America’s Johannesburg: Industrialization and Racial Transformation in Birmingham by Bobby M. Wilson

Nicknamed “Bombingham,” the city of Birmingham was a center of civil rights protest and repression more than any other Southern metropolitan area. This book asks why and answers that no other industrial city depended more upon the exploitation of Black labor from the days of slavery to an era with a different kind of dependence. “A fresh and original interpretation. The book contributes substantially to the historiography of industrial growth in Alabama. The author provides much insight into the racial dimensions of Birmingham's development. A pioneering work.” -- W. David Lewis. “America's Johannesburg is comprehensive, theoretically-driven, and convincing. America's Johannesburg contributes to the fields of urban studies, geography, and historical sociology by providing a case example of how racial oppression manifests itself in historically and geographically contingent ways. The text will be useful to scholars interested in the micro and macro processes that institutionalized and o