African American Studies Commons^™

Refusing To Be Dispossessed: African American Land Retention In The Us South From Reconstruction To World War Ii, Camille Goldmon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African Americans in the South were tied to the land during slavery and after emancipation. Many felt that land ownership was the key to freedom. For decades, black farmers strove for land ownership, in many cases falling prey to sharecropping and tenancy agreements in the meantime. Despite this drive toward independent farming, however, since 1920, there has been a steady decline in the number of black farm owners. This trend is especially prevalent in the Southern United States. The black farm owners who persevered through periods of economic, social, and political turmoil were able to, for varying reasons, navigate those …

Measuring Racial Competence In Athletic Academic Support Staffs, Aquasia Thornhill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Critical Race Theory, a theoretical framework that has been gaining much recognition in sport literature, is a useful and beneficial tool in discussing race and racism. To better understand the context in which academic support staff appreciate the functionality and significance of race, the present study measures the racial competence of athletic academic support staffs. This research study explores the need to integrate a model such as Critical Race Theory that promotes “racial competency” among academic support staffs working closely with student-athletes of color, and measures Color-Blind Racial Attitudes that may have effects on the types of interactions individuals are …

Initiating Race: Fraternal Organizations, Racial Identity, And Public Discourse In American Culture, 1865-1917, John D. Treat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on ritual books, organizational records, newspaper accounts, and the data available from cemetery headstones and census records, this work argues that adult fraternal organizations were key to the formation of civic discourse in the United States from the years following the Civil War to World War I. It particularly analyzes the role of working-class white and African-American organizations in framing racial identity, arguing that white organizations gave up older, comprehensive ideas of citizenship for understandings of Americanism rooted in racism and nativism. Counterbalancing this development, now-forgotten African-American fraternal organizations were among the earliest advocates of Afrocentrism. These organizations, form …

What Keeps Us Here? Perceptions Of Workplace Supervision Among African American Men In Student Affairs, Todd C. Jenkins Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African American male professionals continue to be lower in numbers in the workplace across the United States compared to their White counterparts. However, the division of student affairs and student services of higher education institutions continue to serve as a gate way for African American men to serve as administrators. Several higher education institutions and sectors continue to invest in the recruitment and retention for African American male professionals, and research has shown that supervision is the key to employee professional development, performance, and success. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of African American male professionals’ …

A Light In Darkness, Oscar Micheaux: Entrepreneur Intellectual Agitator, Airic Hughes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oscar Micheaux was a luminary who served as an agent of racial uplift, with a unique message to share with the world on behalf of the culturally marginalized African Americans. He produced projects that conveyed the complexity of the true black experience with passion and creative courage. His films empowered black audiences and challenged conventional stereotypes of black culture and potential. The legacy of Oscar Micheaux is historically unparalleled among his contemporaries. He transcended traditionally held perspectives about what black people could accomplish. The consciousness within his work still heavily influences black entertainment today. This study seeks to add to …

Understanding The Experiences Of African-American Relatives Who Serve As Care Providers To Custodial Children In Arkansas: An Intersectional Case Study, Carmen Johnson-Hardin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increase in the provision of long-term care by relative caregivers to custodial children has brought attention to the physical, emotional, and Social challenges of this complex caregiving experience. Prior studies have examined separate structural identities that focus on comparing the quality of life, educational status, Social status, and income of grandparent custodial caregivers. To extend this research, it is important to explore the gaps in service provisions to relative caregivers; comparative viewpoints of relative caregivers and service providers regarding policies and practices; and heterogeneity among Black relative caregivers utilizing an intersectional framework. Face-to-face or telephone interviews were conducted with …

The Spectacle Of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans In Postbellum Fiction, Afrin Zeenat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Orphan iconography has always been deployed in American literature and culture, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both real and imaginary. The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates the Social and cultural realm in postbellum America, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender.

The Role Of Stress: Low Birth Weight And Preterm Birth For African American Women, Tionna Latrice Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This population-based study evaluates the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes of low birth weight (LBW) and pre-term birth (PTB) among African American mothers in Arkansas. The relationship between adverse birth outcomes in African American women and stress in comparison to non-Hispanic Caucasian women data was evaluated from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) quantitative survey. Data from 2005 through 2010 was reviewed to show the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes. The study sample was comprised of 14,196 participants.

