I've got to make my livin' : black women's sex work in turn-of-the-century Chicago / Cynthia M. Blair.

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2010.

xiii, 322 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm.

"A class we have barely mentioned" -- "The sources of courtesanship": African American women's wage work, the informal economy and the search for independence -- Working the prostitution economy, 1870-1900 -- Race and the spatial boundaries of respectability -- Race and the reconstruction of the urban sex economy, 1900-1915 -- Leisure culture and the commercialization of black women's sex work, 1900-1920 -- Rage and rescue: African American anti-vice reform strategies -- "This way of livin' sure is hard."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-308) and index.