THE CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE AND CLASS IN AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

The post-civil rights era has witnessed the growth of the black middle class and increased class stratification in African-American communities. This article examines how state-sponsored reforms associated with civil rights era activism restructured political power in an African-American community, shifting the focus of neighborhood activism from institutions and strategies that emphasized a race-based definition of political interests and identity toward those privileging the discourse and claims of the black middle class. It argues that civil rights era reforms disproportionately empowered middle-class homeowners, enabling them to translate economic gains into political power and, in the process, to rearticulate the significance of race and class in community politics.