Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, …

The 1934 Chatham Colored All-Stars: Barnstorming To Championships, Lauren A. Miceli

The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History

This essay looks at the Chatham All-Stars, an all-black baseball team from Chatham, Ontario that won the Ontario Baseball Association championship in 1934. In particular, this essay shall investigate the practice of barnstorming, which was significant in showcasing teams like the All-Stars and increasing their revenues. The essay argues that barnstorming was important in the All-Stars success in the Ontario Baseball Association, and that barnstorming also secured financial opportunities for many of the All-Star players. In addition, barnstorming was important not only to entertain communities at this time, but also to tighten relationships amongst communities. Furthermore, this essay highlights the …

Staging Colorism, Mya D. Flood

Theater Summer Fellows

Colorism is a topic not frequently discussed in the African American community. My research focuses on representations of colorism in American drama. Using this research, I am workshopping a creative performance piece about this taboo topic to educate both Ursinus students and community members of all racial backgrounds. The research involves dissecting plays that confront colorism and the everyday struggles dealing with the stereotypes that come along with lighter and darker skin. My research takes the form of an annotated bibliography of plays about colorism and/or racism, a 20 page research paper about colorism in drama, and a draft of …

Black Lives Matter: Why Black Feminism?, Analexicis T. Bridewell

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

In this essay, the author explores the inclusive nature and focal range of the Black Lives Matter movement in an effort to demonstrate how the goals of the movement are grounded in Black feminism. Ultimately, Bridewell concludes that creating inclusive spaces for the exploration of intersectional identities can help bring justice and equality not only to the Black community, but to all lives that have be oppressed or marginalized.

Carter, Lillie Mae (Bland), 1919-1982 (Mss 558), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 558. This collection documents native Kentuckian Lillie Mae (Bland) Carters’ work as a poet and public school teacher in Toledo, Ohio. It includes correspondence, publications, unpublished poems, and printed material pertinent to her educational career and achievements. Of particular note is a folder of letters and autographs from African American poet Langston Hughes.

Another Day In Confederate Gettysburg, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Today the Sons of Confederate Veterans ‘celebrated’ the confederate flag at the Peace Light Memorial on the battlefields of Gettysburg. The same battlefields where some of their ancestors suffered a pivotal defeat, and then kidnapped free Black Americans as they fled south. When I found out the SCV had obtained a permit from the National Park Service, I did likewise so I could stand up there with my homemade sign that connects the confederate flag to some of its most seminal moments in history: fighting for slavery in 1863, fighting for segregation in 1962, and murdering nine black South Carolinians …

Beyond Beyoncé’S Halftime Show, Rebecca S. Duffy

SURGE

In the weeks following the Super Bowl there has been quite an uproar regarding the halftime show featuring Beyoncé, Coldplay and Bruno Mars. All over Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news outlets, and in political commentary we were faced with the argument, “It’s wrong that Beyoncé used the Super Bowl to advance her own political agenda.” But to all those angry/hurt/confused about Beyoncé and her “right” to interrupt the Super Bowl with commentary on race relations, consider this: Is football, or any form of entertainment for that matter really independent of political, economic and racial issues? Is the NFL immune to the …

Fearless Friday: Jasmine Matos, Jasmine S. Matos

SURGE

This week Surge is honored to highlight Jasmine Matos for Fearless Friday!

Originally from the Bronx in NYC, Jasmine is here at Gettysburg majoring in Health Sciences and minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She now finds herself in her last semester at Gettysburg College and is trying to make the most of it. She’s the Captain of B.O.M.B. Squad, a member of the Black Student Union (BSU), a member of the Latin American Student Association (LASA), and she works in the Admissions Office. [excerpt]

A List Of Racialized Black Dolls: 1850-1940, Anthony F. Martin

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

Between 1850 and 1940 Black racialized dolls made in Europe and the northern United States saturated the marketplace with the peak years in the 1920s. These dolls were advertised with pejorative names and descriptions that typed cast African Americans as domestics and labors on mythical antebellum landscapes assisted White children in shaping Black people as inferior to Whites. Data mining doll encyclopedias, websites, and catalogs, I have compiled a list of Black racialized dolls. Additionally, I have provided advertisements of positive imagine Black dolls from The Crisis and The Negro World that provided a counterweight to the stereotyped dolls.

Conversations On Controversy: An Examination Of Internet Discussions On High-Profile Incidents Of Recorded Police Brutality, Brittany Nicole Jefferson

Wayne State University Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the conversations that Internet user have when discussing publicized, recorded incidents of police brutality. This study examined the deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Walter Scott and the subsequent discussions about the incidents on YouTube.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com. This was accomplished by using an exploratory content analysis to establish what are the general topics of these discussions. This analysis found that there are 2 major themes that are discussed by Internet users when they comment; the content of the video and the social context of the incident itself. However, the popularity …

The Killing Of An ‘Angry Black Woman’: Sandra Bland And The Politics Of Respectability, Victoria D. Gillon

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

On July 13th, 2015, 28-year-old Sandra Bland was pulled over by a police officer in Waller County, TX, for failure to signal a lane change. Around six minutes later, Bland was being slammed and handcuffed to the ground. What happened in these six minutes that caused a minor traffic violation to escalate to what would later be three days in jail, concluding with Bland’s death? Hundreds of years of significations towards black women led to Sandra Bland’s arrest. However, at a time when Bland was perceived to be at her most vulnerable, she resisted. By intentionally not putting out a …

Racial Integration In One Cumberland Presbyterian Congregation: Intentionality And Reflection In Small Group, Carolyn Smith Goings

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Negative attitudes toward racial minorities and consequent maltreatment of non-Whites continue to be a crisis in America. The crisis of racism is still realized in phenomena such as residential segregation (Bonilla-Silva, 2014), health disparities (Chae, Nuru-Jeter, & Adler, 2012; Chae, Nuru-Jeter, Francis, & Lincoln, 2011), and in the not-so-uncommon unjust arrests and imprisonment of persons of color (Alexander, 2012). Improvement in race relations through the development of meaningful cross racial relationships in racially integrated settings is one avenue that may lead to reduction of racism (E. Anderson, 2010; Fischer, 2011; Massey & Denton, 1993). Christian congregations are common settings in …