To Place Our Deeds - by Shirley Ann Wilson Moore (Paperback)

About the Book

"A fascinating study. . . . It truly comes alive in its expert use of African American oral histories"--Waldo E. Martin, University of California, Berkeley

Book Synopsis

To Place Our Deeds traces the development of the African American community in Richmond, California, a city on the San Francisco Bay. This readable, extremely well-researched social history, based on numerous oral histories, newspapers, and archival collections, is the first to examine the historical development of one black working-class community over a fifty-year period.

Offering a gritty and engaging view of daily life in Richmond, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore examines the process and effect of migration, the rise of a black urban industrial workforce, and the dynamics of community development. She describes the culture that migrants brought with them-including music, food, religion, and sports-and shows how these traditions were adapted to new circumstances. Working-class African Americans in Richmond used their cultural venues-especially the city's legendary blues clubs-as staging grounds from which to challenge the racial status quo, with a steadfast determination not to be "Jim Crowed" in the Golden State.

As this important work shows, working-class African Americans often stood at the forefront of the struggle for equality and were linked to larger political, social, and cultural currents that transformed the nation in the postwar period.

From the Back Cover

A fascinating study. . . . It truly comes alive in its expert use of African American oral histories--Waldo E. Martin, University of California, Berkeley

Review Quotes

"The great virtue of Moore's work is its concentration on the effects of broad national and international developments on the everyday lives and times of ordinary people. Her analysis is both an important piece of social history and a point of departure for future studies of how African American communities respond to the new realities of the post-industrial era."--Charles Wollenberg, CALIFORNIA HISTORY

About the Author

Shirley Ann Wilson Moore is Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento.