ABSTRACT

In 1971, when the formalization of African American studies as a field of study in the mainstream academy was in its embryonic stages, social critic Harold Cruse observed a crucial rift in the historical knowledge of the 1960s’ generation of African American scholars. This rift was characterized by a failed comprehension of pre-1930s, pre-World War II urban processes, which could have contributed to a more informed appraisal of the Black urban condition by Black scholars, as they found it. This epistemological break further retarded methodological and interpretive developments in the incipient field of African American studies. These Black scholars, he observed, were hindered by, among other things, a White radical and liberal consensus-which generally dominated so-called “progressive” historiography and social science research-that, for the most part, shaped and limited production and interpretation of knowledge regarding African American life.1 In short, Black intellectuals, as has been the case historically, were not free to cultivate and sustain continuity in Black intellectual traditions and, more importantly, to engage in independent liberation-oriented theory construction.2