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White Fear/Black Apprehension, Volume 2: An Analysis Of The Racialized Targeting Of African Americans In The Educational System, In The Southern U.S. States, Circa 1865–1965, Christopher Donell Gipson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

For African Americans, the legacy of racial oppression extends across centuries, from the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement to the persistence of institutionalized racism, White supremacy, racial violence, and structural inequality within the United States. These racialized systems are reproduced intergenerationally through social institutions, education, media, political discourse, historical narratives, and cultural representations that repeatedly normalize negative constructions of Africans and African Americans. Such representations operate on conscious and subconscious levels, shaping social attitudes, institutional practices, and perceptions of racial difference. As argued in White Fear / Black Apprehension: An Analysis of White European American Racism and Mob Violence Through …

A Wound Upon The Union: John Quincy Adams And The Treaty Of Indian Springs, Spencer Peacock

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis examines the crisis that developed after US president John Quincy Adams signed, then disavowed (allegedly over moral concerns), the fraudulent 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs with the Creek Indian Nation. The thesis probes Adams' motives during the Treaty of Indian Springs crisis, and seeks to connect the crisis to the evolution of US federal Indian policy in the 1820s, prior to the mass Indian removal of the 1830s.

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

Lifting The Political Fog: People, Power, And Antislavery Politics In Upstate New York, 1848-1861, Nicholas Thony

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This work details the ascendance of the political antislavery movement in upstate New York, focusing on the roles a diverse array of actors played in constructing an unlikely Republican coalition of conservatives, reformers, black New Yorkers, nativists, prohibitionists, and abolitionists in the years preceding the Civil War. In weaving together the parallel and inextricable stories of powerful newspaperman Thurlow Weed, female reformers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and black communities across the state, I argue the success of the political antislavery movement resulted from their combined efforts. Thurlow Weed was one of the most important politicians of …

Finding Aid For The Deavours Family Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Deavours Family Collection contains genealogical information about the Deavours and related families.  It also holds material related to Stone Deavours, a lawyer, who served as University of Mississippi Law School Dean from 1930 to 1932.  The collection also includes two nineteenth-century ledgers regarding Garlandsville, Mississippi and the journal of an unidentified Alabama dating from 1860 to 1874.

Bloody Sunday: A Comparative Analysis Of Nonviolent Marches In Selma And Derry, Samantha J. Romero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines two different nonviolent civil rights marches: Selma’s march for voting rights in 1965 in the United States and Derry’s march to end internment without trial in 1972 in Northern Ireland. The two marches yielded drastically different outcomes despite employing the shared tactic of nonviolence. This research addresses the vital role that the political opportunity structure, rather than tactical repertoire alone, plays in determining whether state repression leads to reform or further conflict. Through a controlled comparative analysis, the research positions the march itself as a constant across the two cases. Subsequently, governmental allies, institutional openness, and regime …

“I Am A Refugee Direct From Mississippi:” Drafting And Substitution As Muster Methods In Shaping Black Participation In The Union Army, 1863–1865, Carson R. Maschmeier

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Historians have frequently emphasized voluntary enlistment as the primary means through which Black men entered military service, portraying military participation as an expression of autonomy and a pathway toward freedom and citizenship. Within this scholarship, few historians have examined how Black participation in the Union army as draftees and substitutes impacted Black men and their families. This thesis examines the role of drafting and substitution in shaping Black military participation in the Union Army during the American Civil War. By focusing on Pennsylvania's 8th United States Colored Troops (USCT), this study argues that drafting and substitution complicate the commonly accepted …

“An Extremely Dangerous Institution:” The Cultures And Controversy Of Public Social Dances In Montana, 1900-1930, Danielle Allison Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores public social dances east of the Continental Divide in Montana from 1900 to 1930. Rural social dances in schoolhouses and urban dances in dance halls created two different dance cultures. The relaxed nature of rural dances preserved the traditional values of nineteenth-century social dances, which reinforced community and family ties. Urban dances reflected the modern fads of the roaring twenties and challenged traditional values with sexual suggestiveness. Progressive Era moral reformers concerned about the possibility that social dance promoted illicit sexuality participated in an anti-dance movement and pushed for regulations of social dances. The anti-dance movement in …

Stopping The Buck: What Made The Truman Committee Uniquely Successful In Its Oversight Of World War Two Military Contracts, Victoria Kelley-Chiarelli

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

During World War Two, Harry S. Truman led the Senate Select Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, also known as the Truman Committee, in its oversight of military contracts and the war effort. The Truman Committee saved the U.S. government billions by identifying and discouraging waste, fraud, and abuse, and saved many armed forces personnel’s lives through identifying defective products. Truman’s background in World War One service and his time as a local official in Missouri show signs of the integrity and commitment to good governance that made the Truman Committee so successful. The Truman Committee’s membership, staff, principles, …

[Introduction To] Shakers At The Center : Manifesting Spirits & Spectacles In Nineteenth-Century America, Douglas L. Winiarski

Bookshelf

Edited by Douglas WIniarski.

