In Jacob Lawrence’s “Genesis Creation Sermon I, In the Beginning All Was Voided” (1989), Lawrence depicts the reverend of a black church. The painting, which is the first in a series of eight, shows the preacher looking heavenward. This scene marks the beginning of the Christian narrative of the creation of the world. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”- Genesis 1:1 (NIV).
In line with the theme of creation, the 1980s marked the creation of what some scholars argue was the creation of a true black middle class. The growing income gap within the black community allowed some to have more economic mobility than others. This era was marked by increases in black suburbanization, which had previously been limited due to redlining and segregation. Along with this suburbanization came an increased wealth gap, due to the ability to own homes. This shift comes far behind that of whites, who, with the creation of the G.I. Bill and the Interstate Act of 1956 were largely able to move into the suburbs (Donally). The period of almost three decades that passed before blacks were able to have similar levels of access to housing as whites, along with a national legacy of slavery and legal exclusion, help explain why there is a persisting gap of wealth inequality between whites and blacks, and why there was an absence of a clearly defined, large black middle class for so many years.
Works Cited
Donnally, Jennifer. “The Polarizing Age”.
Harrison, Bennett. Gorham, Lucy. “Growing Inequality in Black Wages in the 1980s and the Emergence of an African-American Middle Class”. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 235-253
Scneider, Mark. Phelan, Thomas. “Black Suburbanization in the 1980s”. Demography, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May, 1993), pp. 269-279
www.scadmoa.org/art/collections/genesis-creation-sermon-i-in-the-beginning-all-was-void
http://thewalters.org/events/eventdetails.aspx?e=2737
In line with the theme of creation, the 1980s marked the creation of what some scholars argue was the creation of a true black middle class. The growing income gap within the black community allowed some to have more economic mobility than others. This era was marked by increases in black suburbanization, which had previously been limited due to redlining and segregation. Along with this suburbanization came an increased wealth gap, due to the ability to own homes. This shift comes far behind that of whites, who, with the creation of the G.I. Bill and the Interstate Act of 1956 were largely able to move into the suburbs (Donally). The period of almost three decades that passed before blacks were able to have similar levels of access to housing as whites, along with a national legacy of slavery and legal exclusion, help explain why there is a persisting gap of wealth inequality between whites and blacks, and why there was an absence of a clearly defined, large black middle class for so many years.
Works Cited
Donnally, Jennifer. “The Polarizing Age”.
Harrison, Bennett. Gorham, Lucy. “Growing Inequality in Black Wages in the 1980s and the Emergence of an African-American Middle Class”. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 235-253
Scneider, Mark. Phelan, Thomas. “Black Suburbanization in the 1980s”. Demography, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May, 1993), pp. 269-279
www.scadmoa.org/art/collections/genesis-creation-sermon-i-in-the-beginning-all-was-void
http://thewalters.org/events/eventdetails.aspx?e=2737