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Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
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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
"Healy's greatest strength is his eye for the procedural details — the who, what, when and where of the Soul City story."
"Like many good authors, Healy sometimes overstates the pioneering nature of his work ..."
"wistful and well-documented history ..."
"Included are occasional photographs of prominent figures involved in the development ..."
"In this sympathetic, deeply researched, and heartbreaking account, Healy, a professor at Seton Hall Law School and author of The Great Dissent, details the innumerable obstacles that blocked the way for a bold venture in racial equality."
"He also manages to craft a deft, readable narrative out of the ups and downs of the Soul City project."
"the author succeeds admirably ..."
"Seton Hall University law professor Healy brings equal measures of sympathy and detail to this quixotic story."
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