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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

The Bodies Politic: Sex, History, And The Promise Of A Black Queer America, Jonathan Newby May 2022

The Bodies Politic: Sex, History, And The Promise Of A Black Queer America, Jonathan Newby

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This essay examines and critiques the ways in which Black, Queer, and Black Queer people's culture, politics, and lived experiences are experienced in the United States, historically and in the present day. The Bodies Politics calls for American history and culture to be reoriented to acknowledge and center the contributions of Black Queer people to the nation.


Disappearing Smoke: Why Black Pitmasters Are Being Left Behind By Commercialization Within North Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue, Charlotte Lucas May 2022

Disappearing Smoke: Why Black Pitmasters Are Being Left Behind By Commercialization Within North Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue, Charlotte Lucas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In North Carolina, there is only one Eastern whole hog establishment left that is owned by black pitmasters. As a result of historical context, black pitmasters have been left behind by the recent trend of commercialization within North Carolina whole hog barbecue. This exclusion can be explained by examining the history of whole hog barbecue, the struggles black entrepreneurs face in the restaurant industry, and the role that the media has played in ignoring black pitmasters. Historical background dives into the history of the whole hog from the plantation era to the Civil Rights movement and beyond in North Carolina …


"Epic Poems In Bronze": Confederate Memorialization And The Old South's Reckoning With Modernity In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Grace Ford-Dirks May 2021

"Epic Poems In Bronze": Confederate Memorialization And The Old South's Reckoning With Modernity In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Grace Ford-Dirks

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Scholars of the American South generally end their studies of Confederate memorization just before World War 1. Because of a decline in the number of physical monuments and memorials to the Confederacy dedicated in the years immediately following the war, scholars appear to regard the interwar era as a period separate from the Lost Cause movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, to fully understand the complexity of developing Southern identities in the modern age, it is essential to expand traditional definitions of Confederate memorialization and the time period in which it is studied. This paper explores …


The Life And Legacy Of Marie Couvent: Social Networks, Property Ownership, And The Making Of A Free People Of Color Community In New Orleans., Elizabeth Clark Neidenbach Jan 2015

The Life And Legacy Of Marie Couvent: Social Networks, Property Ownership, And The Making Of A Free People Of Color Community In New Orleans., Elizabeth Clark Neidenbach

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation recovers the life of Marie Justine Sirnir Couvent and the Atlantic World she inhabited. Born in Africa around 1757, she was enslaved as a child and shipped to Saint-Domingue through the Bight of Benin in the 1760s. In the tumult of the Haitian Revolution, Couvent fled the island, along with tens of thousands of Saint-Domingue inhabitants. She resettled in New Orleans where she eventually died a free and wealthy slaveholder in 1837. Although illiterate, Couvent left property to establish a free black school in her will. L'Institution Catholique des Orphelins Indigents was founded on her land in 1847 …


African American Civil Rights Museums: A Study Of The R.R Moton Museum In Farmville, Virginia, Christina S. Draper Jan 2015

African American Civil Rights Museums: A Study Of The R.R Moton Museum In Farmville, Virginia, Christina S. Draper

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Thoroughly Modern: African American Women's Dress And The Culture Of Consumption In Cleveland, Ohio 1890-1940, Deanda Marie Johnson Jan 2014

Thoroughly Modern: African American Women's Dress And The Culture Of Consumption In Cleveland, Ohio 1890-1940, Deanda Marie Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

African American women have been absent from much of the writing on consumption and the making of modernity. This dissertation responds to these absences, using dress, a highly visible form of consumption, to examine how African American women in Cleveland, Ohio experienced modernity through the culture of consumption from 1890-1940, in the context of urbanization, migration, and the Great Depression.;In looking at African American women's dress during this period, this dissertation will explore the clothed body not simply as a theoretical abstraction, but part of a lived experience in which production and consumption are not mutually exclusive. This will help …


Seeing (For) Miles: Jazz, Race, And Objects Of Performance, Benjamin Park Anderson Jan 2014

Seeing (For) Miles: Jazz, Race, And Objects Of Performance, Benjamin Park Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Using jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991) as its primary example, "Seeing (for) Miles" attempts to build on a growing discourse related to the intersection of jazz, race, and visual / material culture that has heretofore largely ignored the role of consumption. Davis' numerous decisions to spend money on expensive things and/or have them custom made, insisting these things be seen by others, and overseeing his image in advertisements are a reminder that famous musicians often found themselves straddling the line between being consumers and objects of consumption. Following Davis on both sides of that line also necessitates following him on …


