Date Approved
2022
Degree Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department or School
African American Studies
Committee Member
Peter Blackmer, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Imelda Hunt, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Matthew Cook, Ph.D.
Abstract
This thesis explores the theories and praxis of struggles for community-control of public housing in the era of Black Power through a case study of the Stella Wright Rent Strike. From 1970 to 1974, tenants of the Stella Windsor Wright Homes in Newark, NJ, waged the longest rent strike in the history of public housing in the United States. Following in the wake of the 1967 Rebellion and the election of Kenneth A. Gibson as the city’s first Black mayor in 1970, Newark’s poor and working-class Black tenants blended grassroots militancy with political savvy as they successfully fought for community control of public housing from the high-rises to city hall to Washington, D.C. Building upon social networks and indigenous leadership within the project, tenant organizers translated effective organizing into a successful model of tenant management.
Recommended Citation
McCaskill, Ari Ahmad, "African American women and tenant management of public housing: A case study of Stella Wright" (2022). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. 1125.
https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1125