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"PROMISED LAND, THE" (NICHOLAS LEMANN).
Term Paper ID:25065
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Essay Subject:
Reviews work on effects of black migration to northern cities, ghetto problems, suggested solutions.... More...
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7 Pages / 1575 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Reviews work on effects of black migration to northern cities, ghetto problems, suggested solutions.
Paper Introduction:
In The Promised Land Nicholas Lemann investigates the effects that the great black migration to the northern cities had on American Society. Lemann's purpose in the book is to identify the roots of current problems in urban ghettos, determine why earlier attempts to solve the problems failed, and suggest alternative approaches to America's largest social problem. He believes that any new policies need to be based on a strong grasp of historic social causes, knowledge of past policies' failures and successes, and an understanding of the experiences of the people who took part in the migration and whose lives were part of the development of both the black ghetto and the black middle class after World War II. Lemann's analysis of social policy and the nature of the problem of the black ghettos leads him to the conclusion that the federal government is the only institution
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Following the crash of cotton prices in 192 , however, the economicsituation for black sharecroppers got even worse and the stories told byreturning migrants from Chicago made the north seem like the "promisedland" to residents of the Mississippi Delta, one of the major sharecroppingregions. Following the end ofslavery and the failures of Reconstruction white planters replaced slaverywith the sharecropping system in which, since they controlled the land,they were able to exploit black labor almost as completely as under theslave system. And the redirection of social policy awayfrom dealing with the root causes of poverty, in trying to avoid anyappearance of blaming the victim, meant that policy options other thancommunity action were discarded. It would, of course, be possible tofind individuals whose lives do not fit in so well with Lemann's argumentsand this might distract readers who believe that he is basing his argumenton these specific examples. This society was "the national center ofillegitimate-childbearing and of the female-headed family [,] had the worstpublic education system in the country [and] had an extremely high rate ofviolent crime" (31). Lemann begins by setting up the origins of the problem as he seesthem. In order to develop a broad view of the situation Lemann combined thefamily histories of several African American individuals who migrated fromClarksdale, Mississippi to Chicago with the general history of blackmigrants, the Southern economy, and politics in the northern cities. Between 194 and 196 the black population of Chicago increased by5 , and this presented the double problem of successful blacks whowished to move out of the confined South Side area in which they lived andthe remainder of the black population who could not find work. In order to maintain the economic system that wasbeneficial to them whites also instituted the "Jim Crow" laws and"segregation's heyday and sharecropping's heyday substantially coincided"(14). Mayor Daleybelieved that blacks, like earlier Irish immigrants, would go through "along slow climb from immigrant poverty to middle-class stability,engineered through the steadily increasing provision of municipal jobs andcontracts in exchange for loyalty to the machine at the polls" (91). The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. The rejection of white participation in black activistorganizations and the belief that whites were trying to force ghettoresidents to conform to arbitrary white standards helped the idea ofcommunity action, or "maximum feasible participation" in governmentprograms, become popular (179). In the sharecropping era, and especially after the 192 crash, socialorganization had broken down among poor African Americans. Lemann concludes, therefore, that only extensivefederal programs directed at bringing ghetto residents into the mainstreamof American society will eliminate the worst problems of poor urban AfricanAmericans. But, throughout thenorth, despite the relatively good conditions for many people, "the poorsections were getting worse, the middle class felt stuck, and there was nota governing idea about what the problem was and what the reaction to itshould be" (99). The idea of "community action" first became popular with liberalmembers of Kennedy's administration. This idea remained apart of Johnson's War on Poverty but always faced great opposition fromCongress and from state and local politicians because it took the controlof federal funds out of the hands of those politicians who normallycontrolled the delivery of federal funds to their communities. He uses his biographical examples to illustrate this.Ruby Daniels, for example, came from a very poor sharecropping family andthe conditions of her life in Chicago mirrored the lives her family had ledin the Delta. Lemann begins with the demonstration of the first perfectedmechanical cotton pickers in Clarksdale in 1944. The social disorganization that led to the problems of the blackghettos first developed under the sharecropping system. In The Promised Land Nicholas Lemann investigates the effects thatthe great black migration to the northern cities had on American Society.Lemann's purpose in the book is to identify the roots of current problemsin urban ghettos, determine why earlier attempts to solve the problemsfailed, and suggest alternative approaches to America's largest socialproblem. The Watts riots (1965), and numerous riots in other Americans citiesin the next few years, convinced Johnson that his administration needed todo more--even if it was just to stop the flow of migrants to the northerncities. The only flaw in his argument is that it might be seen asplacing too much weight on the interesting life histories that heintertwines with the rest of the book. If they are regarded primarily asillustrations of his points, rather than as evidence, the life storiesenrich the book and do not detract from Lemann's argument. Lemann argues, however, that it is only those programs that areacculturative and broad in scope that succeed in changing the lives of theurban poor--either by allowing them to enter the middle-class mainstream ofsociety or by alleviating problems that need immediate attention. These projects at first looked very promising. This isone of Lemann's basic points--that the differences in success for manyblack migrants were based on "the differences in their experiences beforethey ever got to Chicago" (287). Lemannattempts to show, in his individual examples and his account of history,that structural change is worth continuing, but the primary means of endingghetto poverty is to get people out of the ghettos by providing theeducation, skills and employment needed to make this move. Accordingto Lemann, besides the political and operational problems of the Office ofEconomic Opportunity (OEO) the federal government in general did not have afirm grasp on