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Community Organization and Social Activism: Black Boston and the Antislavery Movement *
Author(s) -
Horton Lois E.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1985.tb00858.x
Subject(s) - social activism , social injustice , sociology , injustice , salient , social movement , movement (music) , criminology , community organization , gender studies , community building , public relations , political science , law , politics , aesthetics , philosophy
This paper uses data from an intensive study of Boston's antebellum black community to demonstrate how sustained social activism is embedded in the formal and informal institutions of the community. The social networks of cooperative institutions were primary factors in this community's ability to mobilize and sustain protest actions and to call attention to social injustice. This examination of antebellum black Boston indicates that the issue of slavery was crucial to social activism. This suggests that the presence of a salient issue which links the everyday lives of participants with a public issue may be an important factor in building a social movement based in a poor, relatively powerless community.