Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. I Will Thank You with All My Heart: Girls and the
Great Migration 1
1. Do You See That Girl? The Dependent, the Destitute, and the
Delinquent Black Girl 19
2. Modesty on Her Cheek: Girls and Great Migration
Marketplaces 59
3. The Possibilities of the Negro Girl: Black Girls and the Great
Depression 96
4. Did I Do Right? The Black Girl Citizen 130
Conclusion. She Was Fighting for Her Father's Freedom: Girls after
the Great Migration 167
Notes 175
Bibliography 215
Index 233
Marcia Chatelain is Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University.
“This engaging read deftly examines the experiences of African
American girls and young women as they undertook the vast emotional
and physical paradigm shifts of the Great Migration era, with a
specific geographical focus on migrants to the South Side of
Chicago. . . . Recommended for civil rights, gender and women’s
studies, environmental, and social science scholars."
*Library Journal*
“[N]otable for its flowing attention-holding writing. . . .
Included are many entertaining stories the author has plumbed
from diaries, African American newspapers, and archives.”
*Foreword Reviews*
“Referencing girls’ letters and interviews, Chatelain shares these
unknown stories (enhanced by 13 images) and thus offers a glimpse
into this understudied population to the Great Migration’s complex
narrative.”
*Philadelphia Tribune*
“Many scholars have studied the great migration of African
Americans from the South to the North. Most often, the
subject focuses on men. Chatelain asks ‘What about girls?’ …
An excellent companion to works such as James Grossman's Land of
Hope and Nicholas Lemann's The Promised Land. Highly recommended.
All public and academic levels/libraries.”
*Choice*
“Chatelain exhibits a particularly deft reading for the girls’
voices. … In writing that is accessible and conceptually
generative, [she] demonstrate[s] not only that black girls existed,
but that they mattered—an important challenge to the implicit and
ongoing view that girlhood is a whites-only space.”
*Women's Review of Books*
"South Side Girls renders a fascinating interpretation of the
African American migration. Marcia Chatelain has produced an
engaging study that challenges historians to re-conceptualize ideas
about urban migration, African American reform, and black girls’
thoughts about family and community, consumer culture, and
religion.... South Side Girls is an innovative work that
illuminates the voices and narratives of a dynamic group of
underrepresented urban citizens: black girls."
*American Studies*
"[An] elegantly-written monograph about African American girls
seeking education, autonomy, and opportunity in early and
mid-twentieth century Chicago.... In South Side Girls, Chatelain
has made important contributions to existing scholarship about
Chicago, the Great Migration, African American and women's history,
and the rapidly developing, dynamic field of girlhood studies."
*Journal of Illinois History*
"Marcia Chatelain’s South Side Girls offers an intriguing and
unique view of black girls in Chicago during the Great Migration
from 1910 to 1940."
*American Historical Review*
"Chatelain makes creative use of sources as she searches for and
finds black girls who have been invisible and unaccounted for in
previous histories of the Great Migration. . . . South Side Girls
... demonstrate[s] the ways that consideration of black girls’
experiences provides richer and more nuanced historical narratives
. . . [and] provide[s] important context and foundation for the
conceptions of black girlhood that we have inherited."
*Public Books*
"Marcia Chatelain’s South Side Girls focuses on the lives of young
African Americans who left direct and indirect traces in the
archives—in interviews and through their interaction with
institutions. Chatelain makes a major contribution by engaging
black girls’ experiences, not just academic conceptions of black
girlhood. Indeed, she critiques American society and African
American communities for being more interested in black girlhood
than with the quality of black girls’ lives."
*Journal of American History*
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