the nature or the extent of the problems in the urbanghettos. But when the Moynihan Report, on the state of black families, wasissued as an attempt to focus policy on the problems of the black familyand the breakdown of social order the response to the idea was so negativethat "all public discussions in mainstream liberal circles of issues likethe state of the black family and the culture of poverty simply ceased"(177). But this idea, as Lemann argues, failedbecause those who lived in the ghetto knew that life there was flawed andtook any opportunity, especially one offered by a good government job, toget out of the ghetto. Lemann agrees withhistorians who refuted the idea that it was slavery that caused the type ofdisruption of black families and society that was carried north in thegreat migration. Once the terribleconditions into which ghetto children are born is seen as intolerable and a"moral urgency" about condemning people to such lives is developed thenation will be ready to address the problem (353). Previous attempts, suchas the War on Poverty, were never more than partially successful--eitherbecause they were not extensive enough, because they did not understand thecauses of the social breakdown in the ghettos, or because they depended onthe idea of community-based empowerment and self-development, which neverworks since those who achieve higher economic status always leave theghettos as soon as possible. It is the complete and always growingisolation of the poor, in ghettos where they have little chance ofobtaining jobs or a decent education, that allows the problems of the urbanpoor to continue to grow. Atthe center of the book Lemann included a history of the federalgovernment's responses to the urban crisis in the administrations ofKennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. One of Lemann'smain points is that sharecropping society was practically the equivalent ofghetto society today. But throughoutAmerican history changes in legal and social relations between black andwhite Americans have required national action and have only succeeded when--as with the abolition and civil rights movements--people became convincedthat there was a moral reason to correct the social situation. New York: Vintage, 1992. In Chicago, even if everything was not as wonderful as promised,black migrants were "guaranteed quadrupling of income at least" (41). Thus, for Wilson, in order toavoid identifying such problems as numerous out-of-wedlock children andabsence of fathers from the home as "cultural traits" of the ghettounderclass it was necessary to identify them as resulting only from thelack of employed, marriageable men--a temporary result of the disappearanceof jobs from the inner cities (284). This contrasts with thosewho came to believe that community action, based on the idea of self-revival of the ghettos as functioning neighborhoods, was the best solutionto inner-city poverty. Throughout the sections on Clarksdale,Chicago and Washington Lemann connects the positive, negative or neutraleffects of social policy and politics with events in the lives of hisindividual subjects. Lemann'sanalysis of social policy and the nature of the problem of the blackghettos leads him to the conclusion that the federal government is the onlyinstitution large enough to address the problem. Works CitedLemann, Nicholas. Black power advocates did not believe inthe 196 s that it would ever be possible for blacks in the north to"achieve political power through the traditional means of winning electiveoffice" and so they hoped that reform of the community from within wouldpreserve black culture from white domination and demonstrate blackindependence from whites (179). The idea was that community actionwould operate within the community and "would plan its activities based onwhat the poor people actually wanted from the government, rather than whatbureaucrats in Washington thought they needed" (133). He believes that any new policies need to be based on a stronggrasp of historic social causes, knowledge of past policies' failures andsuccesses, and an understanding of the experiences of the people who tookpart in the migration and whose lives were part of the development of boththe black ghetto and the black middle class after World War II. New community action advocates began with the idea that "ghettosociety was not in any way weak or flawed or in need of middle-classoutsiders" to help it (179). Lemann's case is well argued in terms of his presentation ofhistorical circumstances and the investigation of the causes of socialpolicy failures. But George Hicks, who had a great deal more education andcame from a more affluent background (though still a poor one), did verywell--rising to the middle class by working for the federal governmentprograms (such as housing) that were designed to help poor blacks. But the discussion of the underclass thatarose in the 198 s was an attempt to get back to the consideration of theproblems of social and family structure in the ghettos. For Lemann it is the success of African Americans such as GeorgeHicks, who made full use of the job opportunities offered by federalprograms, that proves that the creation of jobs by the federal government(in the way that Roosevelt's New Deal created jobs in the depression) isthe one sure way to start eliminating poverty. This meant that "structural economicchange," directed at improving the ghettos became the focus of socialpolicy rather than social programs "such as intensive education and jobtraining," which aimed at acculturation, still regarded as a racistimposition of white standards on black Americans (285). Butliberal thinkers had an even harder time because, as with William JuliusWilson, the recognition of the importance of the disappearance of jobs fromthe urban center was accompanied by "his determination not to blame peoplein the ghettos for their predicament" (284). Tensions in Chicago, andother cities, resulted in the construction of low-cost housing--such as themany high-rise projects that began to be built in Chicago in the late195 s. As the novelist Richard Wright, who was also amigrant to the north, said, "perhaps never in history has a more utterlyunprepared folk wanted to go to the city" (52). Lemannargues, therefore, that it is necessary to discuss the problems of theblack poor honestly and openly--without pretending that the ghettosrepresent either a valid black cultural alternative or the inability ofblack Americans to lead decent, productive lives. On the right,sociologists began to blame welfare and other liberal policies for thecontinuing poverty of the ghettos, arguing that the lack of incentives towork and the failure to punish crime were at the root of the problem. The charges of racism directed against the MoynihanReport and the fact that it became "the most refuted document in Americanhistory" hid the fact that "its dire predictions about the poor blackfamily all came true" (177). ButDaley wanted the black population to remain segregated and his idea ignoredthe racial prejudices that held blacks back. Because whites needed to rationalize their treatment ofAfrican Americans they developed a picture of black people as childish andnaturally dependent and incapable of planning or participating in societyas full citizens.
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