A Tale of Three Cities: Blacks and Immigrants in Philadelphia: 1850-1880, 1930 and 1970

• Author: Alan N. Burstein,Theodore Hershberg,Eugene P. Ericksen,William L. Yancey,Stephanie Greenberg
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271627944100106
• Subject Matter: Articles

ANNALS, AAPSS, 441, Jan. 1979
A Tale of Three Cities: Blacks and Immigrants
in Philadelphia: 1850-1880, 1930 and 1970
By THEODORE HERSHBERG, ALAN N. BURSTEIN, EUGENE P. ERICKSEN,
STEPHANIE GREENBERG, and WILLIAM L. YANCEY
ABSTRACT: Determining whether the black experience was
unique, or similar to that of earlier white immigrant groups,
is central to the debate over whether blacks should be the
beneficiaries of special compensatory legislation in the pres-
ent. To answer this question requires interdisciplinary re-
search that combines a comparative ethnic, an urban, and a
historical perspective. Thus we observe the experience of
three waves of immigrants to Philadelphia: the Irish and Ger-
mans who settled in the "Industrializing City" of the mid-to-
late nineteenth century; the Italians, Poles and Russian Jews
who came to the "Industrial City" at the turn of the twentieth
century; and blacks who arrived in the "Post-tndustrial City"
in their greatest numbers after World War II. Analysis of the
city’s changing opportunity structure and ecological form, and
the racial discrimination encountered shows the black experi-
ence to be unique in kind and degree. Significant changes
in the structures that characterized each of the "three cities"
call into question our standing notion of the assimilation
process.
Theodore Hershberg is Associate Professor of History and Public Policy in the
School of Public and Urban Policy at the University of Pennsylvania where he
directs the Philadelphia Social History Project and the newly established Center
for Philadelphia Studies.
Alan N. Burstein is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Wash-
ington University in St. Louis.
Eugene P. Ericksen is Associate Professor of Sociology, and sampling statistician,
Institute for Survey Research, Temple University.
Stephanie W. Greenberg is Research Sociologist at the Center for the Study of
Social Behavior at the Research Triangle Institute.
William L. Yancey is Professor of Sociology at Temple University.
The Philadelphia Social History Project, part of the School of Public and Urban Policy at
the University of Pennsylvania, is funded by the Center for Studies of Metropolitan Problems,
NIMH
(MH 16621); Division of Research Grants, NEH (RC 25568-76-1156); and the Sociology
55

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56
Program, Division of Social Sciences, NSF (SOC 76-20069), Theodore Hershberg, principal m-
vestigator. Research underway at Temple University is also supported by the Center for Studies of
Metropolitan Problems, NIMH (MH 25244), William L. Yancey and Eugene P. Ericksen,
co-principal investigators. A special note of thanks is due to the many PSHP Research
Associates and to Henry Williams and Richard Greenfield.
SIGNIFICANT differences
Over the
in
years we have come to
k~ socioeconomic condition char-
see how the study of the black ex-
acterize the experience of black and
perience requires a broader context
white
than
Americans. Why and how this
gross comparisons of whites
happened, and what if anything
with blacks. Recent research has
should be done about it,
finally recognized that white America
are among
the central
consists of diverse
questions of our time.
groups and that
Their
the study of their distinct experiences
answers have important impli-
cations for public policy. The
requires a comparative ethnic per-
crux
of the matter
spective. While this constitutes a
can be put this way:
major advance, what remains con-
were the burdens and disabilities
faced by black Americans peculiar to
spicuously absent from the literature
their historical experience
-especially from the history of
or were
blacks in
they simply obstacles which
cities-is an awareness
every
that the
immigrant
study of the black experi-
group entering American
ence necessitates an urban
society had to overcome?’
perspec-
tive as we11.2 Two distinct environ-
1. This essay is based on the research of
five authors, all Research Associates of the
text. Many of these papers will appear in
Philadelphia Social History Project which
Toward an Interdisciplinary History of the
collected and made machine-readable the
City: Work, Space, Family and Group Experi-
data for the nineteenth century. For further
ence in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia, ed.
information about the PSHP and its inter-
Theodore Hershberg (New York: Oxford
disciplinary approach to research see Theo-
University Press, forthcoming, 1979), here-
dore Hershberg, "The Philadelphia Social
after cited as Interdisciplinary History of the
History Project: A Methodological History"
City.
(Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1973), and
2. Recent monographs on urban black com-
"The Philadelphia Social History Project: A
munities provide an ethnic and racial per-
Special Issue," Historical Methods 9 (1976):
spective on the black experience but fail to
2-3. The twentieth-century data were col-
adequately treat its urban context. See Gilbert
lected by William Yancey and Eugene Erick-
Osofsky, Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto:
sen. PSHP
data form the basis for Alan N. Bur-
Negro New York,
1890-1920
(New York: Har-
stein, "Residential Distribution and Mobility
per and Row, 1963); Allan H. Spear, Black
of Irish and German Immigrants in Philadel-
Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto,
phia, 1850-1880," (Ph.D. diss., University
1890-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago
of Pennsylvania, 1975); the nineteenth and
Press, 1967); Seth M. Scheiner, Negro Mecca:
twentieth-century data were used in Stepha-
A History of the Negro in New York City,
nie Greenberg, "Industrialization in Phila-
1865-1920 (New York University Press,
delphia : The Relationship between Industrial
1965); David M. Katzman, Before the Ghetto:
Location and Residential Patterns, 1880-
Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century (Ur-
1930," (Ph.D., diss., Temple University,
bana : University of Illinois Press, 1973); John
1977).
W. Blassingame, Black New Orleans, 1860-
"A Tale of Three Cities" attempts to syn-
1880 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
thesize the findings reported in these disser-
1973).
tations and in a number of separate journal
An exception is Kenneth L. Kusmer, A
articles and unpublished papers; reference to
Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland 1870-
these will be made at appropriate points in the
1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,

