Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia

<i>Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia</i> by Thomas Healy is the story of one man's dream to build a majority Black city in rural NC and how that dream failed. Floyd McKissick was a civil rights leader who was also the founder and developer of Soul City, NC. His goal in building the city was to help build up the economic fortunes of African Americans in the region of the state. McKissick was a leader in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), he marched alongside Dr. King, and later became associated with the Black Power movement. Soul City was a continuation of McKissick's vision of Black Power, especially Black economic autonomy.<br /><br />This book chronicles the constant battles that McKissick faced in order to create Soul City. I liked this book because Healy makes a story about the politics of city planning and developing interesting to read. The book contains a cast of characters that native North Carolinians will be familiar with: Harvey Gantt, Eva Clayton, and Jesse Helms to name a few. Soul City faced many challenges: critics who complained that it was a separatist city, government bureaucracy, the city's name, an obstructionist senator in Jesse Helms, a probing News and Observer reporter, and reluctant prospective business opportunities. Ultimately when it comes down to it I asked myself this question: Did Soul City ever stand a chance of succeeding? It seems not. Whether it was a mixture of it being Black developed, the city's name, or a mix of both; Soul City deserved more and should have been given more chances to grow and succeed. Healy tells an important story that should inform future developers who dream to build majority Black cities as McKissick attempted to do.<br /><br /><i>Thanks to NetGalley, Metropolitan Books, and Thomas Healy for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on February 2, 2021.</i>

***I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***<br /><br />Have you heard of Soul City? Prior to reading this book, I hadn't. Soul City was an endeavor by civil rights leader Floyd McKissick to create a town that existed outside of segregation and integration and other racist issues of the 1960s. He wanted to create a place where Black people could thrive, own capital, run businesses, and live alongside their white neighbors as equals. For that time period, this is a truly audacious idea and what is remarkable is how close he came to succeeding. <br /><br />McKissick inspired many people around him. He managed to gain funding from the federal government as part of the new communities act (the only Black man to do so). He had both Black and white people working hard to make this dream a reality. Unfortunately, racism is real and it's not always a redneck yelling slurs along the highway (though it is definitely that). McKissick had to fight against racist Senators, racist local newspapers, and he had to jump through more hoops than anyone else receiving funds from the same federal program. <br /><br />I give the author, a white man, a lot of credit for understanding and communicating the subtle ways racism doomed this venture (she said, as a white person...so take a grain of salt with that statement). Very few people would couch their concerns/critiques of Soul City in racial terms...but the effect is the same. It's insiduous. It fed on the average white person's fear of powerful Black people. The author was fair and didn't overdramatize the issues at hand, but by simply laying the facts out it's clear that Floyd McKissick was fighting an uphill battle on all fronts. <br /><br />Ultimately, Soul City was only partially built and never became the city it was meant to. Part of the land was sold off and is now a prison. And if that isn't the tragedy of America in microcosm, I don't know what is.

I've always wanted to build cities. Not just any city, but one where everyone had access to everything. As I grew up, that dream seemed basically impossible so I pivoted to just improving existing ones. Thomas Healy's Soul City walked through the struggles Floyd McKessick faced in trying to fulfill his dream -- a post-racial utopia. I'm a bit disappointed I had never heard of Soul City until I checked this book out three weeks ago bc McKessick's efforts are noteworthy and admirable. McKessick, a contemporary of MLK and other civil rights activists, also had a dream and he stopped at nothing to make it happen, despite the endless backlash. When I read about the hoops the US government put him through, I am reminded of first, the power capital has, and second, the logistical complexity that comes with building a city. From picking the right land to convincing the industry to relocate. McKissick even switched political parties to receive more funding. <br /><br />Overall, Soul City was a really enjoyable yet frustrating read on black history's almost forgot figures. I highly rec for anyone who finds "race, equality, or cities"

I am flabbergasted that I've never even heard of this! An important, unknown (to this white woman) slice of history.

