Houston was Boomtown USA in the 1970s, growing through tremendous
immigration of people and through frequent annexation of outlying
areas. But in the shadow of the high-rise "petropolis" was another
city ignored by and invisible to Houston municipal boosters and the
national media. Black Houston, the largest black community in the
South, remained largely untouched by the benefits of the boom but
bore many of the burdens.
Robert D. Bullard systematically explores major demographic,
social, economic, and political factors that helped make Houston
the "golden buckle" of the Sunbelt. He then chronicles the rise of
Houston's black neighborhoods and analyzes the problems that have
accrued to the black community over the years, concentrating on the
boom era of the 1970s and the dwindling of the economy and of
government commitment to affirmative action in the late 1980s. Case
studies conducted in Houston's Third Ward--a microcosm of the
larger black community--provide data on housing patterns,
discrimination, pollution, law enforcement, and leadership, issues
that the author discusses and relates to the larger ones of
institutional racism, poverty, and politics.
During Houston's rapid growth, freeways were built over black
neighborhoods and municipal services were stretched away from the
inner city and poverty pockets to the new, far-flung, and mostly
white city limits. Businesses thrived, but many jobs called for
advanced education and skills, while black youth still suffered
from inadequate schools, inexperienced teachers, and, later,
unemployment rates nearly double those of whites. When the
oil-based economy collapsed in the early eighties, many blacks
again bore a heavier share of the burdens.
Invisible Houston describes the rich cultural history of the
South's largest black community and analyzes the contemporary
issues that offer the chance for black Houston to become visible to
itself, to the larger community, and to the nation.
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