Research Questions

The following questions and related review of literature provide a foundation for this dissertation.

1. Which conditions historically have shaped ethnicity among African Americans in St. Petersburg?

Policy makers in St. Petersburg seek politically expedient measures to cope with current violence among African American youths. Public officials justify "Just Say No" campaigns, arrests, and neighborhood dislocations. These responses represent ahistorical analyses of the conditions which shape African American neighborhoods and contribute to destructive lifestyles among many African American youths. In addition, extant cultural assumptions about race and African Americans further blind policy makers in their attempt to address the problems facing St. Petersburg and its African American community.

This dissertation expands our knowledge of African Americans in St. Petersburg through an examination of the historical conditions and changes which influence their current cosmology. Three major postulates support this approach. Foremost, ethnicity is situationally conditioned (Kivisto 1989:10). Secondly, the ethnic identity of African Americans, reflects a picture of their growth and development, which arose out of their unique historical experiences (Green 1981 :77). Thirdly, ethnohistory provides methodological procedures for understanding the cultural processes of African Americans in St. Petersburg through time by using protocols of an historic nature (Euler 1972:201). This thesis is a record of the impact of change on African Americans.

From the tourism boom of the 1920's to current developments, African Americans have confronted various changes in St. Petersburg. However, we barely have understood the impact of those changes on the world view of African Americans in St. Petersburg. To increase our knowledge of their lives in St. Petersburg, in this dissertation is provided an analysis of these issues: (1.) how African Americans in St. Petersburg have viewed themselves historically; (2.) how segregation and desegregation have shaped their world view; and (3.) what have been the consequences of various political policies, such as urban redevelopment, on their ethnicity, livelihood and neighborhoods.

An analytical examination of the historical conditions of African Americans in St. Petersburg places them in the context of the evolving cultural milieu. This research shows that ethnicity among this cultural group is a dynamic process and it reflects an adaptation to changing structural conditions (Staiano 1980). The salience of the ethnic identity of African Americans is embedded in their collective historical experience in St. Petersburg.

2. How have the dialectics of progress and development between African Americans and policy makers in St. Petersburg affected self identity?

What are the meanings of progress and development? According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, progress is advancement and development is an expansion and promotion of growth. Despite these definitions, the data of this study support an assumption that advancement, growth and expansion are socially constructed terms. Therefore, what may be considered progress and development by policy makers in St. Petersburg may hold different meanings for African Americans. In constructing an analysis of the dialectics of progress and development between policy makers and African Americans, it is necessary to realize how these external factors relate to African Americans' sense of self (De Vos and Romanucci-Ross 1975:369). Ideas about progress, development and modernization are major factors that shape ethnicity, if not its creation (Rothschild 1981; Barth 1969).

Tourism is the core of economic development in St. Petersburg. It is so integral to the livelihood of St. Petersburg that this place is known, also, as the "Sunshine City" (Arsenault 1988; Vesperi 1985). The city holds the Guinness world record for the most consecutive days of uninterrupted sunshine, 768 days. The sun shines an average of 361 days every year. This climate brings a significant number of white tourists to this Gulf coast city. The St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce records show that in between 1939 and 1940 approximately 68,300 tourists came to the city. However, the City Planning Department (1945:9) annals indicate that the total population of St. Petersburg was only 60,812 people during that time. A Chamber of Commerce fact sheet published in 1989 documents that during 1988 more than 3.6 million tourists came St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. A population profile distributed by the Planning Department (1955:2) explains the role of tourism in the city's economy. The report accounts that the city's basic industry of servicing tourists is an economic foundation that "is not subject to fluctuations in temperature or rainfall, nor the whims of labor and business groups, nor to the exhaustion of natural resources." The city has reinforced this message by investing more than $138 million in a sports stadium and renovating the Bayfront Theater and Pier. Tourism is a major source of income for the city.

Tourism generated other unintended consequences in St. Petersburg. During the 1950s and 1970s significant numbers of retirees permanently relocated to the city. The population of persons over 65 years of age increased 137 percent between 1960 and 1970 (United States Department of Commerce 1970). St. Petersburg became a town for and of retirees. Although these retirees had stable incomes of insurance dividends, pension, and retirements checks, their accelerated growth did not permit city services to keep pace. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg became a national symbol of retirement and was perceived as economically dead (Vesper) 1985:11).

However, by the mid-1970's St. Petersburg decided to change its image as a retirement community to an upscale city that consists of young progressive citizens (Vesper) 1985: 41-45). St. Petersburg hoped to attract wealthy tourists and new businesses. With these goals, St. Petersburg embarked upon an extensive urban redevelopment plan.

In the United States, redevelopment is associated with physical environment (Blakely 1989:75). One of the most important factors influencing economic development and a city's ability to attract businesses and tourists are amenities and attractiveness of a particular location. The city of St. Petersburg is directed by these cultural assumptions. July 25, 1984, the St. Petersburg Times published a monograph, titled 100 Years: St. Petersburg Times. In that report, the newspaper editors recalled that they encouraged the redevelopment of Petersburg. The St. Petersburg Times, a major booster of tourism and downtown redevelopment, wrote, "The city has a slum area, smaller than most, but still too large to suit us. Downtown badly needs redeveloping" (Hooker 1984:71). A 1989 brochure of St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce forecasts, "The skyline of St. Petersburg will soon be changed by the addition of the city's tallest office building.... Over all, downtown St. Petersburg is in the midst of a $750-million redevelopment plan." For the city of St. Petersburg, economic development and progress entail altering its skyline. Place over people who are considered dispensable, characterizes these types of development policies. To make St. Petersburg an attractive place that would attract businesses and upscale tourists, the City Council declared the African American neighborhoods contiguous to downtown, slums and dismantled them.

