Ghetto Takes Shape

A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930 Book Review
Stephanie Iwaszkiw
Cleveland State University A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930, written by Kenneth Kusmer, explains the formation of the black ghetto in Cleveland during the time period 1870-1930. Kusmer was born in Cleveland; he grew up on the east side. He went to college at Oberlin College, Kent State University, and the University of Chicago. In 1973 he had been awarded the Louis Pelzer Award of the Organization of American Historians. He currently teaches urban and social history at Temple University as an assistant professor. Kusmer had a purpose when writing this book: he aimed to trace a variety of aspects of black life such as economic, political,

Cleveland’s black population was quite small before the “Great Migration” in 1915, but then began to gradually increase. This meant that black associations and leadership depended very much on white support. The socioeconomic position of blacks, however, at the same time, got worse as whites got stricter on discriminatory control over employment and public places. After 1915, Cleveland’s black population grew quickly, starting racist trends. One of the results was segregation of the living conditions of blacks, their jobs, and in social aspects. As isolation increased, however, this began the growth of new leaders and associations that responded to the needs of the ghettos. By 1930, the black ghetto had expanded; Cleveland’s blacks had increased class stratification in their community, as well as an increasing sense of cultural harmony in response to white prejudice.

A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930 explains in detail how the author deciphers the ghettoization process in Cleveland during the time period. Kusmer also tries to include studies that mainly pertained to specific black communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit, which strongly emphasized the institutional ghetto and dwelled on white hostility as the main reasons as to why the black ghetto was

One weakness is that much of the information included is not in chronological order. This makes it difficult for the reader to understand in which order these events had occurred. Flipping back and forth between pages is sometimes needed, as well as making a timeline of your own. While Kusmer did have a rhyme or reason as to why he had written the book how he did, a way to solve this issue would have been to simply write the book in chronological order. Another weakness is that sometimes the book is quite dry. It is an interesting read, however at times it is more like reading a history book: