Home › Books › Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of …
Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
by
63/99
Critics' Rating Index
70/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
84/99
Volume of Reviews
28/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
In 1969, with America's cities in turmoil and racial tensions high, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announced an audacious plan: he would build a new city in rural North Carolina, open to all but intended primarily to benefit Black people. Named Soul City, the community secured funding from the Nixon administration, planning help from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and endorsements from the New York Times and the Today show. Before long, the brand-new settlement – built on a former slave plantation – had roads, houses, a health care center, and an industrial plant. By the year 2000, projections said, Soul City would have fifty thousand residents.But the utopian vision was not to be. The race-baiting Jesse Helms, newly elected as senator from North Carolina, swore to stop government spending on the project. Meanwhile, the liberal Raleigh News & Observer mistakenly claimed fraud and corruption in the construction effort. Battered from the left and the right, Soul City was shut down after just a decade. Today, it is a ghost town – and its industrial plant, erected to promote Black economic freedom, has been converted into a prison. Was it an impossible dream from the beginning? Or a brilliant idea thwarted by prejudice and ignorance? And how might America be different today if Soul City had been allowed to succeed?
Reviews
"McKissick had imagined that Soul City's streets would reflect the project's visionary spirit, with roads named for Nat Turner and Dred Scott."
"Though Healy early invokes the fact that Soul City was located near Klan country, he only ever vaguely signals that the city faced local racial resistance."
"Seton Hall University law professor Healy brings equal measures of sympathy and detail to this quixotic story."
"Throughout this deft historical narrative, the author provides useful context and perspective about the civil rights movement and the lives of the key players in the venture ..."
"Healy engages with issues of race and segregation and provides insightful analysis of the project's successes and failures."
"Today, a crumbling ghost town, Soul City is hard to find."
"He also manages to craft a deft, readable narrative out of the ups and downs of the Soul City project."
"Full of incisive character sketches and thought-provoking insights into the politics of Black empowerment, this is a worthy elegy for what might have been."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!