Browse

Contemporary (1950 CE - Present)

Album cover shows people marching on the left. On the right is the shape of Ghana with the colors of the Ghana flag. Text below it reads "United We Build a Strong Nation".
Source

Lord Kitchener, “Birth of Ghana,” 1957

On March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast Colony declared its independence from Britain and became Ghana, the first West African nation to break from European colonial rule.

Image of newspaper. Transcription in folder.
Source

George Browne “Freedom for Ghana”

While living in London in the early 1950s, the Trinidadian calypsonian George Browne (whose stage name was Young Tiger) penned a calypso called “Freedom for Ghana” that caught the attention of George Padmore, the Trinidadian pan-Africanist intellectual and journalist, who wrote about it in the Gh

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in La Duchère, 1960.
Teaching

Social Capital in World History: Lyon and Pittsburgh as Examples

Lyon, France, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are connected by the thread of social capital, or people power.  This essay situates social capital as an non-financial asset possessed by people who have little wealth, but who use a variety of strategies to facilitate community improvements.

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in La Duchère, 1960.
Source

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in Duchère

This image shows the standardized framework of a social housing high-rise, dubbed une cité.  These manufactured housing units were constructed quickly in French suburbs to accommodate a rapidly growing population.

Les Minguettes in Vénissieux, south of Lyon, 1969.
Source

Social Housing development in France

In addition to La Duchère, other social housing developments in greater Lyon included Les Minguettes in Vénissieux, where 9,200 units for 35,000 residents were constructed between 1966 and 1973, and the 8,300-unit Mas du Taureau, built between 1970 and 1980 (in addition to La Grappinière, with a

Djida Tazdaït in Lyon, France, 1989.
Source

Picture of civil rights activist, Djida Tazdaït

One of the realizations of the 1983 March for Equality and Against Racism was the election to the new European Parliament the Lyon-based civil rights activist, Djida Tazdaït (1957- ).  In 1989, she was elected as the first woman of North African descent to serve in that capacity until 1994.

Plans for La Duchère, in western Lyon, c. 1960.  Lyon Municipal Archives, Lyon, France.
Source

Plans for Social Housing in France

Most of the new housing was constructed on cities’ fringes, or on adjacent farmland just outside the central city, by a quasi-public company known by its French initials SCIC (Société central immobilière de la Caisse des dépôts, or Central Real Estate Company of the Deposits and Consignments Fund

The mayor of Lyon, France, Louis Pradel, drives a bulldozer to initiate construction of social housing in La Duchère, in the city’s western edge, 1958.
Source

The mayor of Lyon, France drives a bulldozer to initiate construction of social housing

The headline reads, in English, “Aboard a bulldozer, Mr.

Toumi Djaïdja (third from right) in Lyon, 1983.
Source

SOS Avenir Minguettes President Toumi Djaïdja in Lyon, France

Toumi Djaïdja (third from right) in Lyon, 1983.  Source:  Le Progrès photo archives.

Clip from Pittsburgh's North Hills News Record in 1993 with the headline "“PCRG challenges financial institution lending practices."
Source

Pittsburgh News Coverage of the Community Reinvestment Group

"PCRG challenges financial institution lending practices,” Pittsburgh, Dec. 22, 1993.