Post-Racial Change Is Gonna Come

Jonathan L. Wharton is Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, USA.

• Introduction 1. Synthesizing Racial Politics, Coalition Politics and Urban America 2. Newark's Sordid Past and Early Community Development Politics 3. The 2002 and 2006 Mayoral Elections 4. The Mayors' Identity Politics and Their Political Shortcomings 5. Booker's Community Development Initiatives 6. The 2010 Election and Booker's Second Term Honeymoon 7. Newark, Booker and Post-Racial Reality

"Jonathan L. Wharton's A Post-Racial Change is Gonna Come is a fresh approach to understanding African American politics in the current political environment. It is an indispensable upgrade of the key research that gave students of US urban politics and African American politics a deeper understanding of the move from protest to electoral politics and political incorporation more than two decades ago. Wharton's work will inform students of post-Civil Rights era black and urban politics for at least another generation, regardless of Booker's subsequent fate in state and national politics.' - James Lance Taylor, Chair and Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco, USA, and author of Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama (2011) 'This book is a wonderful contribution to the literature on African American Politics and the changing politics of race in urban America. By situating Cory Booker's multiracial coalition politics within a contemporary and historical framework, A Post Racial Change is Gonna Come deepens our awareness of the complexities of electoral politics on local, state, and national levels in the so-called post-racial era. Wharton's call for sustainable coalitions as a new way of organizing can produce more inclusive democracies in American cities.' Ronald Williams II, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA