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theses

This project considers the political, social, and cultural geography of black settlement in the inner suburbs of Newark between approximately 1970 and 2010. While the period just after the Newark riots of 1967 saw the most dramatic changes in population in both the city of Newark itself and in its immediate suburbs (mainly population loss of all races), racial transition from white to black continued in inner suburbs into the 1990s and beyond. The responses of white residents to new black neighbors ranged from welcoming to violent and encompassed both formal interventions by municipal governments through an integration maintenance group that monitored the extent of black settlement and sought to educate whites as well as informal interventions such as aggressive policing and an anonymous campaign in the 1980s to vandalize the homes of black residents. In theoretical terms, how do we think about these reactions; additionally, how do we think about the outcomes? Foucault’s notion of governmentality, how local actors reinforce existing norms through a pattern of daily practices that are acted out, sometimes deliberately, but more often just below the surface of consciousness, was crucial in explaining the felt experience of daily life in the communities under study. The methods used in the study were analysis of Census data, archival data, focus groups, and interviews. Interventions in response to black settlement changed as black numbers, and so black agency, grew. Blacks acted successfully to check interventions designed to keep them from accessing the crucial advantages of suburbs, particularly in the schools and the safety of good policing.

ETD_5387

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Laura Pangallozzi

doi:10.7282/T3D50K9M

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.