Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Umass Chooses A Political Executive: The Politics Of A Presidential Search, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

Horace Mann, the father of American public education, had served as president of the Massachusetts Senate prior to becoming the state's first secretary of education. Since then, as reformers succeeded in removing politics from the sacred groves of academe, appointing a politician to head the state's educational system fell into disfavor. Relatively recently, however, there have been two abortive attempts by politicians to reach the executive pinnacle of public higher education. Both James Collins, in 1986, and David Bartley, in 1991, were defeated in the quest to achieve this goal. Historical understanding of these battles is necessary to comprehend what …

The Battle For City Hall: What Do We Fight Over?, Louise Simmons

New England Journal of Public Policy

An important dimension of contemporary American urban politics involves the redistributive role of local government. Activism at the local level has produced electoral movements that have succeeded in electing progressive local candidates and coalitions, yet on assuming office those officials face tremendous obstacles in meeting the expectations of those who put them in office. From 1991 to 1993 in Hartford, Connecticut, an attempt at progressive governance by a multiracial coalition was fraught with difficulties. Tensions among progressives and among leadership from impoverished communities of color, responses of downtown interests and the media, fiscal crises and the unrelenting needs of the …

Black Immigrant Community Of Washington, D.C.: A Public History Approach, Portia James

Trotter Review

In the Washington, D.C. area contemporary Black community life has been shaped in large part by a pattern of migration and settlement of African Americans from southern states. But international immigration has also made its mark on the local Black community. Today, Washington and its suburbs in Virginia and Maryland are home to significant populations of Black people from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. This international movement of people has resulted in the broadening of Black community life and the development of a multicultural and multi-ethnic Black population in the area.

Signs, Symbols, And Slave Culture: Representations In Black Thunder, Sandra M. Grayson

Trotter Review

Black Thunder (1936), by Arna Bontemps, is a historical novel that recreates Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave revolt. This novel is useful in reviewing some of the historical and cultural linkages between Black slaves in the U.S. and African cultures. Thematically, Black Thunder does more than represent Black people's self-assertion through revolt, it also shows their assertion of identity through practicing Atlantic (or western) African traditions, especially those of the Kongo. This is a topic that continues to be significant in light of greater contemporary political and economic linkages between U.S. Blacks and Africans, as well as increasing African immigration into …

A Pre-Negotiation Guide To The Conflict In Northern Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

On September 1, 1994, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a ceasefire.

The declaration was potentially one of the most significant developments in Irish history since Ireland was partitioned in 1920. It represented, or at the time it seemed to represent, an acknowledgement by the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Fein, that Ireland cannot be united by physical force, that the armed struggle of the last twenty five years to drive the British out of Northern Ireland has not worked, that the strategy of "the Long War," based on the premise that if the IRA persisted in its campaign …

Black Women In Antebellum America: Active Agents In The Fight For Freedom, Sandra M. Grayson

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The most prominent images of Black women in antebellum America depicted in classes across the United States are of passive victims as opposed to active agents of change. The names and deeds of Black women like Frances E. W. Harper, Maria Stewart, Sarah Mapps Douglass, and Sarah Jane Giddings are not an integral part of American education. Further, most history books overlook Black women's roles in antebellum America — oversights which can be considered suppression through historical omission. In order to reflect a more accurate picture of American history, public and private school curriculums need to include texts by and …

Nigerians In The United States: Potentialities And Crises, Paul E. Udofia

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

This Research Report examines the various waves of Nigerian immigration, community and leadership development, as well as crises in the United States.

This study is divided into three parts. Part I begins with a brief historical overview of the Nigerian background and crises, thereafter showing the patterns of Nigerian immigration to the U.S. and their varying characteristics from 1970 to 1995. Part II analyzes the many ways in which Nigerians have attempted to adjust into the American mosaic, resulting in the emergence of a Nigerian community. Part III focuses on the three types of Nigerian leadership systems that have largely …