Call To Home: African-Americans Reclaim The Rural South [Paperback]

Carol B. Stack (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465008089 | ISBN-13: 978-0465008087 | Publication Date: December 27, 1996

The long-awaited new book by the author of the bestselling All Our Kin is a poignant saga of a reverse exodus: the return of half a million black Americans to the rural South.There have been many books focusing on the black migration out of the South into Northern cities. But few people are aware that over the past 20 years the trend has been in the other direction, with African-Americans moving back south, to some of the least promising places in all of America—places the Department of Agriculture calls “Persistent Poverty Counties.” Carol Stack brings their stories to life in this captivating book. Interweaving a powerful human story with a larger economic and social analysis of migration, poverty, and the urban underclass, Call to Home offers a rare glimpse of African-American families pulling together and trying to make it in today’s America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anthropologist Stack, who in All Our Kin interviewed Southerners who had moved to Northern cities, here reverses the journey, following black returnees south. While her account, which describes people in four pseudonymous communities in eastern North Carolina and South Carolina, is not comprehensive, it is a sensitive portrait of a little-studied phenomenon. The land is poor and demanding; in one family, the patriarch committed suicide to prevent medical bills from taking their precious plot. The ties of family can be rich but also painful: two siblings remain endless burdens on their relatives. While jobs in the North have dried up, black adults have absorbed a history of struggle and won't settle for neo-Jim Crow. The most inspiring part of the narrative involves three women who founded a community service organization called Holding Hands; with her expertise from up north, one of the women knew that local authorities had not taken advantage of federal day care funds. Stack suggests that South and North have grown closer, as both places offer limited opportunity and lingering insecurity. $35,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In her first book, All Our Kin (1974), urban anthropologist Stack described the intricate support network within a poor black urban community. Her lucid and anecdotal approach made her book (still in print) a surprise best-seller. Here Stack offers another vivid chronicle of an unexamined social phenomenon, the reverse migration of African Americans from the cities of the North to the rural South. For most of the century, black Americans headed North for jobs and freedom from overt racism, but now that this alleged promised land has turned from gold to rust and city streets have become war zones, many are returning home, often just in time to care for ailing grandparents and aging parents. But what do they find in these persistently poverty-stricken regions? Stack interviewed dozens of people in rural North and South Carolina engaged in "reclaiming a homeplace," and their compelling stories exemplify genuine family values, an abiding love of the land, and a sense of mission. Perhaps the courageous and hardworking people who have dared go home again can finally uproot the cruel ways of the old South and create strong, nurturing, and viable communities. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (December 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465008089
• ISBN-13: 978-0465008087
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heading Back Down South, December 9, 2009

By 

Bookish Brunette (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call To Home: African-Americans Reclaim The Rural South (Paperback)

Having read this book a few years ago for an Anthropology course, it's remained on my mind and influenced my thinking about the Industrial North, making me wonder if slavery ever truly ended. Seems to me it mostly just changed forms (or went overseas) and the exploitative nature of producing cheap goods continued. This book points to that, told from the African American perspective over the last century. I find it interesting a greater sense of community would be found down South, my own homeland, racially-divided as it is.

This book gave me plenty to think on, and I hope to reread it eventually.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Returning Home, March 28, 2006

By 

Jeffrie A. De Coux "DeCoux4U.com" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Call To Home: African-Americans Reclaim The Rural South (Paperback)

Considering relocating out of the Los Angeles area, I read this book and felt drawn to move down south. Being raised in New York City and living in California for 15 years I did have my reservations. But since we moved to Raleigh, NC not only have I had no regrets, I'm now a Realtor helping other African American's relocate to the area.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Slight Bit Slanted But Still Somewhat Enjoyable, September 24, 2001

By 

N. Cooley (Gilbert, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Call To Home: African-Americans Reclaim The Rural South (Paperback)

"Call to Home" tells the untold story of the remigration of African Americans back to the South. The book is written as an ethnography in a novelistic fashion. The stories told give fantastic insight into the motivation and attitudes compelling these individuals to move back "home". Rather than for economic reasons, Stack posits that the nostalgia of home and the love of family drive these African Americans back South.

Unfortunately the stories in the book portray the men as less sentimental and as caring less for their homelands. If Stack found that this was indeed the case she ought to have postulated why. Instead the reader is left wondering if this is indeed the case or is Stacks viewpoint is somewhat slanted. (I might point out that she is a professor of Women's Studies at Berkeley). Overall, the book was very enlightening and a pleasant read.