Overview

For many years, the interrelated histories of prostitution and cities have perked the ears of urban scholars, but until now the history of urban sex work has dealt only in passing with questions of race. In I’ve Got to Make My Livin’, Cynthia Blair explores African American women’s sex work in Chicago during the decades of some of the city’s most explosive growth, expanding not just our view of prostitution, but also of black women’s labor, the Great Migration, black and white reform movements, and the emergence of modern sexuality. Focusing on the notorious sex districts of the city’s south side, Blair paints a complex portrait of black prostitutes as conscious actors and historical agents; prostitution, she argues here, was both an arena of exploitation and abuse, as well as a means of resisting middle-class sexual and economic norms. Blair ultimately illustrates just how powerful these norms were, offering stories about the struggles that emerged among black and white urbanites in response to black women’s increasing visibility in the city’s sex economy. Through these powerful narratives, I’ve Got to Make My Livin’ reveals the intersecting racial struggles and sexual anxieties that underpinned the celebration of Chicago as the quintessentially modern twentieth-century city.

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9780226597584

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Reviews

"""A compelling study of the development of commercialized leisure and the shifting racial geography of early twentieth-century Chicago. . . .Painstaking in its research.""-- ""Social History"" ""Blair's intriguing monograph regarding black women's struggle for economic survival in late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Chicago incorporates a number of disciplines, including American, urban, and labor history, economics, geography, and sociology, as well as race, ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies. . . .Blair skillfully and bravely tackles a subject that many scholars shied away from.""-- ""Journal of Interdisciplinary History"" ""I've Got to Make My Livin' is a splendid study of the historical interplay of city space, race, class, gender, and sexual politics during the industrial era. In this engaging work, Cynthia Blair creates a compelling portrait and persuasive argument for black women's participation in the underground sexual economy."" --Elizabeth Clement, University of Utah"

A compelling study of the development of commercialized leisure and the shifting racial geography of early twentieth-century Chicago. . . .painstaking in its research. --Social History Blair's intriguing monograph regarding black women's struggle for economic survival in late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Chicago incorporates a number of disciplines, including American, urban, and labor history, economics, geography, and sociology, as well as race, ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies. . . .Blair skillfully and bravely tackles a subject that many scholars shied away from. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History I've Got to Make My Livin' is a splendid study of the historical interplay of city space, race, class, gender, and sexual politics during the industrial era. In this engaging work, Cynthia Blair creates a compelling portrait and persuasive argument for black women's participation in the underground sexual economy. --Elizabeth Clement, University of Utah

I've Got to Make My Livin' is a splendid study of the historical interplay of city space, race, class, gender, and sexual politics during the industrial era. In this engaging work, Cynthia Blair creates a compelling portrait and persuasive argument for black women's participation in the underground sexual economy. --Elizabeth Clement, University of Utah

Author Information

Cynthia M. Blair is associate professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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