When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story about Race in America's Cities and Universities

by Sharon Egretta Sutton, James Stewart Polshek (Foreword by)

Overview

Tells the story of how a cohort of ethnic minority students earned degrees from Columbia University’s School of Architecture. Follows two university units that steered the school toward an emancipatory approach to education. Assesses the triumphs and subsequent unraveling of an experiment to achieve racial justice in the school and in the nearby Harlem community. Informs contemporary struggles for racial and economic equality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823276141
Publisher:	Empire State Editions
Publication date:	03/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sharon Egretta Sutton is Professor Emerita at the University of Washington and a fellow in the American Institute of Architects, a Distinguished Professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and an Inductee into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Prologue

Introduction
1. Pre-1965 Context
2. 1965-1967 Context
3. 1968 Insurgency
4. 1968-1971 Experimentation
5. 1969-1971 Transgression
6. 1969-1971 Unraveling
7. 1972-1976 Extinction
8. Alumni Years
Epilogue
Appendixes
A. Biographies of the Oral History Cohort
B. List of All Ethnic Minority Recruits

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Sutton tells a story that has yet to be told: a time, an era, a passion, a hope, a tale recounted with the skill and energy of a mystery novel. She tells of young people who believed that the injustices they found on their college campuses also believed that they could be righted, that racism could be battled and defeated. When Ivory Towers Were Black encourages us to reflect on the dreams, hopes, battles and defeats as a way of measuring how far we have come—and how far there is yet to go."—Diane Ghirardo, University of Southern California

[Sutton] examines the development and unraveling of an experimental education initiative at Columbia University's School of Architecture that arose out of the school's 1968 student rebellions, aimed at recruiting of minority students and transforming the school's curriculum into "humanistic, justice-oriented" education. . . The recollections of the alumni that infuse and inform the text. . . give the book value as an oral history."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Sutton’s analysis critically examines the intersection of race, higher education, and urban development in a way that surely shows how the profession of architecture is equipped to and can aid in social justice initiatives around the country.

The Journal of African American History

[Sutton] examines the development and unraveling of an experimental education initiative at Columbia University’s School of Architecture that arose out of the school’s 1968 student rebellions, aimed at recruiting of minority students and transforming the school’s curriculum into “humanistic, justice-oriented” education. . . The recollections of the alumni that infuse and inform the text. . . give the book value as an oral history."

Publishers Weekly

...an unusual hybrid of memoir, institutional history and broadside against the entrenched whiteness of the architecture profession in this country.

LA Times

The most inspiring of [this book’s] positions is an unwavering faith in the power of affirmative action as a means of changing the design professions and, consequently, the spaces they shape . . . A profession that reflects the diversity of the world it shapes requires something more ineffable: an open acknowledgement of persistent oppression combined with 'an amazing, almost breathless sense of possibility' (201). It is that breathless sense that distinguishes When Ivory Towers Were Black. It is clear that it enabled Sutton’s participation in this experiment, her success that followed, and her retelling of that story in the book, which can hopefully pass some of that optimism to its readers.

The Journal of Architectural Education

Sutton tells a story that has yet to be told: a time, an era, a passion, a hope, a tale recounted with the skill and energy of a mystery novel. She tells of young people who believed that the injustices they found on their college campuses also believed that they could be righted, that racism could be battled and defeated. When Ivory Towers Were Black encourages us to reflect on the dreams, hopes, battles and defeats as a way of measuring how far we have come—and how far there is yet to go.

University of Southern California - Diane Ghirardo