<p> <b> Wow </b> what an amazing book and what an amazing story! So very well done. Soul City would have been a game changer in every possible meaning of the phrase for African-Americans and for all Americans. So of ‘course North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and the local media in the form of Claude Sitton and Pat Stith of the <i>News &amp; Observer</i> worked to defeat Floyd McKissick’ s efforts. In my opinion Sitton and Stith both protest their innocence and ‘good intentions’ too much – read it for yourself and decide. Their concerted effort to identify wrongdoing in the Soul City project, motivated by their alleged ‘good government’ goals fails to obscure their decision to skew their work in order to prevent a full and complete presentation of the true financial and planning situation. Even when the data was there in front of them as author Thomas Healy demonstrates. They are ultimately as responsible as Helms who notoriously celebrated his overt hatred of the plan and made no secret of his desire to end Soul City as soon as possible. This outright hatred was recognized and, in some ways, appreciated by McKissick, so Healy claims, because at least then McKissick knew what he was dealing with. The media could come across as friendly when visiting Soul City but then often produce a crushing and incomplete story. <br /><br /> Healy presents here a fair and well-researched history of Soul City along with valuable background on the <i>New Cities</i> movement, the negative influence of HUD bureaucratic failures and the white/black divide in urban planning generally in the 1970s. <br /><br /> Turning back to the ‘game changer’ idea of what Soul City might have been, Thomas Healy uses the words of a Soul City participant and former Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina to explain: </p><blockquote><br />If Soul City had succeeded, what would it have meant? [Harvey]Gantt paused to consider. It might have changed the history of race relations over the past century, he said, expanding the country’s focus beyond civil rights to the even more challenging issue of economic equality. Had it been successful and we’d seen Black capitalism really at work in a thriving, growing entity…I think it would have done wonders for the psyche of Black Americans and Americans in general, and that model would have been replicated in other counties across the country.</blockquote><br /> What a loss. <br /><br /><br />FROM the Legal History Blog (11/17): <i>Thomas Healy’s Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia (Metropolitan Books) was named winner of the 2021 Hooks National Book Award by the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis" (Seton Hall University).</i><br /><br />

Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia by Thomas Healy is a fascinating history about a quickly forgotten piece of the struggle for social justice.<br /><br />This is one of those books that, for me, is greater than the sum of its parts. The writing is very good, the research is thorough, and the fact I had barely even heard about it (and knew no details) piqued my curiosity. Any of those three elements would have made this book a success for me. But the way these are woven together, history within a narrative and the narrative in some ways being both then and now, all in a very engaging style made this a great read.<br /><br />I think there is little doubt that racism was the single biggest factor in the demise of the city, but through this detailed examination of what is involved in creating a planned city from scratch we can also see the other more bureaucratic obstacles that would impede any such endeavor. Because racism is built into American institutions and bureaucracies, those obstacles any such city would have faced were significantly larger for Soul City.<br /><br />I would recommend this to readers who like to read about recent history, especially as it pertains to racial and social issues.<br /><br />Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

came back to edit this bc quarter system i did not have time to write a review <br /><br />this book is great for the light it shines on soul city and floyd mckissick; the narrative choices made by the author (regarding making it fit a clean beginning middle and end etc.) felt a little forced (shoutout to the cohort for unpacking that). i would still recommend this read-- it's a great look into the FHA, post-civil rights era continuations, economy, capitalism/black capitalism.... i could see it linking really well with a discussion of reparations and actual material benefits that ought to be afforded to descendants of enslaved people. it's less academic than something like <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/44601366.Race_for_Profit_How_Banks_and_the_Real_Estate_Industry_Undermined_Black_Homeownership" title="Race for Profit How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor" rel="noopener">Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership</a>, so it's easier to access, but in doing so it loses some of the nuances of this era and of soul city as an actual place, a utopia, rather than just a project of mckissick's

Extra points for the Interesting Black history education, minus points for being mostly a book about government bureaucracy. If you’re interested in the workings of HUD in the 1970’s, this is the book for you.

One of the best histories I have ever read, but also so sad. :( I loved all the work that Healy did in setting up the history of historic Black towns, of the Garden City movement, of Radiant City, of urban renewal, of the American Civil Rights movement. I love the way that different people in history would show up occasionally. I love how much attention is paid not only on the philosophical aspects of the development, but on the physical and governmental aspects as well.<br /><br />This is such an important and sad chapter of American history that more people should know about. In the end, Soul City never was realized not because of lack of ability or skill or planning, but because of people like Senator Jesse Helms, who in many ways signaled the rise of the new conservative wing of the Republican Party, wiping away any remnants of the liberal and moderate wings of the party, who made it a mission to deny the dream of Black self determination and a truly racially pluralistic community.<br /><br />Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement and its offshoots, equity in city planning, utopias.

A well-told, compelling history of something I didn't know anything about.