Participant Info

First Name
Alyssa
Last Name
Ribeiro
Country
United States
State
PA Pennsylvania
Affiliation
Allegheny College
Website URL
www.alyssaribeiro.com
Keywords
urban history, civil rights, race, ethnicity, community development, social movements, disinvestment, neighborhood organizations, youth, black-brown relations, interracial alliances, multiracial coalitions
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

My research considers the interplay of race and ethnicity, social movements, and urban development in United States cities during the second half of the twentieth century. I draw on the methods of social history and qualitative sources to illuminate the experiences of lower-income and underrepresented groups, especially African Americans and Latinos. At the heart of my work is a big question: How can ordinary people impact urban change?

My current book project, Making the City Brotherly: Black and Latino Community Activism in Philadelphia, 1960s to 1980s, shows how residents actively fought neighborhood deterioration, in contrast to the prevalent narrative of passivity amid urban decline. I ask how ordinary people responded to the large forces of deindustrialization, fiscal austerity, and growing political conservatism at street level.

In the classroom, I teach courses on 20th-century United States history that focus on urban development, welfare policy, social movements, and political participation.

Recent Publications

Articles and Chapters

“‘We Want Both’: Pressuring Philadelphia Unions for Inclusion and Equity during the Long 1970s,” Labor History, published online June 2, 2019, doi 10.1080/0023656X.2019.1622660.

“‘Asking Them and Protesting’: Black and Puerto Rican Civic Leadership in Philadelphia Neighborhoods, 1960s-1970s,” Pennsylvania History 86, no. 3 (Summer 2019), 359-382.

“Forgotten Residents Fighting Back: The Ludlow Community Association and Neighborhood Improvement in Philadelphia,” in Civil Rights and Beyond: African American and Latino/a Activism in the Twentieth-Century United States, ed. Brian D. Behnken (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 172-194.

“‘A Period of Turmoil’: Pittsburgh’s April 1968 Riots and Their Aftermath,” Journal of Urban History 39, no. 2 (March 2013): 147-171.

Essays

Under Two Flags: How Nancy Giddens Built Bridges Between Black and Puerto Rican Neighbors, The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, April 2, 2019.

Kerner Commission Report / 1968 Riots, The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019).

Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University, July 2017.

Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University, February 2017.

Puerto Rican Migration, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University, April 2016.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
20th century
Expertise by Topic
Environment, Gender, Race, Urban History