Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 30 of 37
Full-Text Articles in American Studies
“Did Emmett Till Die In Vain? Organized Labor Says No!”: The United Packinghouse Workers And Civil Rights Unionism In The Mid-1950s, Matthew Nichter
“Did Emmett Till Die In Vain? Organized Labor Says No!”: The United Packinghouse Workers And Civil Rights Unionism In The Mid-1950s, Matthew Nichter
Faculty Publications
Emmett Till’s mangled face is seared into our collective memory, a tragic epitome of the brutal violence that upheld white supremacy in the Jim Crow South. But Till's murder was more than just a tragedy: it also inspired an outpouring of determined protest, in which labor unions played a prominent role. The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) campaigned energetically on behalf of Emmett Till, from the stockyards of Chicago to the sugar refineries of Louisiana. Packinghouse workers petitioned, marched, and rallied to demand justice; the UPWA organized the first mass meeting addressed by Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley; and an …
Colonized Loyalty: Asian American Anti-Blackness And Complicity, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt
Colonized Loyalty: Asian American Anti-Blackness And Complicity, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt
Faculty Publications
In this essay, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstad argues that solidarity between and within communities of color remains our only chance to fight against the brutal and insidious forces of racism, white supremacy and racial capitalism.
Cox, Hal Z., 1883-1952 (Sc 3414), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Cox, Hal Z., 1883-1952 (Sc 3414), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3414. Poem, “Old Kentucky,” written by Hodgenville, Kentucky native Hal Z. Cox in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Kentucky statehood. Includes a 2011 newspaper article about Cox.
Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1150. Student folk studies project titled “From Slavery to Freedom for the Negro Race in Logan County [Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of African American life in Logan County, Kentucky. Sheets may include interviews, written records, photographs, informant’s name, age, and address.
Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 605. Correspondence, writings, photographs, clippings, and papers of Laban Lacy Rice, a Webster, County, Kentucky native, educator, author, lecturer, poet, and president of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. Includes his scientific writing, principally on astronomy, relativity and cosmology, as well as fiction, poetry, and autobiographical writing. Also includes some correspondence and papers relating to his brother, poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice, and sister-in-law, author Alice Hegan Rice.
The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life Of Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955), Greer Charlotte Stanford-Randle
The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life Of Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955), Greer Charlotte Stanford-Randle
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
The dissertation is a deep study of an iconic 20th century female, African American leader whose acclaim developed not only from her remarkable first generation post-Reconstruction Era beginnings, but also from her mid-century visibility among Negroes and some Whites as a principal spokesperson for her people. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune arose from the Nadir- the darkest period for Negroes after the Civil War and three subsequent US Constitutional Amendments. She led thousands of Negro women, despite social adversity, to organize around their own aspirations for improved social and material lives among America’s diverse citizens., i.e. “the melting pot.” The …
Buffalo Soldier, Deserter, Criminal: The Remarkably Complicated Life Of Charles Ringo, Cicero Fain
Buffalo Soldier, Deserter, Criminal: The Remarkably Complicated Life Of Charles Ringo, Cicero Fain
History Faculty Research
This case study chronicles the remarkably complicated life of Charles Ringo who served nearly two enlistments as a Buffalo Soldier before deserting and embarking on a life of petty crime. It details his military service, his nomadic occupational life, his marriage, his acquittal of two sets of murders--one of his stepsons in West Virginia, the other of a white married couple in Illinois, and the assistance of white authorities who intervened to save and protect Ringo from the predations of angry mobs and racist courts. It situates Ringo’s exploits within the oppositional/alternative nature of African American working-class life, the failure …
Morality And Nonviolent Protest: The Birmingham Campaign, Lindsey A. Mahn
Morality And Nonviolent Protest: The Birmingham Campaign, Lindsey A. Mahn
Pell Scholars and Senior Theses
Birmingham, Alabama was a racially segregated city up until 1963 when members of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began a movement to stop discrimination against the African American population. Though the movement itself was conducted in a peaceful nonviolent manner, opposition from the white civic authorities was often cruel and bloody. Images of protesters both young and old were projected across the news and made the American people think deeply about the problems within their country. Eventually, the protests paid off and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, transportation and the workplace. …
Mccartt-Jackson, Sarah (Fa 578), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Mccartt-Jackson, Sarah (Fa 578), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid and full text (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 578. Paper by Sarah McCartt-Jackson titled “Narrative Compromise: African American Representation at Henry Clay’s Ashland Estate.” Paper provides analysis of the inclusion and accuracy of the history of slavery at Ashland, and slavery’s depiction in tour narratives, brochures, exhibit signage, advertisements, and websites. This project won the 2011Folklife Archives Award competition at Western Kentucky University.
Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 406. Correspondence, research notes and manuscript articles of Frances J. “Thomas” Whitaker, a Benedictine monk who lived and worked at St. Maur’s Priory, formerly the South Union Shaker Village in Logan County, Kentucky, from 1954-1988. He amassed a large collection of photocopied research material on the South Union community as well as other Shaker villages and museums in the United States. Also includes his research on various Catholic topics.
Interview With Pearl Perguson Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Interview With Pearl Perguson Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Oral Histories
Transcription of an interview with Pearl Perguson conducted by Kevin Eans for an oral history project titled "A Generation Remembers, 1900-1949." Perguson discusses her life and times, including information about social life and reactions to national events in the small town of Horse Branch, Ohio County, Kentucky.
Meriwether Family Papers (Mss 44), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Meriwether Family Papers (Mss 44), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 44. Typed copies of personal and legal papers, 1791-1840 (43) of Charles Meriwether, a pioneer doctor of Christian County, Kentucky; family letters of Caroline Gordon Tate, author and educator, 1938-1947 (18); and family letters of newspaper columnist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (“Dorothy Dix”), 1930-1949 (13).
Warren, Robert Penn Oral History Collection, 1977-1982 (Mss 383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Warren, Robert Penn Oral History Collection, 1977-1982 (Mss 383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 383. Transcripts, notes, and cassette tapes for interviews conducted by Dr. Wilford Fridy with individuals who knew or knew about John Wesley Venable, Jr., the person on whom Robert Penn Warren based the character Bolton Lovehart in his novella "Circus in the Attic." Interviews mention other people and places that Warren knew in Todd County, Kentucky. Also includes tapes of Robert Penn Warren giving a speech, reading some of his work, and an interview with Warren.
"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner
"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner
Theatre Faculty Articles and Research
This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …
A Historical Narrative Of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's Freedom Schools And Their Legacy For Contemporary Youth Leadership Development Programming, Leslie K. Etienne
A Historical Narrative Of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's Freedom Schools And Their Legacy For Contemporary Youth Leadership Development Programming, Leslie K. Etienne
Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses
During what became known as the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) established alternative temporary summer "Freedom Schools" in communities throughout the state. SNCC was a civil rights organization led by young, mostly African American college students and ex-students that worked against racial discrimination during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, they were poised to lead Freedom Summer, a massive effort that aimed to transform the brutal white dominated power structure of Mississippi, a stronghold of extremely violent southern racism. During the planning for Freedom Summer, SNCC field secretary Charles Cobb suggested that the summer …
Ferguson, Lynne Marrs (Hammer), B. 1956 (Fa 570), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Ferguson, Lynne Marrs (Hammer), B. 1956 (Fa 570), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 570. Paper: [Examination of a Speech Titled "Shake Rag Revisited"] written by Lynne Marrs Hammer Ferguson for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class. The speech was delivered on 21 October 2004 by Herbert Oldham at the dedication of a historical marker in the neighborhood.
Cotter, Joseph Seaman, 1861-1949 (Sc 378), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Cotter, Joseph Seaman, 1861-1949 (Sc 378), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 378. Letter, from Joseph S. Cotter, Louisville, Kentucky, to James Tandy Ellis, a fellow poet, which relates an incident of Cotter’s early life.
Acropolis Of The Middle-West: Decay, Renewal, And Boosterism In Cleveland’S University Circle, J. Mark Souther
Acropolis Of The Middle-West: Decay, Renewal, And Boosterism In Cleveland’S University Circle, J. Mark Souther
History Faculty Publications
In the mid-twentieth century, Cleveland, Ohio’s University Circle exemplified an emerging trend in which urban universities and other private institutions engaged in urban renewal. Situating the story of University Circle within the context of contemporary concerns about urban decay, deindustrialization, and suburbanization, the author argues that University Circle institutions were not simply trying to facilitate their own expansion. Rather, they were equally determined to create a setting appropriate to their regional, national, and even international reputations, as well as to advance the idea that an educational, medical, and cultural district could help reposition and rebrand a …
Klimowicz, Teresa D. (Fa 13), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Klimowicz, Teresa D. (Fa 13), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 13. Interviews conducted by Teresa D. Klimowicz with Esther (Magers) Isbell, a native of Barren Coutny, Kentucky. Special attention is focused on her biblical themed quilts. Isbell also discusses her various occupations and participation in community affairs while living in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Nahm, Max Brunswick, 1864-1958 (Mss 329), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Nahm, Max Brunswick, 1864-1958 (Mss 329), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 329. Correspondence of Max B. Nahm relating mainly to his involvement with the Mammoth Cave National Park Association and the Kentucky National Park Commission in the establishment of Mammoth Cave National Park, Edmonson County, Kentucky. Includes some Association and Commission minutes. Also includes some of Nahm's speeches, writings, personal photographs, and material relating to the Nahm family.
