Thomas, and Mrs. Kitty Kazcmarek helped instill a life-long love of learning in me. Also, the Black Theatre Troupe helped me learn to express myself creatively and Khalid’s Martial Arts Academy helped me learn to defend myself physically. My early childhood was far from halcyon, as the Bicentennial neighborhood of Glendale could be caustic and cruel, but my family and friends introduced me to institutional actors with the ability to help navigate such an environment. My adolescence, spent in the Deer Valley Unified School District, was far more fraught. I was spatially separated from the community which helped nurture me and underperformed both socially and academically until I came under the tutelage of Mrs. Kellie Allen, Ms. Beth Eyres, and Coach Eric Bolus. Additionally, my colleagues in the Honors/AP curriculum and my teammates in the Basketball, Track, and Academic Decathlon programs provided the camaraderie necessary to make high school palatable. Their support helped me earn a chance to attend Howard University. The History Department at Howard University, particularly professors Ana Lucia Araujo, Margaret Crosby-Arnold, Jeffery Kerr-Ritchie, and Daryl Scott, helped encouraged me to pursue an academic career. The initial labor for this dissertation began in their research seminars. Shem v Franklin, Misty Major, Devin Parrish, Jarrid Reed, and Brian Roberts, among other students, helped develop my racial consciousness and helped refine my personal politics in preparation for professional life. My educational experience at Howard helped provide me with the confidence to enter a graduate program immediately after my undergraduate program. I was blessed that I entered Penn with a cohort of intellectually curious colleagues. Cameron Brickhouse, Alexis Broderick-Neumann, Sam Casper, Katie Hickerson, Sheng Mao, Salar Mohandesi, Claire Pogue-Kaiser, Alex Ponsen, Kathryn Taylor, and C. Luke Victor, among others, helped make my first year uniquely pleasant. Senior student cohorts, including Abby Cooper, Lori Dagger, Jeremy Dell, Elizabeth Della Zazzera, Jack Dwiggins, Anne Fleming, Julius Fleming, Rachel Guberman, Clemmie Harris, Dani Holtz, Matt Kruer, Hope McGrath, Justin Simard, Maryan Soliman, Annie Schatz, Khadijah White, and Noor Zaidi helped me navigate the transition to Penn. As I prepared for my comprehensive exams, Robert Hegwood, Yakov Feygin, Dan Fryer, Smita Ghosh, Janine Knedlik, Colin McGrath, Rasul Miller, Zach Mondesire, Nichole Nelson, Kelsey Rice, Courtney Ring, Jim Ryan, Celina de Sá, Natalie Shibley, Iulliia Skubytska, Holly Stephens, Camille Suarez, and Kevin Waite gave me energy to push through. Ema Yamamoto taught me more than just ArcGIS; her valuable lessons remain with me. Colleagues in the Race and Space in Africana Studies NEH/ODH Institute refined my discourse in later years. My experience with colleagues at the Penn Africana Summer Institute, the Penn SASgov, and the Penn Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) helped me learn the value of advocacy. I especially appreciate Shereen Chang, Katherine France, Leslie Jones, Nikhil Joshi, Namrata Mahadev, Vera Mucaj, Scott Ordway, Gabe Sessions, Justine Sefcik, Anna Stern, Rebbeca Tesfai, Akeesha Washington, James Wiley, Omari Weekes, and Andy Wu for aiding my efforts in student service. I was fortunate to have the support of numerous faculty and administrators, including Andrew Binns, Val Cade, Teya Campbell, Camille Charles, Gale Garrison, Rev. William Gipson, Hikaru Kozuma, Anita Mastroieni, Angela Reason, Barbara Savage, and Eve Troutt-Powell, as I balanced academic responsibilities with institutional service. The faculty and staff at the Penn History Department proved indispensable. Octavia Carr, Yvonne