A presentation given at the 2015 Fall National High School Journalism Convention panel on race relations.

1. RACE, SPACE, &
POWER
PRESENTED AT THE FALL NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM
CONVENTION AT WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN RESORT HOTEL
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
JULIAN C. CHAMBLISS
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
ROLLINS COLLEGE
COORDINATOR, AFRICA AND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

2. NARRATIVES
LINKS TO RACE

3. STEREOTYPES

4. CONTROL &
PUBLIC SPACE
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

5. W.E.B. DUBOIS
“… the police system of the
South was originally designed
to keep track of all Negroes, not
simply of criminals; and when
the Negroes were freed and the
whole South was convinced of
the impossibility of free Negro
labor, the first and almost
universal device was to use the
courts as a means of re-
enslaving the blacks.”
Souls of Black Folks (1903)

6. THE CONVICT LEASE
SYSTEM

8. RACE, SPACE,
&
OPPORTUNITY

9. De-industrialization

10. NORTH
LAWNDALE
-Established in 1857
-Population
1910 46,000
1920 93,000
1930 112,000
-Racial Identity
White Ethnic (Russian Jews)
By 1950s African Americans replaces
Jewish Residents
-White Flight
White Population dropped
87,000 in 1950
11,000 in 1960
African Population
13,000 in 1950
113,000 in 1960
By mid-1960s North Lawndale was at its all-
time population high, nearly 125,000, and
was 91% African-American.

11. LOSS OF WORK,
RISE OF TENSION

12. THE WAR
ON DRUGS

13. SILENT MAJORITY

17. THE “UNDERCLASS” ARGUMENT
Charles Murray, Losing Ground:
American Social Policy, 1950 -
1980 (1984)
• In the 1960s, argued Murray, the
federal government expanded cash
and in- kind benefits for the poor. In
so doing, it lowered the economic
sanction for behaviors leading to
poverty - unemployment,
illegitimate childbirth, divorce, and
dropping out of school - and
reduced the relative rewards of
marriage, hard work, and traditional
family structures. In other words,
government began subsidizing
failure while doing nothing to
reinforce success.

18. QUALITY OF LIFE
POLICING

19. NUMBERS

22. - According to the Brookings Institution
- Crime rates has been in decline since the 1990s.
- The poor (people with incomes below 15,000) have
the highest rate of criminal victimization.

23. Thank You
Contact:
Twitter:
@JulianChambliss
Email:
jchambliss@rollins.edu