Janet L. Abu-Lughod. Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and . New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. xiv + 344 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-532875-2.

Reviewed by Colin Fisher

Published on H-Urban (March, 2008)

Just in time for the fortieth anniversary of the result is an intricate and fascinating tapestry, al‐ Kerner Commission Report, Janet Abu-Lughod, a beit one with some pattern imperfections. luminary in the feld of urban sociology, has pub‐ Abu-Lughod views race riots in these three lished a compelling comparative analysis of twen‐ cities as politics by other means, as moments tieth-century race riots in the nation's three when people with legitimate complaints come largest cities. In Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, into confict with the dominant power structure. New York, and Los Angeles, she argues that socio‐ As such, local political culture (including the rela‐ logical and historical works on race riots in the tionship between minority communities and po‐ United States have either been so broad that they lice), intensity of spatial segregation, demography, fail to account for distinctive local spatial, histori‐ and economics play crucial roles in the size, cal, and political forces or they have been so nar‐ length, and violence of race riots. She concludes row that one cannot draw larger generalizations. that while all three cities have seen signifcant In contrast, she pursues a mid-range study, com‐ racial tension and violence, New York, overall, has paring six diferent race riots in three diferent seen less intense race riots. cities. Her method allows her to address national In her section on Chicago, Abu-Lughod tells and international historical context while simul‐ the familiar story of the 1919 race riot, which was taneously examining site-specifc features of the sparked when a white rock thrower hit and three cities under consideration. drowned Eugene Williams, an African American Comparisons of race riots (which are confus‐ boy who was swimming in Lake Michigan. As ing, nonlinear events in and of themselves) across with all of the riots examined, deeper issues were time and space make for a complicated narrative, at stake, notably in this case a power struggle be‐ but Abu-Lughod shuttles adeptly from city to city tween and ethnic whites over and backwards and forwards through time. The politics, housing, and especially employment. She notes that following the riot, the boundaries be‐ H-Net Reviews tween white and black Chicago hardened as the lation, unemployment, and lack of opportunity. city pursued an "Atlanta Solution," cordoning of She tells the story of how, during and after World black ghettos on the South and later the West War II, large numbers of African American mi‐ Sides. After World War II, these two ghettos ex‐ grants moved into South Central and especially panded into areas formerly occupied by ethnic the poorer Watts neighborhood. By 1960, these whites and also grew denser, due to all-black pub‐ neighborhoods merged, resulting in a nearly lic housing projects built during the 1950s and forty-square- mile suburban black ghetto with early 1960s. few jobs, poor mass transit, limited highway ac‐ The failure of the civil rights struggle to cess, inadequate schools, repressive police, and, change segregation in Chicago housing and unlike Chicago, little public housing. Abu-Lughod schooling and the assassination of Martin Luther argues that Los Angeles' failure to address long‐ King in 1968 gave rise to a second large-scale riot, standing black grievances (coupled with the 1964 this time on the poorer West Side. Abu-Lughod ar‐ passage of Proposition 14, which overturned the gues that unlike the response to an earlier 1966 Rumford Fair Housing Act) set the scene for the Puerto Rican riot in Humboldt Park and unlike massive 1965 Watts riot. even the response to student radicals at the 1968 Abu-Lughod contends that, like Chicago, Los Democratic National Convention, Mayor Richard Angeles failed to address legitimate black griev‐ J. Daley took a draconian approach to black civil ances. Despite the election of a black mayor (Tom unrest, notoriously ordering police to kill arson‐ Bradley), Los Angeles never pursued even the ists and maim looters. very modest reforms suggested by the McCone Re‐ Abu-Lughod holds that despite greater mobili‐ port, the ofcial post mortem issued following the ty for some middle-class African Americans and Watts riot. In particular, Los Angeles never re‐ despite the promise of Harold Washington's ten‐ formed its police department. As such, the beating ure (1983-87) as mayor, little changed in terms of of Rodney King and the later verdict absolving the the city's racial/spatial divide. The 1968 riots en‐ police ofcers involved suggest clear continuity abled the city to reclaim land on the near West between 1964 and 1992. But Abu-Lughod cautions Side (closer to the downtown), spurred the police us to pay careful attention to dramatic changes to develop more efective riot suppression tech‐ that occurred in South Central during the last part niques, and fueled white fight, which enabled the of the twentieth century. After the Watts riot, West Side ghetto to grow westward to the city many whites and middle-class blacks moved out line. Instead of addressing the roots of black ur‐ of the area, only to be replaced by large numbers ban unrest (unemployment, lack of educational of impoverished immigrants from Mexico and opportunities, the ongoing spatial and psychologi‐ Central America. As a result, South Central grew cal rift between the races), the city has opted to denser, poorer, and much more Latino. In 1965, destroy public housing projects without providing South Central was 81 percent African American, adequate amounts of compensatory housing, but by 1992, blacks made up only 45 percent of thereby forcing many poor African Americans out the population and Latinos were in the majority. of the region. At the same time, the city has sent Unlike in 1964, African Americans and Latinos large numbers of young black men into yet anoth‐ jointly participated in the 1992 riot, and both er sort of racial quarantine: the prison system. groups were arrested in roughly equal numbers. Participants from both groups did not loot the Los Angeles, Abu-Lughod contends, has an stores of Jewish merchants (as during the Watts equally sad track record when it comes to ad‐ dressing African American alienation, spatial iso‐

2 H-Net Reviews riot), but the shops of Koreans and Korean Ameri‐ Despite a well-organized African American cans. political leadership, a relatively responsive city Abu-Lughod maintains that in the wake of the government, and the erection of abundant public 1992 uprising, the city again did little to address housing open to all, New York, Abu-Lughod con‐ systemic problems or restore burned-out neigh‐ cedes, did sufer one major riot during the 1960s, borhoods. Meanwhile, the poor black community the Harlem/ Bedford-Stuyvesant riot of 1964. The had to contend with relative loss of political pow‐ riot started after a plain-clothes police ofcer shot er, the ill efects of economic globalization, in‐ a black high school student, but the deeper cause creasing competition with new immigrants for ex‐ was anger at systematic police brutality as well as isting jobs, and a justice system overeager to in‐ frustration with the continued legacy of racial in‐ carcerate black men. Los Angeles, she suggests, re‐ equality and the slow pace of change nationwide. mains a powder keg. For her, the only light at the The heavy-handed response by the police as well end of the tunnel was the 2005 election of Mayor as the absence of Mayor Robert Wagner, Con‐ Antonio Villaraigosa and the new black and Lati‐ gressman Adam Clayton Powell, and Governor no political coalition, although she notes the al‐ Nelson Rockefeller made matters worse. The riot liance is fragile and will continue to be tested by lasted for six days. the issue of immigrant rights. After John Lindsay replaced Wagner as mayor Abu-Lughod argues that New York is an aber‐ in 1966, New York seemingly returned to its old ration. In contrast to Chicago and Los Angeles, ways. Lindsay implemented a civilian review New York, with its less intense spatial segregation board for the police, and after Martin Luther in housing, more ethnically varied black popula‐ King's assassination in 1968, he walked the streets tion, accessible mass transit system, abundance of of black neighborhoods ofering condolences, all public spaces, and greater tolerance for diversity, the while criticizing Mayor Daley's heavy-handed fostered a unique "political culture" far more re‐ approach toward African American rioters in sponsive to African American grievances. This Chicago. As a result, Abu-Lughod suggests, New can be seen in the short-lived Harlem riots of 1935 York was one of the few major cities that did not and 1943. Unlike in Chicago and Los Angeles, the see large-scale rioting in 1968. Nor did the city see mayor of New York, , actually rioting after the Rodney King verdict in 1992. responded to black complaints. After the 1935 Abu-Lughod does not argue that New York is riot, La Guardia convened an interracial commit‐ a racial utopia--far from it. Throughout New tee and actually followed through on some of the York's history and up to the present, there have committee's suggestions. Following the 1943 riot, been serious provocations, most recently the La Guardia intervened quickly, deployed police, shooting deaths by police of Ahmadou Diallo, fre, and medical resources skillfully, secured the Patrick Dorismond, and Sean Bell. But these and riot zone, provided food, utilized black volun‐ other incidents, she maintains, have not resulted teers, and reached out to the black community in riots, because most African Americans in New through the medium of radio. La Guardia also re‐ York feel that they can efectively pursue their po‐ sponded to complaints about housing discrimina‐ litical objectives by organizing, marching, boy‐ tion in a tight rental market by instituting rent cotting, and pursuing traditional electoral politics. control and promising to build more public hous‐ With the one exception of 1964, African Ameri‐ ing on a nondiscriminatory basis. Both riots came cans in New York have not had to resort to wide‐ to a quick end. spread rioting to express themselves politically.

