I quote Mary Pattillo to draw attention to the word assumptions and her point about the Black middle-class moving from all Black urbanized neighborhoods into the suburbs, which is of particular importance in exploring the post-1970 Black middle-class in Chicago. Socioeconomic ascension into the American gilded classes—the middle-class and the upper-class—was supposed to include spatial mobility for Black people in the post-civil rights era reflecting racial progress, a changing society, equal access, first class citizenship, economic stability, and the notion that the “hardest working” of the Black population “finally got their piece of the pie,” thus representing how far Black Americans had come. Many Black families in Chicago transitioned …show more content…
Despite the civil rights gains of the sixties—which benefited the faction of the Black community that were in a position to take advantage of higher education and professional occupations— the post-1970 Black middle-classed continued to lag behind the larger and more stable white middle-class who were making their ascent into the suburbs along with workforce industries and private and public community investments. And although the Black post-1970 middle-class saw increases in income, education, job security, and home ownership, spatial mobility and containment within the now extended Black Belt …show more content…
The Black Belt had numerous Black businesses including restaurants, social and music clubs, publishing enterprises, insurance companies, grocery stores, medical facilities, beauty and barber shops, and other industries that serviced the Black population. Thus, Black residents from all socioeconomic classes in the Black Belt contributed to the rise of Black middle-class Chicagoans before and immediately after World War II due to their dependency upon businesses that not only offered what they needed as consumers, but businesses that treated them with dignity and respect—something that was lacking at the white owned businesses downtown. And even though Black Chicagoans complained about the nature of small business enterprises that at times produced shoddy service or products at higher prices than chain stores from these businesses, they still supported them since they were in their immediate area and offered much needed services. Black Chicagoans also achieved middle-class careers as lawyers, judges, educators, and architects like DJ Cannonball’s father, however, but this was not commonplace. According to Bart Landry when taking the pulse of the Black middle-class at the national level 15 years after World War II ended: “By 1960, only 13 percent of