Black Bourgeoisie: The Book That Brought the Shock of Self-Revelation to Middle-Class Blacks in America

A classic analysis of the Black middle class studies its origin and development, accentuating its behavior, attitudes, and values during the 1940s and 1950s**Title:** **Author:** **Publisher:** **Publication Date:** **Number of Pages:** **Binding Type:** **Library of Congress:** When It Was First Published In 19577, E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie Was Simultaneously Reviled And Revered - Revered For Its Skillful Dissection Of One Of America's Most Complex Communities, Reviled For Daring To Cast A Critical Eye On A Section Of Black Society That Had Achieved The Trappings Of The White, Bourgeois Ideal. The Author Traces The Evolution Of This Enigmatic Class From The Segregated South To The Post-war Boom In The Integrated North, Showing How, Along The Road To What Seemed Like Prosperity And Progress, Middle-class Blacks Actually Lost Their Roots To The Traditional Black World While Never Achieving Acknowledgment From The White Sector. The Result, Concluded Frazier, Is An Anomalous Bourgeois Class With No Identity, Built On Self-sustaining Myths Of Black Business And Society, Silently Undermined By A Collective, Debilitating Inferiority Complex. To Read Black Bourgeooisie Today Is Not Only To Experience One Of The Most Important Studies Of African American Life But Also To Realize How Controversial And Relevent Frazier's Revelations And Challenges Remain. -- From Back Cover. Negro Slavery And The Plantation -- The Impact Of Western Civilization -- A Nation Within A Nation? -- Purpose Of The Present Study -- Part I--the World Of Reality -- I. The Roots Of The Black Bourgeoisie -- Efforts Of The Free Negroes To Acquire Wealth -- The Freedmen's Savings Bank -- Independent Ventures In The Field Of Banking -- Ii. The Economic Basis Of Middle-class Status -- Increasing Occupational Differentiation Of The Negro Population -- Occupational Status And Incomes -- Negro Business -- Iii. Education Of The Black Bourgeoisie -- Northern Missionaries Follow The Union Armies -- Capitalism And Philanthropy -- Piety, Thrift, And Respectability -- From The Making Of Men To The Making Of Money-makers -- Iv. Power And Political Orientation -- Brotherhood And Power -- Service And The Intelligentsia -- Serving Two Masters -- V. Break With The Traditional Background -- Passing Of The Gentleman And The Peasant -- The Renaissance That Failed -- Mobility And Money -- Vi. Inferiority Complex And Quest For Status -- A Chattel In An Alien Land -- Half-a-man In A White Man's Country -- The Struggle For Status And Recognition -- Part Ii--the World Of Make-believe -- Vii. Negro Business: A Social Myth -- Origin Of The Myth -- The Myth Becomes Institutionalized -- Propagation Of The Myth -- The Myth And The Changing Status Of The Negro -- Viii. The Negro Press And Wish-fulfillment -- The Romance Of Urban Life -- Achievements Of The Race -- Recognition Of The Race -- Ix. Society : Status Without Substance -- Evolution Of Society -- The Gaudy Carnival -- Playing Seriously -- From Church To Chance -- X. Behind The Masks -- The Mark Of Oppression -- Insecurities And Frustrations -- Self-hatred And Guilt Feelings -- Escape Into Delusions. By E. Franklin Frazier. Originally Published: Glencoe, Ill. : Free Press, [1957]. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 239-257) And Indexes. A classic analysis of the Black middle class studies its origin and development, accentuating its behavior, attitudes, and values during the 1940s and 1950s. When it was first published in 1957, E. Franklin Fraziers Black Bourgeoisie was simultaneously reviled and reveredrevered for its skillful dissection of one of Americas most complex communities, reviled for daring to cast a critical eye on a section of black society that had achieved the trappings of the white, bourgeois ideal. The author traces the evolution of this enigmatic class from the segregated South to the post-war boom in the integrated North, showing how, along the road to what seemed like prosperity and progress, middle-class blacks actually lost their roots to the traditional black world while never achieving acknowledgment from the white sector. The result, concluded Frazier, is an anomalous bourgeois class with no identity, built on self-sustaining myths of black business and society, silently undermined by a collective, debilitating inferiority complex. If one would ferret out the roots of the black bourgeoisie in the United States, one would have to study the varied and sporadic efforts of the Negroes who were free before the Civil War to acquire wealth.