In the newly published article, “African American Locational Attainment Before the Civil Rights Era,” (City & Community, volume 9, September 2010), Lance Freeman challenges conventional wisdom that prior to the Civil Rights era, blacks of all classes lived side-by-side due to intense discrimination. According to this view, individual socioeconomic status did not translate into improved locational outcomes. By analyzing individual-level data from the 1910-1950 Public Use Microdata Samples, Freeman reveals how individual-level socioeconomic status translated into neighborhood-level outcomes for blacks. Among blacks, individual-level socioeconomic status played no role in determining residential proximity to whites. However, individual-level socioeconomic status for blacks was an important determinant of other neighborhood outcomes. His ground-breaking research suggests that upper-stratum blacks did indeed live in neighborhoods set apart from poorer blacks.

Geoffrey Canada’s effort to transform the lives of low-income children in Harlem by providing a comprehensive array of services within a 100 block area has convinced many skeptics, produced a top seller, and inspired a presidential effort.  A new controversial report by the Urban Institute suggests it may have been a waste of money, at least with respect to its effects on education.  After comparing the test performance of children in the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy to those in other New York City charter schools, the authors conclude, rather uncharitably, “that the HCZ Promise Academy is a middling New York City charter school.”  Canada responds, calling the report “wrong-headed,” for, among other things, misunderstanding the point of the HCZ.  Whitehurst and Croft promptly reply, standing their ground.  Considering that Obama has requested $210 million for the initiative inspired by HCZ, and that Congress seems reluctant to provide it, we really ought to get the story straight.

In “The Nightly Round: Space, Social Capital, and Urban Black Nightlife,” sociologist Marcus Hunter uses participant observation and semistructured interviews to consider the ways in which nightlife is used to mitigate the effects of social and spatial isolation, complementing the accomplishment of the daily round. Through an analysis of the nightly round—a process encompassing the social interactions, behaviors, and actions involved in going to, being in, and leaving the club—Hunter demonstrates that understanding the ways in which urban blacks use space in the nightclub to mediate racial segregation, sexual segregation, and limited social capital expands our current understanding of the spatial mobility of urban blacks as well as the important role of extra-neighborhood spaces in such processes. Further, the article highlights the ways that urban blacks use space in the nightclub to leverage socioeconomic opportunities and enhance social networks. While Hunter found that black heterosexual and lesbian and gay patrons used space in similar ways, black lesbians and gays were more likely to use the club as a space to develop ties of social support. The article can be found in the June 2010 issue of City and Community (volume 9, number 2).