Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900–1980 by Todd M. Michney (review)

In a 2016 campaign visit with pastors in Cleveland, Donald Trump emphasized the city's "incredible crime," paucity of good jobs, and subpar public school systems. To African Americans in particular, he said they should vote for him because, "What do you have to lose?" Trump claimed the message was "resonating," but polling indicated his support with Ohio blacks hovered around zero percent.

Todd Michney's Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900–1980 helps explain why Trump's plea fell on deaf ears. Countering those who see black urban areas as an undifferentiated mass ("living in hell," according to Trump) and scholars who stress blacks as victims of structural forces, Michney underscores African American agency and resistance. Michney focuses on his hometown of Cleveland, a place with a substantial black presence but generally neglected by urban historians. The book significantly broadens our understanding of racial dynamics in the Midwest. African Americans came in increasing numbers during the 1910s and 1920s, and as in most northern cities, European Americans created a white identity in part by cordoning off blacks. A dual housing market emerged, as whites did not sell or rent to blacks outside of the Central Avenue district.

African Americans did not settle for segregation but boldly pioneered areas whites considered off limits to them. They did not necessarily seek integration, however, and had mixed feelings on associating with whites. Some neighborhoods engaged in interracial efforts, but they were usually overwhelmed by negativity and white exits. Racial turnover occurred in Cleveland, but unlike Chicago and Detroit, many neighborhoods transitioned peacefully. Violent white solidarity was not the norm, as residents had a variety of responses to black newcomers. The reactions of Jewish Clevelanders may have lessened hostilities, as they were more likely to sell to African Americans and befriend them, drawing enmity from hardliners. "Whiteness," when viewed up close, had many shades. Michney does not demonize fleeing whites, noting that their actions were not irrational but based in self-interest and experience with neighborhood decline.

Where whites commonly saw "changing neighborhoods" as a tragedy, for blacks they were opportunities to unlock more living space. Most African American residents, Michney remarks, did not consider their neighborhoods "ghettoes." Michney details black middle-class agency as they sought to stabilize and improve their communities. They barred liquor establishments, enforced zoning codes to prevent overcrowding, and were active in local and citywide political efforts. The significance of race was evident here as well, though, as Michney shows middle-class black neighborhoods were among the best organized and most energetic in the city, but still less effective at getting heard by political and business elites.

Michney also provides a nuanced overview of class frictions within black Cleveland. For many, community conservation meant keeping "undesirable" people out. Prosperous blacks often set aside structural explanations for the plight of the poor and focused on their behavioral shortcomings. Even in the 1970s, when the damage of industrial decline and capital flight should have been clear to nearly everyone, detractors continued to deploy cultural and moral explanations for symptoms of the urban crisis. The animosity was real, but Michney skillfully avoids falling into the trap of equating intraracial class tension and the racial discrimination hovering over the city.

"Living in hell?" No. As Michney relates, blacks would not stand for it. Too many observers—academic or otherwise—have underestimated the capacity of African Americans to resist and remodel the various obstacles set in their paths as they made cities their own.