44 years later, Tally's Corner is revealed
Elliot Liebow, left, in a family photo taken during the 1960s, grew up in Washington and wrote "Tally's Corner," above. |
In college, I read Elliot Liebow's classic book "Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men." Where exactly was the street corner that he wrote about?
- Christine Helms, Washington
According to many sources, it was Ninth and P streets NW. Except Answer Man happens to know it wasn't. We'll get to its true location in a moment, but first, have you read "Tally's Corner"?
Answer Man hadn't. It's a remarkable book, an academic work - it grew out of Liebow's doctoral thesis - that isn't dry or boring. It's an in-depth look at a group of men who routinely hung out on a Washington street corner in the early 1960s. These are poor men, flawed men, unemployed and underemployed men. But they are treated with respect. And although Liebow used pseudonyms, giving the men such names as Tally, Sea Cat, Richard and Leroy, they come across as flesh-and-blood individuals. When "Tally's Corner" was published in 1967, the New York Times called it "a valuable and even surprising triumph." The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) called it "nothing short of brilliant."
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According to many sources, it was Ninth and P streets NW. Except Answer Man happens to know it wasn't. We'll get to its true location in a moment, but first, have you read "Tally's Corner"?
Answer Man hadn't. It's a remarkable book, an academic work - it grew out of Liebow's doctoral thesis - that isn't dry or boring. It's an in-depth look at a group of men who routinely hung out on a Washington street corner in the early 1960s. These are poor men, flawed men, unemployed and underemployed men. But they are treated with respect. And although Liebow used pseudonyms, giving the men such names as Tally, Sea Cat, Richard and Leroy, they come across as flesh-and-blood individuals. When "Tally's Corner" was published in 1967, the New York Times called it "a valuable and even surprising triumph." The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) called it "nothing short of brilliant."
READ MORE
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