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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
From Jerome To Dermott: Comparing The Treatment And Experiences Of Japanese Americans And German Prisoners Of War In Arkansas During World War Ii, Taylor Cash
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
During WWII the US government housed German POWs at a camp in Denson, Arkansas that it had previously used to incarcerate Japanese Americans. This thesis compares how US authorities treated the camp’s two different inmate populations—one composed of enemy soldiers and the other US residents, about 70 percent of whom were citizens—to analyze larger questions surrounding how the US government interpreted race, citizenship, gender, and nationhood during the war. Federal authorities regulated and surveilled Japanese Americans at Jerome concentration camp with more vigor and energy than they did German prisoners of war at Dermott POW camp. Moreover, US officials provided …
Forging With Embers: The Life And Pre-Gubernatorial Career Of Isaac Murphy, 1799-1864, Keith Joshua Lee Todd
Forging With Embers: The Life And Pre-Gubernatorial Career Of Isaac Murphy, 1799-1864, Keith Joshua Lee Todd
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The gubernatorial administration of Isaac Murphy from 1864-1868, as Arkansas began emerging from the Civil War into Reconstruction, has had a thorough, if dated, examination in Arkansas historiography. However, Murphy’s life and pre-gubernatorial career, including his early political activities—being the first treasurer of Washington County, Arkansas (1836-1838), serving three terms in the Arkansas General Assembly (two in the House, 1846-1849, and one in the Senate, 1856-1857), and the totality of his action during both sessions of Arkansas’s Secession Convention (1861)—have been largely neglected. This thesis will additionally provide a biographical interpretation of Murphy necessary to fully understand his political actions—his …
Arkansas's Divided Democracy: The Making Of The Constitution Of 1874, Rodney Waymon Harris
Arkansas's Divided Democracy: The Making Of The Constitution Of 1874, Rodney Waymon Harris
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation examines the making of Arkansas’s constitution of 1874, which drew the curtain on Reconstruction in the state and remains in force in the twenty-first century. It contributes to the scholarship of Arkansas history, Southern history, and U.S. political and constitutional history by showing that Arkansas’s Redeemers were not unified or homogeneous, but rather a fractured group who fought about how restrictive the state’s new constitution would be. In the end, it was more generous in some sections than some Democrats wished. This dissertation, thus, challenges a traditional narrative of a likeminded convention and relentlessly restrictive constitution-making. However, it …
"It Was Awful, But It Was Politics": Crittenden County And The Demise Of African American Political Participation, Krista Michelle Jones
"It Was Awful, But It Was Politics": Crittenden County And The Demise Of African American Political Participation, Krista Michelle Jones
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Despite the vast scholarship that exists discussing why Democrats sought restrictive suffrage laws, little attention has been given by historians to examine how concern over local government drove disfranchisement measures. This study examines how the authors of disfranchisement laws were influenced by what was happening in Crittenden County where African Americans, because of their numerical majority, wielded enough political power to determine election outcomes. In the years following the Civil War, African Americans established strong communities, educated themselves, secured independent institutions, and most importantly became active in politics. Because of their numerical majority, Crittenden's African Americans were elected to county …
"The Africans Have Taken Arkansas": Political Activities Of African-American Members Of The Arkansas Legislature, 1868-73, Christopher Warren Branam
"The Africans Have Taken Arkansas": Political Activities Of African-American Members Of The Arkansas Legislature, 1868-73, Christopher Warren Branam
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
African-American lawmakers in the Arkansas General Assembly during Radical Reconstruction became politically active at a time when the legislature was addressing the most basic issues of public life, such as creating the infrastructure of public education and transportation in the state. They were actively engaged in the work of the legislature. Between 1868 and 1873, they introduced bills that eventually became laws. Arkansas passed two civil rights laws at the behest of African-American lawmakers. Education, law and order, and economic development--issues that reflected the southern Republican agenda that dominated the state's politics between 1868 and Democratic Redemption in 1874--also drew …