To understand the dialectics of progress and development, this study juxtaposes the world view of the city's policy makers with those of the African American community in St. Petersburg. An analysis of the African American world view concerning progress and development and a comparison of these constructs with the reality of their lives are contained in this discourse. This process examines the underlying assumptions of the African American world view and interprets these values in relation to various micro and macro events which have occurred within the community. For example, the displacement of a seventy-five year old widow who has lived in the same house for the past fifty years, the dismantlement of a low income neighborhood, and the construction of the 138.1 million dollar Florida Suncoast Dome (renamed Thunder Dome) are explored in relation to African Americans' idea of progress and the ultimate impact of these events on their ethnicity.

An interpretation of the dialectics of progress and development for African Americans in St. Petersburg permits an awareness of the effects these phenomena have on African Americans' collective sense of being and their individual perceptions of self. The words of a former resident of the Gas Plant area poignantly exemplifies the benefit of this research. Vanessa Williams (1990), currently a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer discusses what the dislocation of her neighborhood means. She recalls that seeing the Florida Suncoast Dome sitting atop the neighborhood where she grew up is especially difficult. This Gas Plant resident argues that her realistic side warned her that the destruction of the Gas Plant area was inevitable because "the poor and powerless are seldom able to resist the schemes of so called urban visionaries" (Williams 1990). However, her idealistic side is "angry about the senseless laying waste of a once vital community.... Now, as I look at the Florida Suncoast Dome, this hollow stadium without a team, I see a monument to a city without a soul" (Williams 1990.). This dissertation is an examination of the practice of development and progress from the perspective the African American community.

3. Which problems confront contemporary African Americans and what are the implications of those problems for the youngsters?

Social problems are socially constructed and culturally defined. Crime, violence, and drug abuse are among the many issues that are identified closely with African Americans in St. Petersburg. African American leaders and the National Urban League suggest that African American youths' devaluation of their Africanness is a problem facing African American communities (Jenkins and Bell 1990). This dissertation determines whether the violence among adolescents is the real problem in African American communities or if the chaos is merely a reflection of deeper problems.

"All human beings exist in a state of psychological striving and interference with the process leads to psychological disturbance" (Leighton 1959:146). Leighton argues that all individuals strive for physical security, sexual satisfaction, love, expression of creativity, a place in society, recognition and membership in a definite human group. The inability to fulfill these needs distorts emotional development and sentiment, which can lead to dysfunctional behavior and psychological disorder (Leighton 1959:68). Environment is a major contributor to social disruptions (Leighton 1959 :25).

To identify problems in the African American community in St. Petersburg and to explore the implication of these problems, this study examines the indices of social disintegration -- a recent history of disaster, extensive poverty, cultural confusion and widespread social change (Leighton 1959:319). Therefore, this discourse offers insight beyond the pernicious behavior of African American youths. This work entails an exploration of social structures and discontinuities and seeks to explain the implications for youngsters.

4. What efforts have African Americans made to reduce inter-generational discontinuities and enculturate ethnic heritage within the younger generation of African Americans in St. Petersburg?

Radical discontinuities between the values of elder African Americans and their youths cause grave concerns for African Americans. Disappointment with the alienation of African American youth from their heritage is significant. For African Americans, a collective consciousness and sense of being are used to help reorder their proprietary status. Lerone Bennett (1972:202) argues that "one learns history in order to learn how to make history." Further, he suggests that an understanding of history teaches African Americans that they can neither afford the luxury of escaping their heritage nor be ignorant of the meanings their acts take on in certain social contexts (Bennett 1972:202).

Nationally, African Americans advocate that one of the most effective means of reducing inter-generational discontinuities is gaining control over the education and enculturation processes of their children. Some African American communities challenge school boards to implement multicultural curricula and to recognize African Americans' contributions to the world. Rather than attempt to restructure the schools, other communities develop community based heritage programs. Warfield-Coppock and Harvey (1989) list 32 programs that African American communities have initiated in order to raise the ethnic awareness of African American youths.

If maintaining a continuity of ethnic values between generations is a mean of ensuring survival, then, it is crucial for African Americans to enculturate their youths, if they are to survive (De Vos 1985:17). In this thesis is a documentation of an applied anthropological approach to educating African American children concerning their heritage. Entailed also, are other social and political efforts by the African American community to ensure the continuity of their ethnic heritage in a post-desegregated world. Ethnicity is a label for the politics of cultural struggles in the nexus of territorial and cultural nationalism that characterizes all putatively homogeneous nation-states (Williams 1989:439). Brackette Williams (1989:437) argues that nations that force hegemonic homogenization on diverse groups of people through economic and political domination produce ethnic cleavages. In response, subordinated groups create competing sets of criteria as they stake their claim to a place in a nation and attempt to keep others from claiming undue places (Williams 1989:436).

This dissertation includes a discussion concerning the criteria African Americans in St. Petersburg use to make themselves visible in a tourist based economy. The benign and audacious strategies they employ to prevent psychological and physical displacement and to generate a meaningful social life are chronicled. An examination of the historical web of social, economic and political conditions tells the story of the political economy that molds the African American world view in St. Petersburg.