"Building the Black City," History, Capitalism, and Reparations

FEATURING PROFESSOR JOE TROTTER - In his new book Building the Black City: The Transformation of American Life, academic Joe Trotter Jr., explores the role of Black Americans in creating, sustaining, and expanding American cities all over the nation. 

Professor Trotter delves into how African Americans launched cities from the ground up, often having to rebuild them after white mobs and capitalist forces destroyed them, how majority Black cities have existed within white-dominated cities, and how Black communities influenced the arts, economy, and politics of urban centers.

And, he chronicles 20 cities across 18 states, from the colonial period to the Great Migration through to today. It is a story of history, racial capitalism, and reparations owed.