Arnecia Harris

04/13/2019

Sixties Utopian Movement

What started out as a search for civil rights utopias turned into a more general search of African American utopias. The original search for civil rights utopias was to find journals which applied utopian theory to the Civil Rights movement. I recall in our conversation; you mentioned the Dr. King’s Dream Speech. So, when I began my research, I expected to find a plethora of articles documenting the utopian views of the Civil Rights Movement. Either I did not use the correct search terms or did not widen my search enough, but my queries did not generate those types of results.

My results featured a wide range of Utopias; from analysis of a Utopian author from the 1880s to the analysis of African American utopias from different eras. The consistent theme in all the articles I found, was the underlying search for economic freedom. Social justice, such as having the right to vote, was secondary to economic freedom. There were several references to African American Utopian communities popping up from as early as the Reconstruction era until the heart of the Civil Rights movement. African American Utopia literature was develop

In “Black Utopia in Early Reconstruction New Orleans,” their utopia was from the perspective of African American freedmen during the Reconstruction era in Louisiana. The freedmen felt that the social change was not enough. It wasn’t that they did not care about social justice, such as the right to vote; they felt that economic emancipation would allow black people to break away from the current economic structure. Their utopia “required the economic emancipation of the freedmen through the overthrow of the propertied class and its replacement by "voluntary associations of workers who themselves would own the property on which they labored.” In this Utopian community, it was intended to ensure that African Americans of all classes received the fruits of their labor. They would receive a wage, as well as a portion of the profits (p. 444). The first test case was a bakery where individuals would invest into the business and run the operations. Ultimately what failed the venture into this Utopian society was a lack of capital, lack of trust by the people it was meant to serve, and the fragile business plan.

Fast forward approximately 100 years, Civil Rights attorney, Floyd McKissick embarked on a journey to create a Utopian community in Soul City, North Carolina. "Unless the Black man attains economic independence, any 'political independence' will be an illusion” (59). As with the attempt to create the Utopian community in New Orleans, Soul City started off with a lot of support from both black and white people. However, in the article, “Soul City, North Carolina: Black Power, Utopia, and the African American Dream,” Christopher Strain detailed the problems which plagued the Soul City development from the very beginning (1973) until its demise in 1979. While there were many contributing factors as to the demise of Soul City, according to Strain, the biggest flaw in the development of Soul City lies in the fact that he did not successfully draw industry to the city in order to support jobs for the residents. (p. 68)

In addition to finding results relating to Utopian economic independence for African Americans, there were several articles discussing African American utopian literature. An article that stood out was written by Amber Foster. In her “Nancy Prince’s Utopias: Reimagining the African American Utopian Tradition,” she pointed out that at the same time African Americans were creating Utopian communities in the 1800s, that there were several African American Utopian authors who were published, but not as widely popular as others in that era.

According to Foster, African American utopian novels were dismissed as underdeveloped or lacking literary significance. (p. 331). It was only in the latter half of the 19^th century that African American Utopian literary works began being recognized and analyzed. The publication of African American utopian literature was very limited, specifically those written by women. However, literary works focusing on slave narratives were published and widely distributed. (p. 332)

While my brief research did not fully answer my questions regarding specific Civil Rights Movement utopia, it actually changed my view of African American history. The scale of African American utopias that were launched before and after changes the narrative of my perception of African Americans who were freed from slavery was ended.

Foster, Amber. “Nancy Prince's Utopias: Reimagining the African American Utopian Tradition.” Utopian Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, 2013, pp. 329–348. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/utopianstudies.24.2.0329.

Strain, Christopher. “Soul City, North Carolina: Black Power, Utopia, and the African American Dream.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 89, no. 1, 2004, pp. 57–74. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4134046.

Trodd, Zoe. A Negative Utopia: Protest Memory and the Spatio-Symbolism of Civil Rights Literature and Photography

Vandal, Gilles. “Black Utopia in Early Reconstruction New Orleans: The People's Bakery as a Case-Study.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 38, no. 4, 1997, pp. 437–452. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4233445.

Grall, Vanessa. The All-Black Utopian Ghost City that Lost its Soul. https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/04/19/the-all-black-utopian-ghost-city-that-lost-its-soul/ April, 2016.

Rosen, Armin. African. Hebrew. Israelite. “The most successful African-American utopian separatist project in history is located in a desert town in Israel,” https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/282261/african-hebrew-israelite. March, 2019.