"Historians and general readers alike owe a debt to Joe W. Trotter, Earl Lewis, and Tera W. Hunter for this wide-ranging, deep-running, interdisciplinary study of African-American urban history. Placing African Americans at the center of their investigation, they show the complexities of class, gender, and race in urban life. This fresh and important history is essential reading for anyone interested in American cities. It testifies to the vigor of collaborative scholarship."-- Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University, author of Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol and Southern History Across the Color Line.