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The Promised Land BOOK REVIEW BY CHARLES GERENA The Promised Land ou may not have heard of Soul but the slave-owner. Not the share- City, a residential commu- cropper, but the landowner. Not the Ynity developed by lawyer and employee, but the capital owner.” civil rights activist Floyd McKissick Providing some context for the in rural Warren County, N.C., in the creation of Soul City, Healy’s book late 1970s. But much has been said delves into the details of McKissick’s about it, including in a 2016 documen- life, from his early involvement in the tary, countless articles in local and civil rights movement to his leader- national press, and in several schol- ship of the Congress of Racial Equality. arly papers. It was also the subject of For example, why did McKissick locate an article in this magazine (see “Doing Soul City in Warren County? While the Development Differently,” Econ Focus, county was declining, it was within a SOUL CITY: RACE, EQUALITY, AND Third Quarter 2017). region of North Carolina where indus- THE LOST DREAM OF AN AMERICAN Soul City: Race, Equality, and the tries like textiles and technology were UTOPIA Lost Dream of an American Utopia, a growing and there was access to major by Thomas Healy, New York: Metropolitan new book by Thomas Healy, presents highways and airports. Books, 2021, 448 pages fresh insights on the history of this Also, why put so much effort into unique experiment in economic devel- building Soul City in the middle of opment. Healy teaches constitutional a former plantation, when so many during the civil rights movement shifted law at Seton Hall University and was black communities in urban areas were efforts toward empowering blacks to a reporter for the Raleigh, N.C.-based suffering? “McKissick had an answer to control their own destinies, especially News & Observer; the paper’s coverage this question, too,” writes Healy. “In his economically. McKissick recruited a of Soul City in 1975 helped seal its fate mind, there were psychological benefits leading black architectural firm to over- four years later. to building something new, benefits that see Soul City’s design, while Howard Soul City had broad support when could spark the kind of creative, uncon- University offered its support. McKissick unveiled his concept for a ventional thinking that had inspired the The book also explores the realiza- self-sustaining community developed civil rights movement itself.” tion that a new way of organizing cities by blacks at a press conference in 1969, Healy goes beyond previous accounts was needed. After blacks migrated but it also had its detractors from all of Soul City, filling in some of the from the oppression of the South to sides of the rhetorical spectrum. Some historical backdrop with a variety of northern cities like Baltimore, Detroit, white residents of Warren County were characters — from Gordon Carey, a and New York, they often found them- fearful of creating a community where social justice activist and fledgling selves mired in economic hardship. black Southerners who had migrated anarchist who became McKissick’s Uncle Sam tried and failed to deal with north could return in large numbers, right hand man, to Claude Sitton, an urban strife; private developers tried threatening to shift the balance of investigative reporter who earned his and sometimes succeeded, particu- political power. Integrationists didn’t stripes covering the civil rights move- larly in the cases of Reston, Va., and like the idea of blacks developing their ment and later edited the News & Columbia, Md. — with the help of a lot own city where they would consti- Observer newspaper that tore into Soul of capital. (See “The Making of Reston tute the majority of the population. City’s credibility at a critical juncture and Columbia,” Econ Focus, Second/ Progressives felt that McKissick’s plans in its development. But it is McKissick Third Quarter 2020.) relied too much on capitalism. who takes center stage in Healy’s Where Reston and Columbia On this last issue, McKissick’s story of vision meeting reality, of black succeeded, Soul City failed. But that response was pointed — it was past power meeting systemic racism, of failure speaks volumes about govern- time for black Americans to take their social entrepreneurism clashing with ment involvement in economic devel- share of their country’s capital and government bureaucracy. opment as well as the inequalities that wealth. “Slavery taught us who had The book also uses the lens of have become enshrined in our country’s leisure, who had freedom, who had McKissick’s ambitions to provide new economic system. There are lessons dignity,” McKissick asserted at the perspectives on larger historical move- to be learned for future efforts to help 1969 press conference. “Not the slave, ments. For example, the lack of progress poor and minority communities. EF Share this article: http://bit.ly/q1-book-review ECON FOCUS • FIRST QUARTER • 2021 31.
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