A review by mitskacir
Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in the Jim Crow South by Leslie Brown

4.0

I am giving this book a 4 because of content, but I'd give it a 3 in terms of readability. I'll start with the cons: This is a huge book that covers a lot of content, but it is not written in the most accessible way. I think the book would benefit greatly from being shorter and more concise. Many parts seemed repetitive, as if Brown was more focused in having an extensive bibliography than making her point efficiently. The pros: This is very well researched and is the first book I've read that satisfactorily presents history from an intersectional lens. It was fascinating to take the black-and-white racial narrative that is usually presented in books about the Jim Crow era and complicate it with cross- and inter-racial class differences and elitism and the concept of "Jane Crow." Despite its density and the fact that it was not an easy read, I think that this should be reading for anyone living in Durham who is interested in Durham history or social justice.