MPL is thrilled to host Dr. Derek G. Handl ey\, author of \;Struggle for the City: Citizenship and Resistance in the Black Freedom Movement\, \;released in November 2024. In this book\, Dr. Handley shows how African American residents in three comm unities - the Hill district of Pittsburgh\, the Bronzeville neighborhood o f Milwaukee\, and the Rondo district of St. Paul - attempted to protect th eir communities from urban renewal and enacted a new form of citizenship t o fight for their neighborhoods. This event is co-sponsored by Boswell Boo ks Company\, and copies of \;Struggle for the City \;will be available to purchase from Boswell at the event.
\nThe urban ren ewal policies stemming from the 1954 Housing Act and 1956 Highway Act dest royed the economic centers of many Black neighborhoods in the United State s. Struggle for the City recovers the agency and solidarity of Af rican American residents confronting this diagnosis of &ldquo\;blight&rdqu o\; in northern cities in the 1950s and 1960s. In his research\, Dr. Handl ey examines Black newspapers\, archival documents from Black organizations \, and oral histories of community advocates\, showing how African America n residents fight for their neighborhoods and communities. Dubbing this th e &ldquo\;Black Rhetorical Citizenship\,&rdquo\; a nod to the integral rol e of language and other symbolic means in the Black Freedom Movement\, Han dley situates citizenship as both a site of resistance and a mode of publi c engagement that cannot be divorced from race and the effects of racism. Through this framework\, Struggle for the City demonstrates how l ocal organizers\, leaders\, and residents used rhetorics of placemaking\, community organizing\, and critical memory to resist the bulldozing vision s of urban renewal.
\nDr. Derek G. Handley is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at UWM. He is also affiliated faculty in the Af rican Diaspora Studies Department and in the Urban Studies program.
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