Book

Becoming Black American: Haitians and American institutions in Evanston, Illinois

AMS Press (54)Published In 1989 • Pages: xiii, 191

By: Woldemikael, Tekle Mariam.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study describes a Haitian immigrant community and its integration into the existing social structure of an American suburban city (Evanston, Illinois). The book focuses on how the immigrants and their children deal with the contradiction between their own self-definition of cultural identity based on Haitian history, culture and nationality, and the racial identity imposed on them by most American institutions (p. 2). This work contains data on the nature of race relations in Evanston, Illinois, Haitian migrations, the social structure of the Haitian community, the relationship between American churches and Haitian immigrants, the impact of American schools on the Haitian population, intra-generational relations, the attempt of Haitian and American advocates and mediators to transform Haitian immigrants into an organized pressure group to further group goals, and, in the final chapter, a summary of the major findings of this book with implications for the study of assimilation of Black immigrants and race relations in the United States.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
External migration
Labor supply and employment
Ethnic stratification
Classes
Sodalities
Inter-ethnic relations
Congregations
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Haitian Americans
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1998
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Sociologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1997
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1978-1980
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1940s-1980s
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Evanston, Illinois, United States
NotesAdditional notes
Tekle Mariam Woldemikael
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-188) and index
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
88084001
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Haitian Americans