History Commons^™

The 1985 Move Bombing: A Study In Perspectives, Kaci Delisle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a military grade bomb on 6221 Osage Avenue, a row house in a Black neighborhood in West Philadelphia. This home was occupied by a revolutionary group called MOVE. The bomb started a fire that the police and firefighters decided to “contain” rather than put out, resulting in the deaths of eleven people and the destruction of sixty-one homes. Only two MOVE members survived the fire. Using court records, documents from the investigation conducted by the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC), and other interviews regarding MOVE and the bombing, this paper reconstructs different perspectives …

Autherine Lucy & The University Of Alabama Integration At U Of A 1952-1956, Tamera Lott

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the University of Alabama was chartered in 1820 and is Alabama’s oldest public university. Prior to 1956, the University was segregated; admission was limited to white men and women. On February 3, 1965, Miss Autherine Lucy stepped foot on campus for the first time to attend classes at the University; history was made as she was the first African American present. Lucy’s attendance stirred conflict throughout campus and the state of Alabama. Unbeknownst to many, Lucy’s attendance garnered both national and international attention. The central argument here is that Lucy’s experiences at the University of Alabama …

"They Will Change The Situation Immediately": Perpetrator Subgroups And Germany's Genocidal Practices In Southwest Africa, James Michael Thaxton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The genocide of the Herero tribe in German Southwest Africa illuminates the horrors of colonialism broadly and of German settler colonialism more specifically. I contend that the perpetrators of this event can be separated into two broad subgroups, the Old Africans and the Metropole Soldiers, distinguished by their intentions, exploitative and exterminatory respectively, concerning the indigenous tribes. Those intentions were formed over varying lengths of time but are the result of either firsthand experience with the racial hierarchy in the colony or relying on information and misinformation relayed to the metropole. Utilizing primarily letters, diaries, journals, and postcards, I argue …

Claybrook V. Owensboro: Equality, Integration, And Struggle, Lori Coghill

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In 1883 the case of Claybrook v. Owensboro was one of the first challenges to equal educational funding under the Fourteenth Amendment. The definition of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause was vague and left blacks with little guidance about their new found constitutional rights. By analyzing the case along with legal, educational, and local racial attitudes toward blacks at the time, historians and educators can better understand the evolution of the Fourteenth Amendment in state and local issues. The case record from Federal Reports as well as the case file from the law final record book at the National …

Place, Disease And Mortality: Trimble County, Kentucky 1849-1894, Nancy Demaree

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This researcher describes the characteristics of place...physical, cultural and human...of a small Kentucky county and looks at the incidence of disease and dying that occurred in that place in the last half of the nineteenth century. The impact of death on particular subsets of the general population was given a closer evaluation. Very young, females and the slave/Black communities were investigated individually. The overall site and situation of all aspects of Trimble County, Kentucky were viewed in an effort to support the notion that it is the manner in which man interacts with this environment that causes disease and death …

Striking Resemblance: Kentucky, Tennessee, Black Codes And Readjustment, 1865-1866, Beverly Forehand

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

To date, the scholarship covering the Black Codes has centered on these laws' role as the predecessor of Jim Crow. Little study has been given to the laws as a whole--the one encompassing work being Theodore Wilson's Black Codes of the South. Other studies have examined the Black Codes' effect on specific states; however, no specific study has been done on the Black Codes of Kentucky and Tennessee nor has any study been made of these laws' relation to the antebellum Slave Code. This project therefore will represent an attempt to show that the Black Codes of Tennessee and Kentucky …

A Study Of Retention Between The Cadette And Senior Level Of Girl Scouting In The Kentuckiana Girl Scout Council, Diane M. Weigel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was made in attempt to identify the characteristics of a troop program in which tenth grade girls had been involved and to determine why they did or did not continue in Scouting. A survey instrument was devised and pretested to validate and improve upon the questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed through the mail to 190 girls who had been registered in the Kentuckiana Council Scouting program in 1981. All girls, despite their present status in Scouting were asked to complete and return the survey. The questions pertained to such areas as years involved in Scouting, frequency of meetings, …

A Comparative Study Of Academic Achievement Of Students From Phased-Elective Social Studies Curriculum With Students From A Traditional Social Studies Curriculum, Dennis Minnix

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this study, the academic achievement of two groups of University students was compared. The control group consisted of 15 students who had attended a traditional high school. The experimental group consisted of 25 students who had attended a high school which utilized a phased-elective curriculum design.

The students were observed at three points in their schooling. First, students were compared at the end of the eighth grade to determine if any significant difference existed prior to their exposure to the two high school programs. Next, students were observed at the end of their high school education by comparing scores …

“They Made Us Dance In The Pig Trough!” Mrs. Blanche Story’S Oral Accounts Of Dating, Courtship, Marriage And Sexual Attitudes In Northcentral Nebraska, 1885-1910, Gayle Waggoner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Oral recollections concerning dating, courtship, marriage and related attitudes were collected from a single informant, Mrs. Blanche Story of Butte, Nebraska. Through in-depth questioning during twelve tape-recorded interview sessions, value- and attitude-oriented accounts were secured for the years 1885 to 1910, the late frontier period in northcentral Nebraska. These detailed reminiscences focus on common life experiences related to interpersonal relationships and the institutions related to them, resulting in a personal or folk history. The single greatest problem in research was the lack of documentation for the attitudinal content of the texts. Corroboration of both specific information and broad patterns of …

The Cedar Grove Community In Oral Folk History, Ada Parker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The thesis was originally done for the Center for Intercultural & Folk Studies which no longer exists.

The Beeson Farmstead: A Study Of The Functional Aspects Of A Black Farm In The Richland Community, Annelen Archbold

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study documents the lifestyle on a small, prosperous black farmstead in the Richland community of Butler County, Kentucky. It is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted with Percy Beeson, owner of the farm for aver fifty years. The result of the fieldwork and interviews was the documentation of how this farmstead, maintained without mechanical farm equipment, worked as a functional unit on a year-round basis.

As a functional unit, the Beeson farmstead is described in terms of the Beeson family and their ownership of the farm and the breakdown of the property into two dependent units. In the …

White Attitudes Toward Racial Tolerance & The Perception Of Party Differences: 1956-1969, Paul Messick

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine attitude change toward a particularly salient political and social issue "over time." A second purpose is the examination of the perception of party differences in their positions toward the aforementioned issues "over time."

A History Of Baptists In Clinton County, Timothy Cantrell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study is to present some of the history of the Baptist Church in Clinton County, Kentucky. A detailed study of the early church in the county also presents a picture of the county's social history as well because of the very close association between the individual and his church.

The scope of this study does not lend itself to presentation of the individual histories of all the Baptist churches in the county. It is, rather, the purpose of the author to cover the history of Baptists in the county by tracing the history of their two …

A Program Of Improvement For Union County Kentucky Schools, Thomas Fortenbery

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The problem presented in a Program of Improvement for Union County Schools deals primarily with future school buildings. The problem is threefold:

1. The location of future school buildings must be determined in the light of population trends and economic developments.
2. The size of the buildings must be determined.
3. A plan to finance the program must be developed.

A Study Of The Attitudes & Contributions Of Organized Labor To Education Prior To 1860, H. B. Mcalister

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study presents a somewhat connected narrative of the attitudes and contributions of organized labor to education prior to 1860. It has a twofold purpose: first, it is concerned with a consideration of the psychological, economic, social and political background which provided and shaped the determining factors of organized labor's earlier educational attitudes and contributions; and second, with an investigation for evidences as to the nature, extent and significance of these attitudes and contributions in evaluating labor's part in establishing our system of free public school education.

The Career Of Edward Ward Carmack And The Cooper-Sharp Trial, Robert Franklin Crutcher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The subject of this thesis was suggested to the writer in October 1931, by the History Department of the Western Kentucky State Teachers College. The writer at that time was considering a number of other subjects, but seeing that material could be located easily, and that the field suggested by the subject had not been covered, this subject was chosen. When much of the material had been located and examined it was clearly seen that the material in the field could be grouped under two heads and given this title, “Career of Edward Ward Carmack and the Cooper-Sharp Trial”.

Most …