Pride, Inc.: Black Power and Black Capitalism in Washington, D.C., 1967-1981
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2018-01-01
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History
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Historical Studies
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Access limited to the UMBC community. Item may possibly be obtained via Interlibrary Loan thorugh a local library, pending author/copyright holder's permission.
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Abstract
Pride, Inc., a nationally- recognized youth jobs program in Washington, D.C., put young men from the city’s poorest neighborhoods to work killing rats, collecting trash, and cleaning alleys. Pride promoted these "hard-core unemployed,” the street kids with criminal records who were affectionately called "dudes,” as leaders and change agents. This theses explores the evolution of the program’s structure and philosophy as it grew from a clean-up effort into a network of social services and for-profit companies while other programs initiated under the War on Poverty were stripped of funding or fell apart in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As Pride expanded, its leaders sought to remake the economic landscape of the city by developing profitable businesses run by the dudes; they emphasized community self-reliance and black capitalism. Through the history of Pride, I explore the tension experienced by many in the Black Power Movement who sought to overcome poverty and racism from within existing economic and political systems rather than challenging structural oppression and inequality.