Author: William W. FalkPublisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813534657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Through oral history, Falk (sociology, U. of Maryland, College Park) tells the story of those who stayed behind as millions of African Americans left the South in the Great Migration for what they hoped would be a better life in the North. Members of an extended family in the Georgia-South Carolina lowlands talk about schooling, kinship, work, religion, race, and their love of the place where their family has lived for generations. The "conversational ethnography" argues that a link between race and place in the area helps explain African American loyalty to it; for those who stayed put, a numerical majority, deep cultural roots, and longstanding webs of social connection have outweighed racism and economic disadvantages. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).