I am enjoying reading Marcus Hunter’s argument in Black City-Makers, which centers on his conception of black Philadelphians’ political agency. His interpretation of black Philadelphians as a collective, historical player assigns African-Americans a uniquely powerful historical and political role.

Usually when I hear the word “agency” in a discussion of African-American social issues, I anticipate a structure-blind argument that black people are at fault for the inequalities we experience as communities. (This sentiment is not new, of course. In fact, it was this same notion of “the Negro Problem” that Du Bois turned on its face by illuminating broader social problems in The Philadelphia Negro.) On the other hand, I am often conflicted by the awkward balance of group victimization and individual triumph that I believe we, as African-Americans, tend to narrate in our own history. Hunter seems to cut through this false dichotomy and highlights complicated group triumphs in the context of discrimination.