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Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power (Justice, Power, and Politics) Hardcover – Illustrated, April 22, 2019

by Simon Balto (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 62 ratings
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In July 1919, an explosive race riot forever changed Chicago. For years, black southerners had been leaving the South as part of the Great Migration. Their arrival in Chicago drew the ire and scorn of many local whites, including members of the city's political leadership and police department, who generally sympathized with white Chicagoans and viewed black migrants as a problem population. During Chicago's Red Summer riot, patterns of extraordinary brutality, negligence, and discriminatory policing emerged to shocking effect. Those patterns shifted in subsequent decades, but the overall realities of a racially discriminatory police system persisted.

In this history of Chicago from 1919 to the rise and fall of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s, Simon Balto narrates the evolution of racially repressive policing in black neighborhoods as well as how black citizen-activists challenged that repression. Balto demonstrates that punitive practices by and inadequate protection from the police were central to black Chicagoans' lives long before the late-century "wars" on crime and drugs. By exploring the deeper origins of this toxic system, Balto reveals how modern mass incarceration, built upon racialized police practices, emerged as a fully formed machine of profoundly antiblack subjugation.
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Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Justice, Power, and Politics
  2. Print length
    360 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    The University of North Carolina Press
  5. Publication date
    April 22, 2019
  6. Dimensions
    6.12 x 1 x 9.25 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1469649594
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1469659176
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A compelling regional case study of the Chicago Police Department's vexed relationship with the African American community dating back to at least the 1910s and extending through the 1970s."—Journal of African American History



Chronicles the history of police violence and resistance in Chicago from the Red Summer of 1919 to the 1970s, a period when the groundwork for mass incarceration was being laid. . . . Until the appearance of Occupied Territory, little had been written about policing in twentieth-century Chicago, one of the most populous and heavily policed cities in the country, and thus Balto's book is a welcome addition to this body of scholarship."—Chicago Review



One of the many reasons why Balto's book is so crucial is the way that he demonstrates how Black Chicagoans have resisted CPD repression for as long as it has existed, from the NAACP and Chicago Freedom Movement to the Black Panthers to We Charge Genocide. . . . Balto's book is an essential hundred-plus year history."—South Side Weekly



With scrupulous archival detail and sharp analytic focus. . . . Balto has produced a major work of history, forcing us to reimagine the political geography of the carceral state in ways that will be essential for any transformative and more just future."—The Metropole

Review

A timely and important history, Balto skillfully creates an original interpretation of race and policing as well as the campaigns waged against racism and political repression by the black freedom struggle in twentieth-century Chicago that will be widely read."—Jordan T. Camp, author of Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal State

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1469659174
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; Illustrated edition (April 22, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469649594
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469659176
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 1 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 62 ratings

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Simon Balto

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
62 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

joe
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential background on policing and incarceration in Chicago
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
I was in seventh grade and living in the Chicago area when Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed by the Chicago police, so I know something about policing in that era. This book describes the long history of police racism from the early 20th century up to that point, and then forward from there to the present day. A detailed and well-documented history, linking policing to the broader goals of the elite that controlled the city
6 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent sir
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2019
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Excellent sir... excellent sir... excellent sir
3 people found this helpful
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Joe Pingatore
5.0 out of 5 stars A timely and compelling history of Chicago policing
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2019
Occupied Territory is a well researched and well written history of the abuses and corruption of the Chicago police department. Anyone wanting a different perspective and insight into our current issues with policing and how we’ve become the global leader in locking up our own citizens should read this book. Spanning Chicago’s history from 1919 to present time, the book presents an infuriating story of continuous policy decisions made in the name of “law and order” that served only to keep blacks and other minorities confined to poverty and second-class citizenship, while at the same time doing nothing to advance “law and order.” The book is an indictment of Chicago’s “political machine” that used the police force in furtherance of racist policies, while at the same time advancing the corrupt goals of the “machine.” One staggering statistic from the book shows the amount of funding for the Chicago Police Department rose to $1.5 Billion annually, while Chicago was closing public schools, and starving budgets for much needed housing and social services. Balto does not place all the blame on the police, but accurately demonstrates that the years of abuse were “a function of political choice, political economy and public policy.” One might expect a heavily footnoted scholarly book to be a dry and difficult read. Quite the opposite. Balto provides much color with stories from victims of police brutality, news articles from the time, and profiles of key power-brokers over the decades. It is a compelling read, and I strongly recommend this book.
12 people found this helpful
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Louis M
5.0 out of 5 stars Building the Foundation of Mass Incarceration
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2020
To call this book important is to undersell its value. Balto's prose makes reading history I have studied for years exciting and fascinating. The chapter on the Red Summer of 1919 is worth the price of admission alone, but stay for the thoroughly researched and extremely convincing description of how the foundation of mass incarceration of Black and Brown people from the 1970s - 2000s was laid in the policing of urban settings like Chicago in the decades prior. This is an essential read for those looking to understand how and why policing reinforced - and continues to reinforce - racial disparities. Those looking to find the bridge between Khalil Gibran Muhammad's analysis of Progressive Era social science creating the myth of black criminality and Elizabeth Hinton's research on the origins of the War on Crime need look no further.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable history covering an underserved topic
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2020
I've been fortunate not to have to think much about the issues raised in this book, certainly didn't need to live them. As such, I came to the book with only a very general awareness of the history. I found it to be a very informative and interesting read, and learned a lot about the origins of modern policing, and the accompanying history of systemic abuse.

PS I won't show up as a verified purchaser, because I bought my copy from the publisher's website rather than from Amazon (it was on sale there).
2 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading on the history of policing in Chicago the Black community
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2020
This is an essential book that locates the deep history of tension between Chicago's Black community and the Chicago Police Department in the years between 1919 and the early 1970s. Balto deftly shows how the CPD not only overpoliced Black Chicagoans but also routinely failed to provide Black residents with protection from violence. In his words, Blacks were both overpoliced and underprotected. This book is crucial reading for anyone wanting to understand the current state of policing and Black communities in the present.
2 people found this helpful
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Biscuit
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping narrative undergirded by exceptional scholarship.
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2020
It’s rare to find such thorough scholarship paired with such compelling narrative, but Simon Balto is smashingly successful at the hard work that goes into both parts of that package. To understand Chicago, you need to learn the parts of its history that are often deeply concealed. Balto brings to the fore the policies, the people and the institutions that have created the vast disparities and dangers for Black people in Chicago. This is vital work.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Biased, reading
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020
I no sooner completed the introduction of this book when I saw quotations from former Afro American patrolman association president Howard Saffold. Without expounding, I have known Saffold to have the intelligence of a flea and therefore returned this book if further attribution was of this caliber.
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