For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and
cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the
history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions
of race. In I've Got to Make My Livin', Cynthia Blair explores
African American women's sex work in Chicago during the decades of
some of the city's most explosive growth, expanding not just our
view of prostitution, but also of black women's labor, the Great
Migration, black and white reform movements, and the emergence of
modern sexuality. Focusing on the notorious sex districts of the
city's south side, Blair paints a complex portrait of black
prostitutes as conscious actors and historical agents;
prostitution, she argues here, was both an arena of exploitation
and abuse, as well as a means of resisting middle-class sexual and
economic norms. Blair ultimately illustrates just how powerful
these norms were, offering stories about the struggles that emerged
among black and white urbanites in response to black women's
increasing visibility in the city's sex economy. Through these
powerful narratives, I've Got to Make My Livin' reveals the
intersecting racial struggles and sexual anxieties that underpinned
the celebration of Chicago as the quintessentially modern
twentieth-century city.
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