Download or read book Built by the People Themselves written by Lindsey Bestebreurtje and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2024-11-07 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how racial segregation and suburbanization shaped lives, the built environment, and the law in Arlington In Built by the People Themselves, Lindsey Bestebreurtje traces the history of the Black community in Arlington, Virginia, from the first days of emancipation through the civil rights era in the twentieth century. A core insight of her account is how common people developed strategies to survive and thrive despite systems of oppression in the Jim Crow South. Moving beyond the standard story of suburbanization that focuses on elite white community developers, Bestebreurtje analyzes African American–led community development and its effects on Arlington County.