Focus #1: Avondale: Our Urban Neighborhood

This focus has grown from our deep continuing commitment to be good neighbors. A few years ago, First Unitarian needed to do some renovation. Faced with the choice to rebuild in another location or stay in the city, we made the decision to stay here. We decided to continue to stand with our neighbors in the struggles and joys that they meet daily in urban America.

Please click on the following headings to learn about our specific projects in Avondale.

Avondale Forum - August 30, 2009

Link to audio recording

References

Fritz (Charles F.) Casey-Leininger, Adjunct Asst. Professor in the Dept. of History at the University of Cincinnati has written extensively on neighborhood racial segregation in Cincinnati including a book chapter on how Avondale became a largely African American community between the end of World War II and the early 1960s.

1. His doctoral dissertation is on the development of the Fair Housing wing of the Civil Rights movement in Cincinnati and he has a book chapter that summarizes this material that also includes Avondale related material. Click on the links below to access these references:

"Giving Meaning to Democracy: The Development of the Fair Housing Movement in Cincinnati, 1945 - 1970, Chapter 8 in Making Sense of the City, Edited by Robert B. Fairbanks and Patricia Mooney-Melvin
"Making the Second Ghetto in Cincinnati: Avondale, 1925 - 1970" (Chapter 9 in Race and the City, Edited by Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.

2. For an overview of the history of race and housing in Cincinnati in the 20th century:

Casey-Leininger, Charles F. Going Home: The Struggle for Fair Housing in Cincinnati, 1900 to 2007. Cincinnati: Housing Opportunities Made Equal, 2008. This is available from Housing Opportunities Made Equal at: http://www.cincyfairhousing.com/about-history.html

3. I have a study that examines from a statistical demographic point of view the development of stable integrated communities in Hamilton County since World War II. The second part by Dr. Erinn Green of Wilmington College reports the results of focus groups in three stable integrated communities:

Casey-Leininger, Charles F., and Erinn Green. "Hamilton County Stable Integrated Communities." Cincinnati: Cincinnatus Association, 2007. This is available from the Cincinnatus Association at: http://www.cincinnatusassoc.org/attachments/1/stable.pdf This is a large report and may take some time to download depending on your internet connection. Other material about this report is available at: http://www.cincinnatusassoc.org/pages/Stable-Integrated-Communities-Issues-Page.html

4. The book in which my Avondale article appears covers a number of issues related to black Cincinnati history since the beginning of the 19th century:

Taylor Jr., Henry Louis, ed. Race and the City : Work, Community, and Protest in Cincinnati, 1820-1970. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

5. Prof. Nikki Taylor in the history department at UC has written a very nice book length history of black Cincinnati in the first two-thirds of the 19th century: Taylor, Nikki Marie. Frontiers of Freedom : Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802-1868. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005.

6. An excellent book that covers the development of segregated communities in Cincinnati before World War II is:

Fairbanks, Robert B. Making Better Citizens: Housing Reform and the Community Development Strategy in Cincinnati, 1890-1960. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. If Bob hadn't written this book first, I would have had to. My work stands on his shoulders.

7. Although not on Cincinnati, the book listed below shows how deindustrialization, job discrimination, and housing segregation combined to devastate Detroit and its black community in the post-World War II era. Although not as severe as Detroit, very similar trends unfolded in Cincinnati. This is a highly respected and influential book:

Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis : Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.

8. A classic book on the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities in the World War I era is:

Grossman, James R. Land of Hope : Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

9. Probably the best summary of the history and impact of racial housing discrimination on American cities is:

Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. American Apartheid : Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993.

10. A very useful companion to American Apartheid is:

Cashin, Sheryll. The Failures of Integration : How Race and Class Are Undermining the American Dream. 1st ed. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.

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