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Crossing the Class and Color Lines: From Public Housing to White Suburbia

Crossing the Class and Color Lines: From Public Housing to White Suburbia
By Leonard S. Rubinowitz, James E. Rosenbaum

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Product Description

From 1976 to 1998, the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program moved over 7,000 low-income black families from Chicago's inner city to middle-class white suburbs—the largest and longest-running residential, racial, and economic integration effort in American history. Crossing the Class and Color Lines is the story of that project, from the initial struggles and discomfort of the relocated families to their eventual successes in employment and education—cementing the sociological concept of the "neighborhood effect" and shattering the myth that inner-city blacks cannot escape a "culture of poverty."

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1962522 in Books
  • Published on: 2002-04-15
  • Original language: English
  • Dimensions: .77 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum, professors of law and sociology respectively, examine a program to desegregate the housing patterns of Chicago and its suburbs. The Gautreaux program, so called because of the lawsuit by a Chicago Housing Authority tenant challenging the strict segregation of public housing, eventually involved the integration of thousands of low-income families into the suburbs. The authors examine the social and legal issues behind the Gautreaux lawsuit and explore the lives of the individual families who participated in the Gautreaux program. For the most part, participants benefited from the improved safety, education, and job opportunities in the suburbs. But they have also faced challenges of acceptance. The authors cite a lack of preparation as a major concern in helping participants make the adjustment to the move to the suburbs. Overall, the Gautreaux program has been substantially more successful than other efforts to desegregate housing. This is a fascinating look at a persistently troubling social problem in the U.S. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"This book's history of Chicago public housing should be required reading for anyone interested in social policy in the United States." - Jens Ludwig, Social Service Review; "[The authors"] work is rightly cited as one of the important precedents in the field.... This is a remarkable, unassailable accomplishment and this book is an important record of their scholarly contribution." - John M. Goering, Ethnic and Racial Studies

From the Inside Flap

The year 2001 saw a partial resurrection of the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, an ambitious project that, between 1976 to 1998, moved over 7,000 low-income black families, most from Chicago's inner city to middle-class white suburbs-the largest and longest-running residential, racial, and economic integration effort in American history. Crossing the Class and Color Lines, nominated for the 2001 Robert E. Park Award of the Community and Urban Section of the American Sociological Association, is the story of that project, from the initial struggles and discomfort of the relocated families to their eventual successes in employment and education-a study that cemented the sociological concept of the "neighborhood effect" and shattered the myth that inner-city blacks cannot escape a "culture of poverty."