"Exploring the theological, social, and cultural dimensions of one of America’s most ambitious prophetic movements

The Shakers’ Era of Manifestations ranks among the most astounding events in American religious history. During the 1840s, members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing embarked on an audacious project of receiving visions, revelations, and other manifestations from the spirit world and convincing both themselves and the world’s people of their reality. Gifted Shakers known as “instruments” surrendered their bodies to possessing spirits and celestial beings who, in turn, provided the Believers with an unimaginable number of …

The Sting Of The Women Airforce Service Pilots: The Fight For Militarization And Recognition, Cassandra Cates

Honors College Theses

The Women Airforce Service Pilots, commonly known as the WASPs, were the first women to fly military planes for the United States. Serving during World War II, the main goal of the WASPs was to relieve the men flying planes domestically, so the men could serve overseas. But despite their dedicated wartime service, negative press and an unfavorable Congressional investigation prevented the WASPs from being fully recognized in 1944, and consequently militarized. Once they were disbanded near war’s end, the WASPs returned to civilian life. Not until the 1970s did the WASPs start to speak out about their service and …

Something To Say: Nativism, Prohibition, And The Loss Of Political Alignment In Davenport, Iowa’S German-American Community 1848-1922, Clayton R. Schuler

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis ends with the municipal elections of 1920 in Davenport, Iowa. Amid the First Red Scare, the Socialist Party was swept into power. The party won under inauspicious national conditions thanks in part to a successful campaign on local concerns; the party had something to say. An examination of the years prior to the election, however, reveals that other factors contributed to political unalignment for the city’s large German descended population. Frustrated with Republican and Democratic parties that seemed to have no place for them, these voters had something to say as well. Ultimately the opportunity that this unalignment …

The Homemaker's Guide To Happiness: A Comparison Of Methods Used By Dissatisfied Mid-Twentieth Century American Housewives In Their Pursuit Of Fulfillment, Kristen Thompson

Graduate Masters Theses

In the mid-twentieth century, the United States of America had an unsung problem.The country had emerged from World War II as a superpower and the high of victory was still fresh, but under the surface the nation was desperately searching for stability to cope with the trauma of war. This search saw a cultural push back to traditional values and gender roles and a heavy focus on the nuclear family as the heart of society. As such, a great amount of pressure was placed on the shoulders of the American housewives who were at the center of the home and …

“I Thought We Were Past That”: Questioning Coleman Young’S Conflicting Ideologies Of Tough On Crime And Police Reform In Reference To The Malice Green Killing, 1974-1994., Carsen Troub

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

This paper seeks to historicize conflicting tough on crime and police reform ideologies of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young. These policies help explain the events that culminated in the killing of Malice Green, as well as police brutality in Detroit. This paper argues that attributing the death of Malice Green to Coleman Young is irresponsible, and further, it is important to understand that Young's tough on crime policies and lack of investment in fundamental police reform played a role in the attitudes that led to the death of Malice Green and many others.

Under The Influence: New York’S Crisis Of Addiction, Exploitation, And Drug Policy Within Depression-Era Films, Simone White

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

During the 1930s, New York City stood at the center of media innovation and cultural influence. It was also the center of the continuing opioid epidemic and a pivotal site for the reception and promotion of addiction films. This article argues that Depression-era films, The Struggle (1931), Narcotic (1933), and Assassin of Youth (1938), reflected economic, political, and moral anxieties surrounding drug abuse. Using National Board of Review records, studio pressbooks, and contemporary periodicals, this study examines how cinematic portrayals of addiction influenced ideologies, criminalized users, and deepened social stigma.

Visible And Invisible Empires: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan 100 Years Ago, Christian Molina

Theses

Hatred and violence breed division, and division breeds more hatred and more violence. In an America where our politics has become name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, and whataboutisms, and violence, unfortunately, it is safe to say our nation has entered this self-perpetuating cycle. A place for malicious groups concerned with growth, power, and profit to capture the angry, the stressed, and the less informed in their webs of elaborate lies and misleading, misinterpreted numbers the way they have in decades past.

