New Books in Sociology Kimberley Johnson, "Dark Concrete: Black Power Urbanism and the American Metropolis" (Cornell UP, 2025)
Jan 25, 2026
Kimberley Johnson, political scientist and author of Dark Concrete, studies how Black Power remade American cities. She maps local struggles in Newark, Oakland, East Orange, and East Palo Alto. Short takes on housing displacement, schooling as self-determination, policing reform, and how local activism turned into lasting urban institutions and ideas.
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Black Right To The City
- Black Power Urbanism framed a Black right to the city centered on community control and use value over exchange value.
- Kimberley Johnson argues it was a distinct political order (c.1963–1980) reshaping governance, space, and policy.
Local Origins, Diverse Practices
- Black Power emerged through local insurgencies rather than a single national blueprint and peaked in the late 1960s–1970s.
- Local conditions shaped distinct meanings and practices of Black Power across cities.
Look Beyond Official Archives
- Use broader archival sources beyond official records to reconstruct movements' ideas and practices.
- Kimberley Johnson recommends newspapers, movement publications, oral histories, art, and music to capture Black Power Urbanism.
