African American Studies Commons^™

The Loving Story: Using A Documentary To Reconsider The Status Of An Iconic Interracial Married Couple, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

The Loving Story (Augusta Films 2011), directed by Nancy Buirski, tells the backstory of the groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, that overturned state laws barring interracial marriage. The article looks to the documentary to explain why the Lovings should be considered icons of racial and ethnic civil rights, however much they might be associated with marriage equality today. The film shows the Lovings to be ordinary people who took their nearly decade long struggle against white supremacy to the nation’s highest court out of a genuine commitment to each other and a determination to live in …

Another Day In Confederate Gettysburg, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Today the Sons of Confederate Veterans ‘celebrated’ the confederate flag at the Peace Light Memorial on the battlefields of Gettysburg. The same battlefields where some of their ancestors suffered a pivotal defeat, and then kidnapped free Black Americans as they fled south. When I found out the SCV had obtained a permit from the National Park Service, I did likewise so I could stand up there with my homemade sign that connects the confederate flag to some of its most seminal moments in history: fighting for slavery in 1863, fighting for segregation in 1962, and murdering nine black South Carolinians …

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.

“Caught Between Southern Pride And Southern Blame”: Brad Paisley’S “Accidental Racist”, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

An ongoing and rather controversial debate in the Civil War world is that over the rightful placement of the Confederate battle flag in American memory. Being such a provocative symbol both in terms of history and race relations, its ‘true’ meaning and ‘true’ symbolism are constantly in flux. With recent disputes on the removal of the Confederate flag from Robert E. Lee’s tomb at Washington and Lee University making their way into the mainstream news, the complicated meaning of the rebel symbol and where it belongs in American memory have earned their places at the forefront of the national consciousness. …

Aa Ms 08 N. T. Swezey's Son & Co. Tin Sign Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

N. T. Swezey (Noah Terry) (1814-1888) was a flour merchant in New York City. He ran a successful business for over forty years at 176 South St., and was one of the founders of the New York Produce Exchange. This collection contains a reproduction of a sign advertising Northwest Consolidated Milling Company flour. The sign depicts the figure of a black child standing behind and slightly below the figure of a white child. The white figure is sitting on a container of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company’s flour and is holding a slice of white bread. Both children have …

Aa Ms 11 Lee Forest Figurines Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Lee Forest, Director of Environmental Services at the University of Southern Maine, donated the figurines in 2002. In the early years of the twentieth century the commoditization of Aunt Jemima expanded beyond commercial flour mix to include a diverse array of products such as rag dolls, dish towels, cookie jars and salt-and-pepper shakers. Eventually, a husband was added, Uncle Mose, and two children, Diana and Wade. Household notions depicting the family continued to be produced into the 1960s, when the civil rights and black consciousness movements encouraged an examination of the symbolism behind representations of African Americans. The collection …

Aa Ms 09 Flynn Seal Presses Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Stephen Flynn discovered these two seal presses on Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Maine, in 1978. They were found in the remains of the Silver Sands Hotel, which had to be destroyed after damage caused by a storm. Two seal presses were from the Women's Ku Klux Klan organizations of Augusta and Bath, Maine. The one from WKKK chapter of Augusta, Maine reads: “Women of the Ku Klux Klan; Capital City Klan; Klan No 11 Augusta, Maine.” In the center there is a shield with a cross and the letters W, K, K, K, at the top, bottom, and sides …

Aa Ms 10 Ku Klux Klan Photograph Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Ku Klux Klan Photograph is a black-and-white image of a KKK march that took place in Lincoln, Maine in 1927. The print measures 8 inches by 9.5 inches.

Date Range:

1927

Size of Collection:

0.10 ft.

I'Ve Seen The Promised Land: A Letter To Amelia Boynton Robinson, Mauricio E. Novoa

SURGE

You asked if I had any thoughts or comments at the end of our visit, and I stood and said nothing. I opened my mouth, but instead of giving you words my throat was sealed by a dam of speechlessness while my eyes wept out all the emotions and heartache that I wanted to share with you. The others in my group were able to express their admiration, so I wanted to do the same. [excerpt]

"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 …

Ua1b1/5 Martin Luther King Forum, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding the Martin Luther King Forum.

Samuel, Patrick And Cato: A History Of The Dallas Fire Of 1860 And Its Tragic Aftermath, William R. Farmer (1921-2000)

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

In this unpublished work, William R. Farmer (1921-2000), former associate professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, recounts the story of the Dallas Fire of 1860 and the events that followed: the hanging of three innocent African American men and the whipping of many local slaves. Farmer’s work explores the causes of these acts of racial terrorism by presenting and discussing numerous primary resources. Accompanying the book manuscript is a related work: “A Reader for the Study of the Dallas Fire of 1860.” Both documents were created in the late 1990s.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 49, No. 12, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Mcdaniel, Mike. Open (Closed?) Housing Affects WKU
• Wilkerson, Larry. Political Independents Vie for City Commission Seats
• Irving Levine to Speak Here on Europe of 1970’s
• National Ballet Company to Perform Here Tonight
• Wilkerson, Larry. John Cooper May be Campaigning for Governorship After All
• Catacombs Hosts Halloween Bash
• High Court Hits School Stalling - Desegregation
• UNICEF Spooks College to Help Less Fortunate
• United Givers Fund Effort Deserves Community Support
• Sullivan, Marta. Nixon Calls for Revamping of Draft, Drug Laws
• McDaniel, Mike. Judge Judged as Rushee
• UNICEF …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 47, No. 15, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Miss Carmen Willoughby Named Top Scholar
• Soul Concert Tonight Stars Wilson Pickett
• Korb, Carolyn. Alumni Group to Present Cash Stipend to Scholar
• WKU Receives Grants for Summer Institutes
• Protest Fails as Students Chant Carols
• Zeh, John. Future for Education Unclear
• Outstanding Cadet Named for ROTC – Edwin Phelps
• Chaney, Joanne & Ron Neafus. Journalist of Varied Talents, Jerry Drury Directs Circulation
• Turner, Charlene. Vietnam Discussion Set for International Club
• Club News – Geography & Geology, Alpha Kappa Psi, Baptist Student Union, Alpha Kappa Omega, Alpha …