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57
ments embrace much
of Afro-Ameri-
larger opportunity structure. The
can history: plantation and ghetto.3
3
term &dquo;ecological structure,&dquo; or the
Once the most rural of Americans,
distribution in space of people,
blacks are today the most urbanized.
housing, jobs, transportation, and
Unfortunately, the histories that
other urban elements is understood
have been written treat the city in
as the material expression of the
passive terms, as a kind of incidental
opportunity structure. A city’s eco-
setting for the subject at hand; in
logical structure can thus be con-
order to learn how the &dquo;city&dquo; affected
sidered as a major determinant of
blacks it is necessary to construct
differential &dquo;access&dquo; -to jobs, hous-
a history which treats the city in dy-
ing, transportation, and services.
namic terms. Such a history would
Finally, the term &dquo;structural per-
conceive of &dquo;urban&dquo; as a &dquo;process&dquo;
spective&dquo; encompasses both the
linking the experience of people to
opportunity structure and its eco-
aspects of the particular environ-
logical form and is used here to char-
ment in which they lived.4 In this
acterize our overall conceptual ap-
essay a comparative ethnic and an
proach.
urban perspective are combined to
The experience of black and white
further understanding of the black
immigrant groups, then, must be
experience.
understood within a changing urban
This essay will focus on Phila-
environment, recognizing the effects
delphia’s
s
&dquo;opportunity structure.&dquo;
that such environments had upon
Such a term encompasses a wide
different groups of people at dif-
variety of factors; although much
ferent points in Philadelphia’s past.
more than the hierarchy of occupa-
The ecological &dquo;rules&dquo; that explain
tions define an opportunity structure,
important elements of the white im-
the distribution of occupations is
migrant experience do not explain,
certainly central to the concept and
for most of Philadelphia’s history,
may
be considered its most important
what happened to blacks. Where
single attribute. For the sake of blacks were concerned the rules
brevity, a vertical distribution of were inoperative, suspended as it
occupations will be used as a proxy
were by the force of racism. Racism,
measure for a group’s place in the
particularly its manifestation in dis-
criminatory hiring and housing prac-
tices, is the final dimension in the
1976). Following in the tradition of W.E.B.
DuBois, the Philadelphia Negro: A Social
explanatory framework. The subsid-
Study (Philadelphia, 1899; New York:
ing of the worst of racial discrimina-
Schocken Press, 1965) and St. Clair Drake and
tion in contemporary American life
Horace R. Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study.
suggests that blacks will at last begin
of Negro Life in A Northern City (New York:
to be treated as other
Harper and Row, 1945), Kusmer discusses
people. But
how the urban environment affected the col-
the potential gains will not be realized
lective experiences of blacks in late nine-
because other offsetting changes
teenth and early twentieth-century Cleveland.
have occurred simultaneously. Phila-
3. For...