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  • Making Good Neighbors: Civil Rights, Liberalism, and Integration in Postwar Philadelphia by Abigail Perkiss
  • Stanley Keith Arnold
Making Good Neighbors: Civil Rights, Liberalism, and Integration in Postwar Philadelphia. By Abigail Perkiss. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014. 248 pages. Hardcover, $35.00.

The study of interracial civil rights activism has been covered increasingly by scholars in the recent past. In addition to examining the emergence of activist movements, books and articles have analyzed churches, educational institutions, and summer camps. In Making Good Neighbors, Abigail Perkiss, an assistant professor at Kean University, focuses on how one neighborhood defied white flight and attempted to create a well-planned model integrated community.

As African Americans began to flee the South in the early twentieth century, they found new opportunities but continued to face racism in education, labor, and housing; for example, restrictive covenants and other legal tactics limited where blacks could live. Although judicial victories such as the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer case placed segregationists on the defensive, opposition to residential integration continued. Perkiss argues that in contrast to the majority of white communities across the nation, the residents of West Mount Airy, a bucolic neighborhood located in Northwest Philadelphia, chose another path. This community was composed of liberal and open-minded white professionals who, in Perkiss's words, "had grown accustomed to interracial interaction in their public lives and were perhaps more open to the prospect of such friendly relations in their residential community as well"(30). She also notes that these residents of West Mount Airy were more secure economically than those in blue collar communities and were thus less risk averse. Residents formed the West Mount Airy Neighbors Association (WMAN), spearheaded by both Jewish and Christian clergy; instead of resisting integration, WMAN encouraged African American newcomers.

In precise and elegant prose, Perkiss examines the efforts of WMAN and their allies to create a model integrated community. By the early 1960s, the relative success of West Mount Airy had attracted both national and [End Page 131] international attention. She frames the project within the context of the period: "As community leaders spoke of a democratic impulse and a drive toward the fulfillment of the American Dream, they employed this Cold War-infused language to attract the attention of mainstream white homeowners" (36). The West Mount Airy experiment faced opposition, however. Some white residents fled the community, citing changes in school demographics and concerns about crime. In addition, an increasing number of black activists, such as local NAACP president Cecil B. Moore, castigated black West Mount Airy residents as "sellouts" and "traitors." Perkiss maintains that despite these obstacles, West Mount Airy's residents worked diligently to foster true integration in their neighborhood schools. While the volatile racial situation in Philadelphia buffeted their efforts, the community continued to reinvent itself. Building on its history of intentional racial integration, the neighborhood became a haven for gays, lesbians, and a broad range of leftist residents by the late 1970s. Today West Mount Airy continues to thrive as a community with a commitment to multiracial and multiethnic diversity.

Making Good Neighbors is a truly pioneering work. Although her study focuses on a relatively small community, Perkiss frames her research within the context of regional and national developments. By her selection and examination of West Mount Airy, she broadens our understanding of the civil rights struggle. Although some believe the quest for racial justice was driven solely by large civil rights organizations, Perkiss demonstrates that a leafy urban northern neighborhood also contributed to this epic struggle.

In her methodology, Perkiss utilizes both municipal records and the collections of several neighborhood associations. Perhaps the most important aspect of her research design is the extensive use of oral interviews. Perkiss collected interviews from nearly fifty current and former West Mount Airy residents. One of her more successful efforts was facilitating a guided conversation event on the history of integration sponsored by WMAN and the Germantown Jewish Centre (GJC). This approach allowed her to experience a dialogue that would not emerge with single interviews. While it would be misleading to say that Perkiss's interviews drive her narrative, she uses them to weave a rich tapestry of an...

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