Derek G Handley, author of Struggle for the City: Citizenship and Resistance in the Black Freedom Movement in conversation with Joy Powers at Boswell

Tuesday, November 19, 6:30 pm

Boswell is pleased to host an evening with UWM Assistant Professor Derek G Handley for his new book, Struggle for the City, which chronicles how African Americans in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and St. Paul attempted to protect their communities from urban renewal during the 1950s and 60s. In conversation with WUWM Lake Effect host and producer Joy Powers.

Please click here to register for this event at derekghandleymke.eventbrite.com. And be sure to order your copy of Struggle for the City now, too.

Urban renewal policies stemming from the 1954 Housing Act and 1956 Highway Act destroyed the economic centers of many Black neighborhoods in the United States. With his new book, Handley recovers the agency and solidarity of African American residents confronting this diagnosis of “blight” in northern cities in midcentury America. Examining Black newspapers, archival documents from Black organizations, and oral histories of community advocates, Handley shows how African American residents in communities like Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood enacted a new form of citizenship to fight for their neighborhoods.

UW-Madison Professor Robert Asen says: “Not only does Derek Handley present a compelling account – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hopeful – of local communities fighting for their survival against forces of racial and economic inequality and control, he provides fresh perspectives on key concepts like publicity and citizenship that warrant serious scholarly reflection. This book is a must read for anyone hoping to understand historical and contemporary challenges to and opportunities for enacting vibrant, democratic public worlds.”

Derek G Handley is Assistant Professor in the English Department at UWM. He is also affiliated faculty in the African Diaspora Studies Department and in the Urban Studies program.