Suchergebnisse

'Court-Martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek Incident' by John C. Stevens III is reviewed.

This article reports the social impact of a large naval base on a local community. The effects of the base are discussed in terms of three themes: (1) a restructuring of the local stratification system, (2) a shift from agrarian and fishing to postindustrial social patterns, and (3) the intermeshing of the community with the outside world. Systematic comparisons are made with another community that was similar to the impacted community, but that did not become the location of a major military installation.

Although Robert and Helen Lynd later identified the color line as the deepest division separating Middletown's people, data on the city's black population were purposely excluded from their analysis, and therefore blacks are not represented in the 1920s baseline which Middletown provides for subsequent community studies. Indeed, the reader must simply take the Lynds' word for the importance of the racial divide, for their decision to restrict their analysis to white citizens means that its dimensions remain unspecified save for a few illustrative examples. Yet the erasure is neither total nor final. Many characteristics of the city's black population in the early decades of the century are retrievable, some via census and other statistical data and others through historical sources and retrospective interviews. This paper draws upon census data to estimate the dimensions of Middletown's racial divide over the years. For the period 1977–1999, the census data are supplemented by survey data from high school students, and trends in racial differentiation in selected student attitudes are examined. Findings are mixed and only partially support the model of convergence, or a trend of declining racial differentiation in Middletown. For many indicators, including several with long–term or intergenerational effects, continued racial disparity is apparent. Substantial vestiges of the "great divide" remain, and there seems little prospect of their pending resolution.