Because it embraced radical racial egalitarianism in 1835 Oberlin Ohio stood in the vanguard of the quest for abolition and black freedom in the antebellum period Today residents visitors and scholars still celebrate its historic role in abolition integration and the quest for equality Yet after the Civil War Oberlin s resolute stand for racial justice gave way black activists became disillusioned as they fought in vain against the imposition of a color line while white leaders made excuses for their acceptance of segregation and race based inequality Elusive Utopia by noted historians and longtime Oberlin College faculty members Gary Kornblith and Carol Lasser tells the story of how over most of its first century the people of Oberlin black and white understood and acted upon their changing understandings of race such that their town came to experience a color line by the early decades of the twentieth century Elusive Utopia The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin OhioThis melancholy exploration of one town s descent from a utopian commitment to racial equality to a quotidian acceptance of spreading social segregation and prevailing prejudices raises relevant questions about the relationship between economic opportunity political passions and fads gendered spaces for activism and the porous border between striving to improve an imperfect world and taking existing circumstances as inevitable It also prodded me to think critically about power shifting cultural norms and the role of counter cultures economic rationality and the difference between willful ignorance and well meaning assumptions All while virtually walking the streets of a community that has remained beloved to me since my college days than a decade ago Thank you Gary and Carol Hardcover I really liked this book but I wanted a little on why the Oberlin commitment to racial equality broke down Hardcover

Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin, Ohio By Gary Kornblith

0807169560

9780807169568

344

Hardcover

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