When ivory towers were black : a story about race in America's cities and universities
(Book)

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Published
New York : Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press, 2017.
Status
Central - Adult Nonfiction
378.1982 SUTTO
1 available

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Central - Adult Nonfiction378.1982 SUTTOAvailable

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Published
New York : Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press, 2017.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xix, 288 pages ; 24 cm
Language
English
UPC
40026921567

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-274) and index.
Description
"When Ivory Towers Were Black lies at the potent intersection of race, urban development, and higher education. It tells the story of how an unparalleled cohort of ethnic minority students earned degrees from a world-class university. The story takes place in New York City at Columbia University's School of Architecture and spans a decade of institutional evolution that mirrored the emergence and denouement of the Black Power Movement. Chronicling a surprisingly little-known era in U.S. educational, architectural, and urban history, the book traces an evolutionary arc that begins with an unsettling effort to end Columbia's exercise of authoritarian power on campus and in the community, and ends with an equally unsettling return to the status quo. When Ivory Towers Were Black follows two university units that steered the School of Architecture toward an emancipatory approach to education early along its evolutionary arc: the school's Division of Planning and the university-wide Ford Foundation-funded Urban Center. Illustrates both units' struggle to open the ivory tower to ethnic minority students and to involve them, and their revolutionary white peers, in improving Harlem's slum conditions. The evolutionary arc ends as backlash against reforms wrought by civil rights legislation grew and whites bought into President Richard M. Nixon's law-and-order agenda. The story is narrated through the oral histories of twenty-four Columbia alumni who received the gift of an Ivy League education during this era of transformation but who exited the School of Architecture to find the doors of their careers all but closed due to Nixon-era urban disinvestment policies. When Ivory Towers Were Black assesses the triumphs and subsequent unraveling of this bold experiment to achieve racial justice in the school and in the nearby Harlem/East Harlem community. It demonstrates how the experiment's triumphs lived on not only in the lives of the ethnic minority graduates but also as best practices in university/community relationships and in the fields of architecture and urban planning. The book can inform contemporary struggles for racial and economic equality as an array of crushing injustices generate movements similar to those of the sixties and seventies. Its first-person portrayal of how a transformative process got reversed can help extend the period of experimentation, and it can also help reopen the door of opportunity to ethnic minority students, who are still in strikingly short supply in elite professions like architecture and planning."--,Provided by publisher.
Description
"Tells the story of how a cohort of ethnic minority students earned degrees from Columbia University's School of Architecture. Follows two university units that steered the school toward an emancipatory approach to education. Assesses the triumphs and subsequent unraveling of an experiment to achieve racial justice in the school and in the nearby Harlem community. Informs contemporary struggles for racial and economic equality"--,Provided by publisher.

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Sutton, S. E. (2017). When ivory towers were black: a story about race in America's cities and universities (First edition.). Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Sutton, Sharon E., 1941-. 2017. When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story About Race in America's Cities and Universities. Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Sutton, Sharon E., 1941-. When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story About Race in America's Cities and Universities Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press, 2017.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Sutton, Sharon E. When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story About Race in America's Cities and Universities First edition., Empire State Editions, an imprint of Fordham University Press, 2017.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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