Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2606.

Adviser: Glenda E. Gilmore.

This project offers a comparative historical account of black community formation in New York City and London from the end of World War II through the 1970s. Focusing on the neighborhoods of central Brooklyn and Notting Hill, west London, this study uniquely connects the experiences of African Americans and West Indian migrants to both the United States and Great Britain. While attendant to the very real differences across nations and between groups, this work emphasizes a number of important linkages and common sets of experiences, beginning with overlapping histories of migration.

One of the central arguments of this dissertation is that claims to public space have been critically important to the formation of these urban communities. I suggest that efforts to claim and defend access to public space---both literal and discursive--- have been part of a larger assertion of urban citizenship rights. I locate these assertions in several areas. First, I examine the role of racial violence and police brutality in fostering collective consciousness and inspiring political responses. In tracing the development of West Indian Carnival in both New York and London, I consider how diasporic cultural traditions adapt to the physical terrain of the city. Finally, I look at the ways these communities of black migrants and settlers attempt to shape a collective voice in order to make demands on the state, advocate for resources, and simply represent their own realities to a wider public.