'I Get A Kick Out Of You': Cinematic Revisions Of The History Of The African American Cowboy In The American West, Stephanie Anne Maguire Jan 2014

'I Get A Kick Out Of You': Cinematic Revisions Of The History Of The African American Cowboy In The American West, Stephanie Anne Maguire

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Strange Fruit: Images Of African Americans In Advertising Cards And Postcards, 1860-1930, Meghan Brooke Holder Jan 2012

Strange Fruit: Images Of African Americans In Advertising Cards And Postcards, 1860-1930, Meghan Brooke Holder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Real Talk: Blackness And Whiteness In The Works Of Jefferson Pinder, Dave Chappelle, And Aaron Mcgruder, Jeffreen M. Hayes Jan 2012

Real Talk: Blackness And Whiteness In The Works Of Jefferson Pinder, Dave Chappelle, And Aaron Mcgruder, Jeffreen M. Hayes

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

"Real Talk: Blackness and Whiteness in the Works of Jefferson Pinder, Dave Chappelle, and Aaron McGruder" will examine twenty-first century constructions of race by African Americans. I am interested in how visual artist Jefferson Pinder, comedian Dave Chappelle, and comic artist Aaron McGruder interrogate and incorporate race, particularly whiteness, into their respective works. Each artist challenges hegemonic constructions of race, utilizing technology and taking full advantage of our visualized culture to present their examinations of race. I selected the artists because of their intimate knowledge of their respective crafts, their use of popular culture, and their diverse perspectives on race …


Bottomless Pits: The Decline Of Subfloor Pits And Rise Of African American Consumerism In Virginia, Danny Brad Hatch Jan 2009

Bottomless Pits: The Decline Of Subfloor Pits And Rise Of African American Consumerism In Virginia, Danny Brad Hatch

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


"The Brownies' Book": An Open Window To Early Twentieth-Century African American Childhood, Regina Ann Clark Jan 2009

"The Brownies' Book": An Open Window To Early Twentieth-Century African American Childhood, Regina Ann Clark

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Performances Of Black Female Sexuality In A Hip Hop Magazine, Tova Joanna Johnson Jan 2008

Performances Of Black Female Sexuality In A Hip Hop Magazine, Tova Joanna Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Re-Taking It To The Streets: Investigating Hip-Hop's Emergence In The Spaces Of Late Capitalism, Kevin Waide Kosanovich Jan 2008

Re-Taking It To The Streets: Investigating Hip-Hop's Emergence In The Spaces Of Late Capitalism, Kevin Waide Kosanovich

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


You Just Had That Gut Feeling': Film, Memory, And The Lynching Of James Byrd, Jr, William Brian Piper Jan 2006

You Just Had That Gut Feeling': Film, Memory, And The Lynching Of James Byrd, Jr, William Brian Piper

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Breaking With Tradition: Slave Literacy In Early Virginia, 1680--1780, Antonio T. Bly Jan 2006

Breaking With Tradition: Slave Literacy In Early Virginia, 1680--1780, Antonio T. Bly

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

"Breaking with Tradition" is a study of slave literacy in eighteenth-century British North America, the era of the First Great Awakening and the American Revolution. Instead of highlighting the work of a few northern slave authors (the present emphasis in African American literary history), it focuses on the relationship between slave education in colonial Virginia and the social and political circumstances in which slaves acquired a knowledge of letters. A social history of life in the slave quarters, the "great house," and in towns, "Breaking with Tradition" is at once a case study of slaves reading and writing in the …


(Un)Conventional Coupling: Interracial Sex And Intimacy In Contemporary Neo-Slave Narratives, Colleen Doyle Worrell Jan 2005

(Un)Conventional Coupling: Interracial Sex And Intimacy In Contemporary Neo-Slave Narratives, Colleen Doyle Worrell

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

"(Un)Conventional Coupling" initiates a more expansive critical conversation on the contemporary neo-slave narrative. The dissertation's central argument is that authors of neo-slave narratives rely on the politicized theme of interracial coupling to both reimagine history and explore the possibility of social transformation. to establish a framework for my particular focus on interracial intimacy, this study extends the boundaries of the genre by adopting Paul Gilroy's theory of the black Atlantic. This theoretical paradigm serves as a provisional framework for both accommodating and analyzing the complexity of authorship, nationality, and influence within this large body of work.;This dissertation interprets neo-slave narratives' …


Envisioning Black Childhood: Black Nationalism, Community, And Identity Construction In Black Arts Movement Children's Literature, Meredith Meagan Crawford Jan 2005

