Warwick.Ac.Uk/Lib-Publications REPRESENTING BLACKNESS MOVE, the MEDIA, and the CITY of PHILADELPHIA
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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/78794 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications REPRESENTING BLACKNESS MOVE, THE MEDIA, AND THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA LETISHA YVONNE MORGAN A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Race and Ethnic Studies UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN ETHNIC RELATIONS JULY 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Declaration v Thesis Abstract vi List ofIllustrations and Tables vii List ofAbbreviations and Clarification of Terminology viii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 I. What is MOVE? 4 II. Review of Existing Studies on MOVE 8 III. Objectives of the Study 14 IV. Map of Thesis 16 CHAPTER 2 Conceptualising Blackness and the Black Community Theoretical Issues 19 I. The End of Innocence 19 II. The End of the Essential Black Subject 21 III. The Fact of Blackness 27 IV. Blackness and Community Formation 30 A. Sociology and the Black Community 33 B. The Black Family as Black Community 36 C. Cultural Nationalism(s) and The Black Family/Community 42 D. The Dominance of Community in Black American Politics 46 V. Summary 48 CHAPTER 3 Black American Politics in the Age ofReagan Historical Backdrop 51 I. Introduction 51 II. Liberal Foundations 52 A. Liberal Strategies of Exclusion 54 B. The Dominance of Liberalism in Black American Politics in the Reagan Era 58 C. The Black Reaganites 61 D. The Reagan Administration's Defence of a 'White' America 65 III. Black Leadership in Urban Municipal Politics 69 IV. The Element of 'Race' in Philadelphia Politics: The Case of Mayor W. Wilson Goode 72 V. The History of MOVE in Philadelphia 81 A. Part I: Powelton Village 81 B. Part II: Osage Avenue 85 VI. Summary 91 CHAPTER 4 Discourse and the Media Methodological Issues 95 I. Introduction 95 II. Methods and Approaches to Media Analysis 98 A. Critical Discourse Analysis 102 B. Relevance of Critical Discourse Analysis for MOVE 106 III. Specifics of the Media Analysis 109 A. The Philadelphian Newspapers 109 B. Limiting Factors of the Media Analysis 112 IV. Summary 114 CHAPTERS Defining Discourses War and Terrorism 115 I. Introduction 115 II. Defining MOVE 116 A. Summoning Terrorism 118 B. Constructing Terrorists 123 III. The "Calm Amid the Threat" 129 IV. Vietnam Comes Home to Black Osage 132 A. The Emerging Significance of Race 133 B. Revisiting the Nightmare of Vietnam 139 V. Summary 143 ii CHAPTER 6 Precipitating Discourses The Debate Over Race 146 I. Introduction 146 II. The Mutability of Racial Discourses: Part I-Mayor W. Wilson Goode 146 A. The Complexities of Black Leadership 147 B. Critics and Supporters of an Embattled Mayor 151 C. Establishing Insiders and Outsiders 161 D. Racial Caricatures: The Debasement of Mayor Goode through Race 165 III. The Mutability of Racial Discourses: Part II-MOVE 168 A. Individualising the MOVE Members 169 B. Dehumanising MOVE 171 IV. Summary 176 CHAPTER 7 The Role and Impact ofthe Media 177 I. Introduction 177 II. Assessment of Individual Papers 177 A. The Philadelphia Inquirer 178 B. The Philadelphia Daily News 182 C. The Philadelphia Tribune 184 III. The Visibility of the Media 188 IV. The Media as a Resource for MOVE 192 V. Summary 194 CHAPTER 8 Conclusions The Limitations of Blackness as a Political Strategy 196 I. Overview 198 II. MOVE as an Anti-Social Movement 201 III. The Desire to Punish 205 Bibliography 209 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many individuals to whom I remain indebted for their encouragement and support in completing this doctoral thesis. First and foremost, I dedicate this thesis to my mother and father, Denice S. Morgan and Willie E. Morgan, Jr., for their boundless love, encouragement, and support, and for those long-distance telephone calls when they were needed most; as well as to my grandmother, Daisy Adams Morgan, who inspired my love of education and learning through her contagious delight at being at home in the world. I would like to recognise, with immense gratitude, The Marshall Commemoration Commission and its staff for their financial support, care, concern, and patience over the past four years. Additionally, and in connection with the Marshall Commission, I would like to thank Cable and Wireless for their support during my third year of study at the University of Warwick, thus enabling my completion of the doctoral degree. I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Muhammad Anwar, for his willingness to accept me as a doctoral student in the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations somewhat belatedly during