Growing Up in the Black Belt

Growing Up in the Black Belt is a 1941 work by sociologist Charles Spurgeon Johnson. Johnson, a prominent authority on race relations and the first Black president of Fisk University, used this study to challenge the notion that U.S. race relations formed a true caste system. He argued that the social status of Black people in America lacked universal acceptance and a religious foundation. Johnson's research methodology involved a "community self-survey of race relations," which allowed for the collection of sociological data and interpretations from both Black and white individuals. Other notable works by Johnson include The Negro in American Civilization and Patterns of Negro Segregation.1