Talk:A&HH6577/Assignment5

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Discussion reading for the week

• Park, Robert E. “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment.” The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 20, no. 5 (March 1915): 577-612. Online.

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A brief comment:

As you glean from the article, Robert Park was a significant contributor to the field of sociology, as well as across disciplines. One of his protégés was Charles S. Johnson who studied under Park, joining the University of Chicago two years after this article was published. This notion of using the city as a laboratory was realized when Johnson was recommended by Park to serve on the "Chicago Commission" which was the race relations committee that was formed following the Chicago Race Riots of 1919. Johnson went on to join Fisk University as Professor of Sociology, naming a new building after his “father figure,” Robert Park. Ultimately, Johnson became the first African American president of Fisk. I mention this in connection to our reading, as I would encourage us to include in our discussion the influences Park’s theories had on Johnson and the ripple effect on “American Educational Thought.”

As you might know, Park was influenced by Booker T. Washington and John Dewey – interesting context and worthy of including in our discussion. Sharon

Additional reading selections might be:

• Sidelines Activist: Charles S. Johnson and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Richard Robbins.
• “Civilization, culture, and color: Changing foundations of Robert E. Park's sociology of race relations,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Volume 4, No. 3 / (March, 1991), pp 285-300

A brief follow up note:

In our lively discussion of Park's article I thought it was interesting that in addition to exploring connections to our other authors, sharing events, trends, and theories of the period, and reflecting on our perceptions of Park's theory of knowledge (as captured in this article), we found relevance to today's urban issues in almost everyone of Park's assertions.

We touched on Park's reference to yellow journalism: "What is yellow journalism and why is it called yellow?" I think you might find Joseph Campbell's study enlightening, Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies,(Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2003). sharon