my stay at the University of Warwick, and his support during my tenure under his care. Regarding assistance during a particular stage in my archival research, I would like to express appreciation to the staff at the central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, who demonstrated pride and enjoyment in their work, thus facilitating the sense of hospitality that I experienced during my time in their home city. I benefited greatly from their willingness to share their local knowledge of Philadelphia as well as their assistance in tracing information pertinent to this project. Lastly, lowe a great deal to Keya Ganguly and Charles Sugnet, who believed in the ideas motivating this thesis, perhaps long before I could grasp, as well as adequately articulate, the complexity of this project. For this, and much more, I remain grateful. IV DECLARATION I declare that the present thesis has not been submitted for a degree at another university or institution of higher learning; therefore, it is principally the result of my tenure at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick. v ABSTRACT In recent decades, black American political scholars have addressed the absence of trans formative societal change in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. The civil rights initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s pledged racial equality and economic redistribution resulting from equitable, formal, political participation. For many, this promise remains unfulfilled. This thesis asserts that part of the problematic relates to a lack oftheorisation regarding differentiation within the black 'community.' Specifically, it is concerned with a group of black activists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called MOVE, and the manner in which its emergence complicated a unitary conception of black community in the 1980s. Formed on the cusp of the Reagan revolution, which signalled a retrenchment of civil rights initiatives nationally, combined with the election of a new cadre of black politicians at the municipallevel-incIuding Philadelphia, MOVE signifies the tenuous position in which these politicians found themselves during the Reagan era. Thus, Philadelphia's first black American mayor, W. Wilson Goode, occupies a central role in understanding the conflicting demands with which this new crop of municipal officials had to contend during this politically volatile time period. Disabled from the task of simply performing their required duties, these men and women were the most accessible representatives of America's 'black community,' and thus embodied the most positive as well as the most negative aspects of the black American population. Therefore, their job description implicitly referenced their capacity to juggle the demands of being black in America. This thesis will also investigate MOVE's representation in the print news media, as it received extensive coverage in the Philadelphia press. Through an analysis of three separate, local newspapers, this study attends to the racialised discourses characterising the group, thereby revealing a state of general anxiety regarding the place of blacks in American society. In this, a consideration of the media's impact upon Mayor Wilson Goode's career becomes a necessity, as the public's perception of his political suitability became inextricably linked with the fate of the MOVE members. Therefore, I attempt to determine how MOVE became 'news,' and in tum, how the group and officials in Philadelphia's city administration succeeded in mobilising the media as a resource for their own ends. Considering MOVE's informal political strategies in tandem with the bureaucracy of formal municipal politics presents an opportunity to address the limitations of both electoral and cultural politics for the black population generally, as well as the persistent problem of political 'representation' within this context. This thesis contributes to knowledge in black American cultural and electoral politics; social movements; the 'Sociology of the Negro' sub-discipline; the media and its role in conceptualising and coping with racial difference; and theories of blackness, liberalism and multiculturalism. Vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Population Demographics of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 1~0 n Table 3.2 Population Demographics of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 1960-1990 73 Table 3.3 Income and Poverty Status [Families]: Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 87 Vll LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACLU American Civil Liberties Union CCCS Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies-Binningham, England CRS United States' Justice Department's