Envisioning Black Childhood: Black Nationalism, Community, And Identity Construction In Black Arts Movement Children's Literature, Meredith Meagan Crawford

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Blue Notes And Brown Skin: Five African-American Jazzmen And The Music They Produced In Regard To The American Civil Rights Movement, Benjamin Park Anderson Jan 2005

Blue Notes And Brown Skin: Five African-American Jazzmen And The Music They Produced In Regard To The American Civil Rights Movement, Benjamin Park Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


African American Cultural Products And Social Uplift, The End Of The 19th Century - The Early Of The 20th Century, Juan Zheng Jan 2004

African American Cultural Products And Social Uplift, The End Of The 19th Century - The Early Of The 20th Century, Juan Zheng

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Postbellum Education Of African Americans: Race, Economy, Power, And The Pursuit Of A System Of Schooling In The Rural Virginia Counties Of Surry And Gloucester, Benjamin Andrew Swenson Jan 2004

Postbellum Education Of African Americans: Race, Economy, Power, And The Pursuit Of A System Of Schooling In The Rural Virginia Counties Of Surry And Gloucester, Benjamin Andrew Swenson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Interminority Relations In The Early 1990s In California: Conflicts Among African-Americans, Latinos, And Asian-Americans, Akiko Yamazato Jan 2003

Interminority Relations In The Early 1990s In California: Conflicts Among African-Americans, Latinos, And Asian-Americans, Akiko Yamazato

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Unrapping The Gangsta: The Changing Role Of The Performer From Toast To Gangsta Rap, Andrea L. D. Symons Jan 2003

Unrapping The Gangsta: The Changing Role Of The Performer From Toast To Gangsta Rap, Andrea L. D. Symons

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Colonial Williamsburg's Slave Auction Re-Enactment: Controversy, African American History And Public Memory, Erin Krutko Devlin Jan 2003

Colonial Williamsburg's Slave Auction Re-Enactment: Controversy, African American History And Public Memory, Erin Krutko Devlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Desegregating Monument Avenue: Arthur Ashe And The Manufacturing Of A New Social Reality In Richmond, Virginia, Melinda Cameron Hapeman Rose Jan 2002

Desegregating Monument Avenue: Arthur Ashe And The Manufacturing Of A New Social Reality In Richmond, Virginia, Melinda Cameron Hapeman Rose

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Creole Gumbo: Ingredients For Maintaining Creole Identity At Laura Plantation, Katherine W. Schupp Jan 2002

Creole Gumbo: Ingredients For Maintaining Creole Identity At Laura Plantation, Katherine W. Schupp

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


A Literature Of Combat: African American Prison Writers Of The Vietnam Era, John William Weber Jan 2002

A Literature Of Combat: African American Prison Writers Of The Vietnam Era, John William Weber

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.


Two Steps From The Blues: Creating Discourse And Constructing Canons In Blues Criticism, John M. Dougan Jan 2001

Two Steps From The Blues: Creating Discourse And Constructing Canons In Blues Criticism, John M. Dougan

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation examines the development of blues criticism in its myriad forms from the 1920s to 1990s, its role in the emergence of a blues discourse and history, and the codification of a blues canon. I analyze blues discourse principally as the creation of critics, historians, and musicologists, but also as the result of series of complex, imbricated relationships among writers, musicians, fans, record collectors, and independent entrepreneurs.;Beginning in the 1920s, I outline a pre-history of blues discourse by examining the metamorphosis of the blues as a cultural text shaped by the folklore scholarship, criticism and reportage in the popular …


Far From "Everybody's Everything": Literary Tricksters In African American And Chinese American Fiction, Crystal Suzette Anderson Jan 2000

Far From "Everybody's Everything": Literary Tricksters In African American And Chinese American Fiction, Crystal Suzette Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation examines trickster sensibilities and behavior as models for racial strategies in contemporary novels by African American and Chinese American authors. While many trickster studies focus on myth, I assert that realist fiction provides a unique historical and cultural space that shapes trickster behavior. John Edgar Wideman, Gloria Naylor, Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston use the trickster in their novels to articulate diverse racial strategies for people of color who must negotiate among a variety of cultural influences. My critical trickster paradigm investigates the motives and behavior of tricksters. It utilizes close literary readings that are strengthened by …


Stormy Weather: Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge And The Cultural Politics Of Stardom, Amy L. Howard Jan 1999

Stormy Weather: Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge And The Cultural Politics Of Stardom, Amy L. Howard

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.