Ethnic group status is the key maternal-level independent variable in this study. Of …

Contributing Factors That Affect The Achievement Of African-American Females Taught By Caucasian Teachers On The Arkansas Literacy Exam: A Case Study, Felicia Renee Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative intrinsic case study was designed to assist Caucasian educators with the researched academic skills and behaviors to engage African-American females in the learning environment. The study provided strategies and recommendations to promote self-worth, self-motivation, self-efficacy, and morale in African-American females when they did not perform as well as or higher than their Caucasian peers in a high school English classroom on the state literacy examination instructed by a Caucasian teacher. The research site was a low socioeconomic urban high school with a majority of minorities with several native based home languages. The study took an in-depth approach to …

Recruitment And Retention Of Kindergarten Through Grade 12 African American Male Educators In Rural Environments, Shannon Tre'mario Jernell Lewis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African American male teachers represent a disproportionately low number of educators in the American public school system. This lack of representation has implications for understanding, interacting with and educating the growing population of students of African descent in public schools. In addition, all students benefit from experiencing African American males in classrooms for cultural and educational reasons. For these reasons, recruiting and retaining African American males for careers in education is imperative.

This dissertation investigated the reasons African American males do not select careers in education given the history of this career and its prominence for people of African descent. …

The Recruitment Of African American Graduate Students At The University Of Arkansas, 2000-2010, Rhonda F. Gray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting this qualitative study was to identify how the U of A approached the recruiting of African American graduate students over a ten year period of time. Based upon best practices for recruiting African American graduate students which was identified in current and scholarly literature in the field, the study examined the recruiting practices at U of A from 2000-2010. The personal interview was the instrument of choice, and within this time period, 40 interviews were conducted. The participants included the chancellor, college deans, faculty, graduate coordinators and recruiters from the various departments and colleges which offered …

"And So We Moved Quietly": Southern Methodist University And Desegregation, 1950-1970, Scott A. Cashion

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Southern Methodist University was the first Methodist institution in the South to open its doors to African Americans in the early 1950s. There were several factors that contributed to SMU pushing for desegregation when it did. When SMU started the process of desegregation in the fall of 1950, two schools in the Southwest Conference had already admitted at least one black graduate student. University officials, namely then President Umphrey Lee, realized that because other schools had desegregated, it would not be long before SMU would have to do the same. Lee started the path towards desegregation in 1950, and it …

"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 …

Onward And Upward: Characteristics Of African American Senior Student Affairs Officers, Marteze Deon Hammonds

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The journey of African American student affairs professionals has evolved throughout the history of higher education and student affairs. This study examined the career profiles of ten African American Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) at predominately White institutions (PWIs) throughout the United States. By using the curriculum vitae and a survey, this research found that the career profile of African American SSAOs at PWI's were African Americans who had earned a terminal degree, averaged eight career moves over 18 years and were involved in national associations where they published and presented. These SSAOs were active in their communities and willing …

The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Black Women Leaders In Fortune 500 Companies, Latonya R. Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black women are underrepresented in leadership positions within organizations. The extent to which self-efficacy influences the advancement potential of Black females is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of black women in leadership positions and to determine how Black women leaders' careers are influenced by their self-efficacy beliefs. Participants for the study were determined using convenient random sampling. The objectives of this study were to determine the profile and level of self-efficacy, and leadership practices of participants based on tenure (length of time in a leadership position), age comparison and work experience (total number …

Intimate Frontiers: Indians, French, And Africans In Colonial Mississippi Valley, Sonia Toudji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historians have agreed that the French were more successful than their competitors in developing cordial relations with Native Americans during the conquest of North America. French diplomatic savoir faire and their skill at trading with Indians are usually cited to explain this success, but the Spaniards relied upon similar policies of trade and gift giving, while enjoying considerably less success with the Indians. Intimate Frontiers proposes an alternative model to understand the relative success of French Colonization in North America. Intimate Frontiers, an ethno-historical examination of the colonial encounters in the Lower French Louisiana, focuses on the Social relations between …

Exploring First Generation African American Graduate Students: Motivating Factors For Pursuing A Doctoral Degree, Stephanie G. Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to examine the factors that motivate African-American first-generation students to pursue doctoral education at a four-year public university. There has been little research on the influence academic or non-academic factors have on first-generation graduate student motivation. Similarly, little research exists that explored how factors might vary by ethnicity. Based on the projected increase of post-baccalaureate enrollment each year (Aud, Hussar, Planty, Snyder, Bianco, Fox, Frohlich, Kemp, Drake, 2010), first-generation African-Americans will become more interested in attending graduate school. It is important to gain a better understanding of the factors and influences that impact …