Healing Through History, Nancy Baker Jones

Journal of Texas History

This is the written transcription of the author’s closing plenary address to the inaugural conference of the Alliance for Texas History, May 17, 2025. Its purpose is to put into both broad and personal historical contexts the events of 2023 and 2024 that led to the founding of the Alliance for Texas History. It concludes that, despite the difficulties of those events for her and for many other historians of Texas, history offers a potentially healing context for moving forward.

Testing Tocqueville’S Troops: American Democracy At War In Mexico, Corbin V. Cali

History Theses

This thesis explores Alexis de Tocqueville's theory of democratic armies through the lens of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), testing his predictions about how democratic social conditions influence military institutions and performance. Tocqueville argued that armies in democratic societies would face tensions between egalitarian ideals and military discipline, with citizen-soldiers resisting hierarchy while professional officers, often isolated from civil society, grew dangerously ambitious for war. He predicted that democratic armies would show energetic initiative but struggle with weak formal discipline, and that equality would fundamentally change the relationship between the military and the broader society. The Mexican-American War serves as an …

Log Cabins, Hard Ciders, And The Misunderstood Campaign Of 1840: Looking At How The Whigs Really Created The First Modern Presidential Campaign Through Effective Storytelling, Eric V. Schesventer

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Whig party crafted the first ever modern campaign seen in American History during the campaign and subsequent presidential election of 1840. They did this not merely through the use of flashy campaign slogans and festive events as previous historians have discussed. The Whigs created the first ever modern campaign by telling both realistic and symbolic stories through the use of media narratives and physical objects crafted for the campaign. By doing this, this helped mold then candidate and future President William Henry Harrison into a candidate for all Americans, even if he was not in practice.

Diplomacy Derailed: Discrimination’S Detour On Route 40, Gage A. Kivlen

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The 1961 Route 40 campaign in Maryland became a critical battleground where three competing approaches to addressing racial segregation revealed deep contradictions in Cold War America. Route 40, a major highway between Washington D.C. and New York, became an international embarrassment when African diplomats from newly independent nations were repeatedly refused service at restaurants and hotels. This crisis prompted responses from three distinct actors: the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which employed grassroots organizing and direct action; the State Department's Special Protocol Service Section (SPSS), which pursued top-down diplomatic solutions; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which conducted extensive …

King’S Wigwam: Atlanta’S Forgotten Black Summer Resort, Andrew J. Bramlett, Seneca Vaught

Symposium of Student Scholars

From 1915 to 1920, the only summer resort for Black Atlantans was King’s Wigwam, located north of the small farming community of Kennesaw. Situated on over forty acres owned by Auburn Avenue entrepreneur Cornelius King, the summer resort saw a host of notable visitors during its short five years of existence. During the 1919 season, a guest named Bertram Hamilton was falsely accused of rape in nearby Cherokee County. He was taken to the county jail as an angry mob gathered. The county sheriff, who had been part of the mob that lynched Leo Frank four years before, believed Hamilton …

Heroes By The Score, Owen J. Eastman

Honors Projects

Historians have increasingly examined how media other than yellow journalism helped manufacture consent for American imperialism during the Spanish-American War, yet commercial sheet music—despite its ubiquity at the time—remains overlooked. This study addresses that gap by analyzing fifty pieces of sheet music published around the period, employing a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative, qualitative, and comparative media analysis. The corpus reveals four dominant themes: memorializing the sinking of the Maine; Cuban “liberation” rhetoric that often referenced American ownership or influence over the island; military hero worship that personalized and justified expansion; and messages of national unity that permitted overseas territorial …

Back Matter, Editorial Team

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Queering The Lone Star State. Podcast. Hosted By Wesley G. Phelps.Produced By Sarah Lyngholm., Hannah Fuller

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

William Hanson And The Texas-Mexico Border: Violence, Corruption,And The Making Of The Gatekeeper State, Zaragosa "Mito" Diaz-Espinoza

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Texas: An American History, Walter L. Buenger

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Robert E. Howard: The Life And Times Of A Texas Author, Brandy Winn

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Neither Fish Nor Fowl: A Mercantile Jewish Family On The Rio Grande, Gabrielle Lyle

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Home Heat Money God: Texas And Modern Architecture, Rex Koontz

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Fighting For Control: Power, Reproductive Care, And Race In The Us-Mexico Borderlands, Rebecca A. Gonzalez

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.