Central City's Joy and Pain: Solidarity, Survival, and Soul in a Birmingham Housing Project

Jerome E. Morris combines social science research with his own memoir of life in Birmingham, Alabama, to provide a bottom-up perspective on Black public-housing residents' experiences. Central Citys Joy and Pain captures what it means to be Black, poor, and full of dreams, with some dreams realized and others swallowed up by the larger historical, social, economic, and political context of African Americans' experiences during and after the civil rights movement.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 15 January 2024
Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Jerome E. Morris delves into intricate societal concerns by intertwining personal storytelling with social science research. By merging his memoir of life in Birmingham, Alabama, with social-science findings, he offers a unique bottom-up perspective on the experiences of Black public-housing residents. Having lived in the Central City housing project for two transitional decades (1968–91) and witnessing the community's demolition in 1999, the author provides a firsthand account that sheds light on the often overlooked experiences of these residents.

As Jerome E. Morris' experiential and authoritative narrative unfolds in the pages of Central City's Joy and Pain, readers, whether scholarly or lay, are taken on a captivating journey into the lives of individuals who navigate the intersection of race and poverty in a rapidly evolving southern urban center. The backdrop of a historic public-housing community serves as a vibrant canvas on which the author paints a vivid portrayal of his personal experiences growing up there and his subsequent observations as a researcher and academic.

Through the seamless fusion of personal stories and scholarly research, Central City's Joy and Pain captures the essence of what it means to be Black, poor, and brimming with dreams. Within this context, dreams are realized for some while being swallowed up by others within the broader historical, social, economic, and political landscape of African Americans' experiences during and after the civil rights movement.

Weight: 406g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780820365756