What are the most significant cities in US Black History?

[murksiderock]

And why? Feel free to be as detailed as necessary.

Thread was inspired by something @Houston911 said in the sports section.

In my opinion, there have been a lot of influential cities in Black History, but the most significant ones have to hold relevance across multiple eras.

I feel like, you can view this many ways, but I start by breaking it down by era.

I. 1500s thru the end of the Civil War (1865), essentially the slavery era. What were the early cities that shaped American Black History?

II. Abolition & Jim Crow thru the Great Migration (so roughly 1865-1950

III. The Civil Rights Era (1950s/1960s)

IV. Late 20th Century (1970-1999)

V. The 21st Century

This is how I see it, though I guess an even simpler breakdown would be by century. 2000s, 1900s, 1800s, 1700s, 1600s.

Anyway I want engagement because I'm interested in what people think are the most impactful cities to black history here!

 

[murksiderock]

I feel like starting now, in the modern era from 2000 to present, there are some hard truths...

•New York has been a significant city for black people almost its whole existence, and will likely always be. Non-southern cities in general, including New York, aren't as impactful as they were pre-2000 as we've become a less homogenous culture and are less dependent on the economies and exports of non-southern cities, but even with that said, there's no denying New York's imprint on black culture even in the modern day.

•I feel like cities that command trends and migration flow of large subregions deserve a mention. Boston has always been the epicenter of blackness in New England, I think that matters. I'd use this same logic, while on a lower scale, to apply to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and West Coast in general.

•Philadelphia and Baltimore are diminishing in their overall impact but are still solid enough to be mentioned.

•Los Angeles still has, by far, the largest black community west of The Texas Triangle, and still has the largest cultural relevance for any place west of The Texas Triangle. It's impact isn't as large as it was pre-2000, but it's still the largest center if blackness for a huge ass geography on the Westside of this country.

•DC and Atlanta, arguably the two black meccas of the country, need no further explanation.

•Houston and DFW are heavyweight cities for black culture and active black history this entire first quarter of the 21st century, in a way they weren't prior.

•Charlotte is becoming a notable riser in our community, really by extension you could add Raleigh and Nashville, but if you don't think those latter two cities make the cut yet, you can leave it at Charlotte.

•Chicago is still Chicago for us, Detroit is still Detroit! Diminishing impacts but still large.

•I would say "Florida" as a whole. And I guess you could apply "North Carolina" or the "Carolinas" as a whole because the movements aren't solely Charlotte-generated. If I'm naming a specific Florida place. I'd say the Orlampa (Orlando to Tampa corridor) is the rising star in Florida.

So maybe up to 20 cities of significance for the modern era.

 

[MoveForward]

Atlanta… They gave you nikkas MLK
DC
NYC Harlem specifically
Chicago
Tulsa

 

[murksiderock]

Formerly significant cities that no longer make the cut for me:

•Memphis and New Orleans, which are still big deals in their regions (Memphis in the Delta South, New Orleans in the Gulf South), those cities have declined tremendously from where they were in eras past, and haven't been A-listers in quite some time.

•Miami is another city that has lost so many black people, it's morphed into a Hispanic epicenter.

•St Louis used to be a really prominent place for black people, its lost its cache. Same for The Bay Area.

•I feel like Ohio as a whole deserves a spot here.

•Charleston and Coastal Virginia, basically the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, haven't been culturally relevant in generations but these two were probably the two most important centers of blackness in the 1600s, and they laid the roots of black culture that spread nationally.

 

[King Poetic]

1. Oakland…. Black Panther Party …

 

[murksiderock]

Atlanta… They gave you nikkas MLK
DC
NYC Harlem specifically
Chicago
Tulsa

If we name Tulsa we have to name every place with a prominent, thriving black community in Reconstruction. Which, cool, if that's the bar, then let's include everyone.

But I didn't include Tulsa for the same reason I excluded Wilmington NC:

Wilmington massacre - Wikipedia Wilmington massacre - Wikipedia

Wilmington happened 22 years prior to the Tulsa massacre, and Wilmington is the historic "black city" of note in NC, but I don't know that it was nationally significant even in that era. It was a big deal, though.

 

[murksiderock]

1. Oakland…. Black Panther Party …

The Black Panther Party was such a short-lived era, and I feel like it gets exaggerated as more significant than it was. Meaning, it was significant, but the movement lasted like 15-20 years tops.

I would say Oakland and San Francisco fit in the sense of just the amount of black siginificance it played from like 1940 thru 2000; SF mostly in the first half of that era, Oakland in the later half. So the Panthers to me are noteworthy within the context of just so much blackness radiating from those cities, in a 50-60 year window.

San Francisco gets shorted in these discussions but it was the first place that black people migrated to in Northern California and built a community if note. Black people started coming to Oakland later, and many of the later black families in Oakland, came from SF originally.

 

[010101]

NYC Harlem specifically

but if it wasn't for the bronx..........*

 

[King Poetic]

The Black Panther Party was such a short-lived era, and I feel like it gets exaggerated as more significant than it was. Meaning, it was significant, but the movement lasted like 15-20 years tops.

I would say Oakland and San Francisco fit in the sense of just the amount of black siginificance it played from like 1940 thru 2000; SF mostly in the first half of that era, Oakland in the later half. So the Panthers to me are noteworthy within the context of just so much blackness radiating from those cities, in a 50-60 year window.

San Francisco gets shorted in these discussions but it was the first place that black people migrated to in Northern California and built a community if note. Black people started coming to Oakland later, and many of the later black families in Oakland, came from SF originally.

It was short lived from 1966 to like 1971 with the government infiltration …

But for that short period it was effective

And the past 50 years we haven’t had anything as a group of people as a whole not individually

 

[murksiderock]

It was short lived from 1966 to like 1971 with the government infiltration …

But for that short period it was effective

And the past 50 years we haven’t had anything as a group of people as a whole not individually

Real question, do we need a singular group? People find their community in church and local advocacy groups, do we really need something as large as what the Panthers were?

Same thing the Panthers were doing, there are smaller groups across the country doing.

 

[King_Kamala61]

Tulsa
New Orleans

 

[King Poetic]

Real question, do we need a singular group? People find their community in church and local advocacy groups, do we really need something as large as what the Panthers were?

Same thing the Panthers were doing, there are smaller groups across the country doing.

My Opinion only

We need to work on our families first…

So many broken homes and u see it with 9,10,11,12 year old kids doing crime

Fix your households first and after that focus on getting your local city councilmen and women to do they job , fukk the presidency because we have seen these past 5 decades black folks haven’t gotten shyt

 

[CrimsonTider]

Birmingham

 

[EBK String]

In no order

Chicago
Atlanta
LA
NYC
Bay Area
Detroit
DC

 

[Child_Of_God]

Atlanta
NYC
Chicago
Memphis
DC
Detroit


Anyone that’s saying LA (the same city that made gangbanging mainstream which lead to countless black on black murders all across the country) gotta be out of their minds.