Camilo Jose Vergara: “The New American Ghetto” (1991)

 Vergara shows exactly what has happened to these neighborhoods. By essentially dumping the new shelters and apartment buildings in devastated, minority neighborhoods on the outskirts of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Harlem and the Lower East Side, the city was able to avoid many lawsuits from powerful community groups.   By Frederique Krupa, November 21, 1991 […]

CAMILO JOSE VERGARA: “How The Other Half Worships”

St. Rest M.B. Church, 3056-3058 West Polk St., Chicago By Camilo Jose Vergara An excerpt from Camilo Jose Vergara’s postscript to HOW THE OTHER HALF WORSHIPS (Rutgers University Press, 2005): For four years I had been attending Sunday services, Bible school, choir rehearsals, revivals, and anniversaries in the nation’s poorest urban neighborhoods. I attended services […]