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White Racism on the Western Urban Frontier:
Dynamics of Race and Class in Dubuque, Iowa (1800-2000)

This book examines almost two hundred years of race and ethnic relations and white-on- black racism in Dubuque, Iowa’s oldest industrial city, in connection with political and economic developments at the local, state, and national levels. Dubuque made the national headlines when there was a sudden eruption of hate crimes during the 1989- 1991 period. Subsequently a group of concerned citizens devised a five-year racial diversity plan to attract one hundred "families of color" to Dubuque, but failed to achieve their objective due to a lack of community support.

Using a critical political economy approach and based on historical data, the author presents compelling evidence that racist sentiments and discriminatory practice towards blacks tend to escalate during periods of economic downturns, even in cities with little or no minority population. Main topics that are discussed in the book include the evolution of "race" as a socially created concept, a historical analysis of two centuries of African-Americans` presence in Iowa and Dubuque amidst a persisting white–on-black racism; the presence of Ku Klux Klan in Dubuque, the relationship between the organized labor and black workers in Iowa, and Dubuque residents` determination to envision plans to fight back and promote racial diversity. Although the author acknowledges that economic conditions and ensuing race relations for each urban community are historically specific, in this book he also makes the case that Dubuque’s race relations history can be used as an example of "any town USA" in search of solutions to fight white-on-black racism and discrimination in urban settings with little or no racial diversity.

Mohammad A. Chaichian