Hickey, Frankie (Fa 511), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Hickey, Frankie (Fa 511), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Foklife Archives Project 511. This collection contains a tape recorded interview conducted by Frankie Hickey with Ida Ellington Williams. It also contains short written life stories for Williams and several other African Americans from southcentral Kentucky and middle Tennessee.
African American Heritage In Bowling Green And Warren County, Kentucky (Fa 509), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
African American Heritage In Bowling Green And Warren County, Kentucky (Fa 509), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 509. This collection contains tape recorded interviews conducted by Maxine Ray and Theresa Lee. the interviews deal with the heritage of African Americans in Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky. This project was sponsored by a grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission.
Over Here, Over There (Fa 480), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Over Here, Over There (Fa 480), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 480. Collection contains recorded interviews and transcriptions conducted by David Baxter and Laura Harper Lee. The interviews contain information about the war effort at home and, for those who served, their experiences with the military and their combat experiences specifically.
Campbellsville - Taylor County, Kentucky Oral History Project (Fa 202), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Campbellsville - Taylor County, Kentucky Oral History Project (Fa 202), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 202. Project includes 22 interviews with African Americans concerning their lives as Taylor County, Kentucky residents. Interviews are on compact discs with interviewer's notes included. Topics discussed include: family life, when and why they live in Taylor County, childhood experiences, community involvement and personal opinions about Taylor County.
Dalton, Susan (Fa 424), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Dalton, Susan (Fa 424), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 424. Interviews conducted by Susan Dalton with George Offitt, Sr., Gene W. Brown, Monya Vance Pryor, and Ann Scharklet related to race and integration in Sumner County, Tennessee.
Chase, Barbara J. (Fa 316), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Chase, Barbara J. (Fa 316), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 316. Paper: "A Study of the Black Cosmetology Field" written by Barbara J. Chase for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.
Street-Ball: The Myth Of The Ghetto Basketball Star, Vincent F. Mcsweeney
Street-Ball: The Myth Of The Ghetto Basketball Star, Vincent F. Mcsweeney
Honors Scholar Theses
In recent decades, countless scholars have examined the developing trend of African American dominance in United States’ professional sports. Many have hypothesized that this over-representation is caused by the presumed reliance on sports as an avenue out of poverty for the African American youths. This trend, it is believed, has a highly detrimental effect the African American community. In actuality, this argument is flawed because it works under the stereotypical assumption that the overwhelming majority of African Americans come from abject poverty. To dispel this fallacy, the author has analyzed the upbringings of each All-National Basketball League First Team player …
Fitzpatrick, Miriam (Fa 208), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Fitzpatrick, Miriam (Fa 208), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
FA Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 208. Paper: "I Remember When...[Manners, Customs and Games in New Albany, Mississippi]" written by Miriam Fitzpatrick for a Western Kentucky University English class.
Thomas Collection (Mss 31), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Thomas Collection (Mss 31), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 31. Manuscripts, letters, writings, etc., of the Thomas family of Bowling Green, Kentucky, including sermons and speeches of Frank Morehead Thomas, Methodist minister (1868-1921); and poems, essays and newspaper articles written by his mother, Elizabeth (Wright) Thomas (1842-1931). Full-text scans are available (Click on "Additional Files" below) for the Spanish-American War letters that Frank Thomas sent home to his family.
Calvert-Obenchain-Younglove Collection (Mss 30), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Calvert-Obenchain-Younglove Collection (Mss 30), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 30. Correspondence, diaries, writings, business papers, scrapbooks, clippings, genealogical notes, weather records, and photographs of the Calvert, Obenchain, and Younglove families of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Selected items from the collection can be viewed in full text by clicking on the "Additional Files" links below.