The Criminalization of Black Children: Race, Gender, and Delinquency in Chicago’s Juvenile Justice System, 1899–1945

197 Pages·2018·14.42 MB·English

by  Tera Eva Agyepong

The Criminalization of
Black Children
justice, power, and politics
Coeditors
Heather Ann Thompson
Rhonda Y. Williams
Editorial Advisory Board
Peniel E. Joseph
Matthew D. Lassiter
Daryl Maeda
Barbara Ransby
Vicki L. Ruiz
Marc Stein
The Justice, Power, and Politics series publishes new works in
history that explore the myriad strug gles for justice, battles for
power, and shifts in politics that have shaped the United States
over time. Through the lenses of justice, power, and politics, the
series seeks to broaden scholarly debates about Ameri ca’s past as
well as to inform public discussions about its future. More
information on the series, including a complete list of books
published, is available at http: / / justicepowerandpolitics . com / .
The Criminalization of
Black Children
Race, Gender, and Delinquency in
Chicago’s Juvenile Justice System,
1899–1 945
Tera Eva Agyepong
The University of North Carolina Press c hapel hill
This book was published with the assistance of the Authors Fund
of the University of North Carolina Press.
© 2018 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Set in Espinosa Nova by Westchester Publishing Ser vices
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Agyepong, Tera Eva, author.
Title: The criminalization of black children : race, gender, and delinquency in
Chicago’s juvenile justice system, 1899–1 945 / Tera Eva Agyepong.
Other titles: Justice, power, and politics.
Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018] |
Series: Justice, power, and politics | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017033417| isBn 9781469638652 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isBn 9781469636443 (pbk : alk. paper) | isBn 9781469638669 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Juvenile justice, Administration of— Illinois— Chicago. |
African Americans— Illinois— Social conditions—20th  century. |
African American juvenile delinquents— Illinois.
Classification: lcc hV9105.i3 a79 2018 | ddc 364.36089/96073077311— dc23
lc rec ord available at https: / / lccn . loc . gov / 2017033417
Cover photographs of children, ca. 1941, by Edwin Rosskam, courtesy of the
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Front: Children Playing
on the Street, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois (LC-USF33-005190-M4); back:
Untitled (LC-USF33-005126-M3).
Portions of chapter 3 have been previously published in a dif er ent form as
“Aberrant Sexualities and Racialised Masculinization: Race, Gender and the
Criminalisation of African American Girls at the Illinois Training School for
Girls at Geneva, 1893–1 945,” Gender and History 25:2 (August 2013): 270–9 3.
Used here with permission.
To my parents, Akosua Anima and Kwasi Ntra,
for all that you are, all that you have been,
and all that you have given me.
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Contents
Acknowl edgments xi
Introduction 1
Contingent Childhood: Black Children and the
Making of Juvenile Justice
chapter one
Race- ing Innocence 7
The Emergence of Juvenile Justice and the
Making of Black Delinquency
chapter two
Bound aries of Innocence 38
Race, the Emergence of Cook County Juvenile Court,
and Punitive Transitions
chapter three
Constructing a Black Female Delinquent 70
Race, Gender, and the Criminalization of African American Girls
at the Illinois Training School for Girls at Geneva
chapter four
Flight, Fright, and Freedom 9 7
Delinquency and the Construction of Black Masculinity
at the Training School for Boys at St. Charles
Epilogue 133
Notes 139
Bibliography 163
Index 173
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Illustrations and Tables
illustrations
Dependent boy in Chicago, ca. 1891 1 1
Children playing “Ring around the Rosie,” ca. 1941 20
Mother and child, ca. 1922 5 4
Group photo of girls, ca. 1905 7 5
Segregated vocational class, ca. 1940 81
Boys in front of log cabin, 1925 1 06
Oak Cottage 135
taBles
1. P roportion of delinquent and dependent black children appearing in
Cook County Juvenile Court between 1920 and 1925 4 4
2. A rrest rates for delinquency in seven zones of black South Side
neighborhoods in 1926 47