A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home

by Laura Gottesdiener, Clarence Lusane (Foreword), R. Black (Illustrator)

Told through the eyes of four homeownersa grandmother in Detroit, an entrepreneur in rural North Carolina, a man in Chattanooga, and a mother in Chicago"A Dream Foreclosed" presents a people s history of the U.S. financial crisis and the rise of a people s movement for economic justice, dignity, and freedom from foreclosure. With power and humanity, Laura Gottesdiener bears witness to the ordinary people organizing their communities to challenge the banks and legal system. Their stories are extraordinary but the situation is all too common.
The ongoing mortgage crisis has created one of the longest and largest mass displacements in U.S history. While profiting from government bailouts, banks have evicted more than ten million Americans from their homes, their life savings, and their dreams. As many of the families victimized by bank fraud, predatory loans and other corporate crimes are African American, communities of color have been among the most outspoken and organized in confronting the banks.
Woven throughout Gottesdiener s page-turning narrative are clear explanations of the origins of the crisis, the consequences for housing, and how community organizing and social movements are having national impact. PRAISE FOR LAURA GOTTESDIENER AND"A DREAM FORECLOSED"
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Color Purple
"I m spreading the word about Laura Gottesdiener s FINE book wherever I go and wherever I am. [It's] a wonderful book."
Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine"
"A riveting book."
Ralph Nader
Laura Gottesdiener has the acute eye and pen of a young progressive star with extraordinary talent. Her pages should grip you with motivational indignation."
Johanna Fernandez professor in the Department of History at Baruch College
From the time of their capture in Africa, through Emancipation and the Great Migration, to the national economic and housing crisis of today, people of African descent in the United States have been defined by their search for home. Using the dreams and aspirations of four families as her point of departure, Laura Gottesdiener narrates a beautifully crafted story about predatory lending, foreclosure abuse, the racial politics of home ownership, and the brave struggles launched by African American communities to keep their dignities and their homes. ... a powerful, impressive and page-turning testimony that ordinary people can fight back and win.
Noam Chomsky
The legislation to rescue the perpetrators of the current financial crisis included provisions for limited compensation to their victims...the enormity of the crime strikes home vividly in the heart-rending accounts of those who are brutally thrown out of their modest homes for African Americans particularly, almost all they have then survive in the streets, struggle on, and sometimes even regain something of what was stolen from them thanks to the courageous and inspiring work of the home liberation activists, now reinforced by the Occupy movement. All recounted with historical depth and analytic insight."
Tim Wise
A brilliant and needed narrative by an insightful and inspiring author.
Clarence Lusane, author of "The Black History of the White House"
[a] brilliant discourse on the battle over home and community by African Americans... [w]e owe Gottesdiener a great debt for her research and powerful argument that permeates A Dream Foreclosed. ... She takes sides in this battle and gives voice to those who are rarely if ever heard.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, "Counterpunch"
"A Dream Foreclosed" finds beauty amidst immense pain and sufferingthe beauty of people continuing to fight back against rapacious banks, the politicians they buy and the lawyers they hire. It is a work both beautiful and terrible that deserves to be read by many.
Marc Lamont Hill, "Huffington Post Live"
"An incredible booka great set of stories being told hereand more importantly, a powerful narrative about the relationship between black people and ownership"
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Genres: Nonfiction, African American, Politics, Race, Cities, Social Justice

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2013

Reviews

[Thomas Ray]

Dewey 332.72097

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book showing how corrupt and profit hungry the banks and Wall Street are, not exactly ground breaking. Though showing how despite the odds, it is possible for ordinary people to come together and face down the corporate beast that has such control over our society.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a shocking account of the American housing crisis!
It follows four characters who, for very different reasons, have been forsaken by the for-profit housing market. Gottesdiener manages to show that the system cheats African Americans out of homeownership and how the lack of adequate housing keeps so many in a perpetuate state of poverty and dependence. The right to housing is an essential step toward economic and political self-sufficiency.
The book is thoroughly researched and wonderfully written. It is definitely on of the best books I have read on the American housing crisis and, believe me, for my dissertation I had to read quite a few ...

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book detailing the lives of 4 families/persons who face different obstacles in obtaining their own housing - predatory mortgages, 2008 housing crisis, lack of funding and support of public/subsidized housing. Interweaves the family stories with history, psychology, and a wealth of other information related to housing and systemic racism inherent in the United States housing system.

[Josephine Taylor]

Such a good book. Explains the black housing crisis in such detail you are unlikely to get in any university. Shockingly, was assigned it by a white Italian American professor at my university lol

[Christine Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a reporter and activist, this short book follows four case studies of African Americans who have had their housing threatened or taken away as a direct result of the financial crisis. The first section looks at where the desire for landownership and homeownership comes from, and why it is so embedded in the American ethos. Simultaneously, she explores how this has been denied African Americans, both explicitly and implicitly through lending policies and enactments. The next chapter examines how the financial crisis affected each of the families she followed, and the process by which each got entangled in forces beyond their control. The final chapter is a celebration of “people power” and civil disobedience in the housing sector, with some historical ties to similar action in the 1960s. Overall it is a very readable account of four case studies of how the mortgage crisis impacts black families disproportionately. While it does not provide a great deal of analysis, the account does humanize the crisis and its impact through the author’s cogent writing and intensive interview process. This is a great book to introduce a general audience to understand the impact of race on finances and housing in 20th and 21st century America.

[Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want compelling examples of the predatory and racist practices of the banking and mortgage industry, this book has lots of them. Four inspiring stories of African Americans who, with the help of grass-roots organizations, fought back against a totally rigged system are supplemented by damning evidence of the consistently venal behavior of our financial institutions. What I particularly liked is that the author pulls no punches. She acknowledges that capitalism is failing all of us as it ruins the lives of countless people. Nor does she hold out hope that reform and regulation can change the basic predatory nature of the system. Rather, she proposes that other ways of organizing our society have to be found and are being found by the people most direly affected by the system. She and the people whose herculean efforts she chronicles make the compelling point that adequate housing is a basic human right.

[James Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This insightful book traces the impact of the housing crisis on Black America. It's strengths are a strong prose style, respect for the people she writes about, pro-organizing/community action outlook and great research. Also notable is that the foreclosure crisis isn't viewed in a vacuum--good details about the privatization of public housing. All in all a very good read.

Key weakness: reluctant to discuss possible solutions and alternatives to housing business as usual. Will work up a more in-depth review in a few weeks.

[Carlos Pareja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through the experiences of four families, I learned so much about the housing crisis and the history of racism in U.S. housing policy. These families' stories are heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring as they resolve to fight for their homes.

[Kristin Deshazo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely informative. If you want to actively learn and understand what black persons have to do in order to call a place home, this book will teach you exactly that. It is appalling what the government has done to prevent this from happening, to say the least.