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In her conclusion, Abu-Lughod, in efect, re‐ uation in the South Bronx throughout that decade. fnes, deepens, and updates the Kerner Commis‐ In addition, I would have liked her to better sion's 1968 fndings. She notes that the black pop‐ square her assertions about New York's respon‐ ulation is now divided. Many African Americans sive political culture with some of the realities of have benefted substantially from the civil rights Rudolph Giuliani's tenure as mayor. movement and are moving ahead educationally I also thought her spatial analysis could go and economically. But there are many others who farther. While she does an excellent job examin‐ are trapped in "hyper ghettos" characterized by ing the shifting boundaries of ghettos and the use spatial isolation, anomie, high rates of incarcera‐ of highways, railroad tracks, public housing tion, eroded government social programs, and un‐ projects, and other structures to isolate African employment and poverty due to the efects of American communities, she does not address fun‐ globalization (p. 286). "The virtuous cycle," she damental diferences in topography and its efect writes, "is working only incompletely, and only on the scope of race rioting. Chicago, Los Angeles, for those who have escaped the intensifying vi‐ and New York were built, respectively, on a cious cycle" (p. 290). She makes a passionate case prairie, in a basin, and on an archipelago, and for investing not in prisons (the most expensive these three diferent environmental foundations and least productive "solution" to the problem of have clearly shaped urban unrest. In 1943, for in‐ urban unrest), but in education, jobs, hospitals, stance, steep clifs, the Harlem River, and the and transportation. Drawing on her own analysis northern border of Central Park undoubtedly con‐ of New York, she also calls for "more open and tained rioting and made the task of securing the representative government structures" that can area far easier than in a relatively unimpeded "nurture productive and shifting coalitions" (p. space, such as South Central Los Angeles or the 295). South Side of Chicago. In Race, Space, and Riots, Abu-Lughod adroit‐ While I am not convinced that New York is ly synthesizes enormous amounts of historical aberrant because of a more open and responsive data from the three cities in question, and her political culture, Abu-Lughod does make her case comparative method is illuminating. But in mak‐ that local demographic patterns, economic condi‐ ing her case for New York's exceptional record on tions, spatial organization, and political culture rioting, she sometimes downplays or ignores im‐ play an important role in the violence, size, and portant complicating evidence. For instance, duration of riots. I also wholeheartedly agree with while quick to point out the early existence of her timely call for more federal aid to education, racism in nineteenth-century Chicago, she paints transportation, health, and jobs programs in Dutch and English New York as surprisingly liber‐ cities. Unfortunately, with an economic downturn al. While she notes the existence of slavery, she looming and little manifest political will to ad‐ does not mention incidents such as the European dress the concerns of the urban poor, we may American response to the Revolt of 1712 or wide‐ very well see Abu-Lughod's thesis tested in the spread black persecution following suspicion of years to come. insurrection in 1741. And while she does address the Draft Riot of 1863, she unconvincingly down‐ plays its racial signifcance. In her analysis of more recent New York his‐ tory, I would have liked her to address the looting and arson following the 1977 blackout and the sit‐

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Citation: Colin Fisher. Review of Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. March, 2008.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14255

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