Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Radical Routes: The Formation Of The Boston School Bus Drivers Union Local 8751, Maci Mark

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis is both a history and an examination of the formation of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, situating their formation in both the labor movement of the 1970s and desegregation. Thrown into the midst of the storm of desegregation the drivers are set up for failure by the Boston School Committee. Forced to unionize due to unsafe working conditions and pay cuts, the unique make-up of the drivers allow for the success. Filled with community organizers, feminists, anti-war protestors, anti-racists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, leftists, and socialists, they use new tactics, willing to challenge established union leadership …

Where We Live And Learn To Know: An Oral History Of The Rochelle High School Music Program, John Sargeant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For the greater portion of the 20th century Black Americans in the US South had severely restricted access to a high school education. Segregation Era Jim Crow laws effectively created two education systems in Southern US states, one for White students and another separate system for Black students. In Florida, elementary, junior high, senior high schools, and colleges were segregated by race. In Lakeland, Florida from 1928–1969 Rochelle Senior High School conferred high school diplomas to Lakeland area Black students. Rochelle Senior High School provided Black students in the Lakeland area an opportunity to partake in the 20th century American …

Remnants Of Educational Leadership And Desegregation Etched In The Memories Of Black Educational Leaders: An Oral History, Janice Barge Clarke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study the experiences of Black (a.k.a. African Americans/ Negroes) educationalleaders were explored focusing on the period during the transition to a more desegregated public- school setting in the state of Florida. Using retrospective storytelling and reflections of ‘leading’ during desegregation, the lived experiences of those in educational leadership roles were captured in the form of oral histories and analyzed using critical race theory. The effects of desegregation is recounted from their vantage point, from the dissolution of the ‘all Black’ schools to the impact it had on the communities. The research question was: What are the stories told …

Original Intent: Brown Vs. Board Of Education, White Backlash, & The Enduring Power Of De Facto Segregation, Aaron Brand

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the factors and outcomes surrounding Brown v. Board of Education of 1954. The events that predated it and the resistance that followed determined the chain of consequences from this perceived victory over racial bias. The calculated and persistent backlash against integration obscured Brown’s intent of educational opportunity.

Kasserian Injera: And How Are The Children? The Lived Experiences And Perceptions Of Participants, Black And White, Who Attended Both Segregated And Desegregated Schools, Sherman Whitfield

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

This study was guided by the following research question: What are the perceptions and experiences of participants, Black and White, who attended both segregated and desegregated schools? This phenomenological research study was conducted using two focus groups divided homogeneously into one Black focus group and one White focus group. The Black focus group consisted of three Black females and two Black males. The White focus group consisted of six White females. The findings related to the research revealed that the Black focus group and the White focus group looked at this phenomenon differently along racial lines. These former students actually …

Hispanics In Education: A Look Into Underrepresentation, Sarah Joanne Dillinger

Honors College

By 2045 the Hispanic population in the United States is projected to be at 25%. In Texas, that number is currently higher and continuing to rise. Despite large numbers of Hispanic students, they are underrepresented in schools among teachers and administrators. Could the lack of a cultural mirror play a role in this number since Hispanic students do not see as many Hispanic teachers and administrators in education? Through this paper, I will examine the cultural mirror theory briefly, but spend a majority of the paper analyzing the history behind desegregation in public schools. I will also review the literature …

The Field: A Study In Illustration, Kacy Alaina Earnest Spears

Honors Theses

Senior year of college, I enrolled in Issues of Communication, a class focused on pinpointing the issues of racism and the long-term effects of microaggressions, defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously of unintentionally expresses a prejudice attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority}" ("microaggressions"}. One of our guest speakers, Dean Bryan McKinney of the Hickingbotham School of Business, came to present "The Field," a short story written by his father, JV McKinney, about living in the 1950's segregated Arkansas Delta. Dean McKinney played a recording of …

“Marching Mothers”: The Battle For Desegregation In Cleveland Public Schools, 1957-1976, Theresa Dunne

Senior Independent Study Theses

In 1957, the Cleveland Municipal School District’s (CMSD) Board of Education implemented a relay program to address issues of overcrowding in Cleveland public schools. Solely affecting schools that served a predominately black student body on Cleveland’s rigidly segregated East Side, this program split the school day into two three-and-a-half hour sessions to accommodate increasing student body sizes, shortening the school day for African American pupils by an hour-and-a-half compared to the five hours in the classroom given to white peers. As mothers of children on the relay program realized that this was the Board of Education’s permanent solution to overcrowding, …

Bolling V. Sharpe And Beyond: The Unfinished And Untold History Of School Desegregation In Washington, D.C., Bryce Celotto

Honors College Theses

While the Brown V. Board of Education case is constantly referenced when discussing educational equity and desegregation, Bolling v. Sharpe stands as another important education civil rights case and is perhaps more telling of the story of education in the United States. Bolling V. Sharpe was argued and decided in the United States Supreme Court over the course of 1952 to 1954. Similar to Brown v. Board in terms of intent, Bolling v. Sharpe aimed to desegregate public schools in Washington, D.C. in order to give African-American students equal access to a high quality public education on par with that …

Broad Shoulders, Hidden Voices: The Legacy Of Integration At New Orleans' Benjamin Franklin High School, Graham S. Cooper

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to insert the voices of students into the historical discussion of public school integration in New Orleans. While history tends to ignore the memories of children that experienced integration firsthand, this paper argues that those memories can alter our understanding of that history. In 1963, Benjamin Franklin High School was the first public high school in New Orleans to integrate. Black students knowingly made sacrifices to transfer to Ben Franklin, as they were socially and politically conscious teenagers. Black students formed alliances with some white teachers and students to help combat the racist environment that still dominated …

Beyond Blue And White: University Of Kentucky Presidents And Desegregation, 1941-1987, Mark W. Russell

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This dissertation fills a gap in the historiography of southern higher education by focusing on five university presidents and their role in the desegregation of a non-elite flagship university in the Upper South. While historian Melissa Keane has studied the presidential role at elite private southern universities during the initial phase of the desegregation process, no study has yet examined desegregation from the president’s office at a southern land-grant university. Building upon historian Peter Wallenstein’s thesis that desegregation is not a single event in an institution’s history but rather an ongoing process, I argue that it was also process that …

"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 …

Legal Discourse, Conceptual Metaphors, And Basic Writing Programming: A Study Of Ayers V. Fordice, Joyce Olewski Inman

Dissertations

In what ways does legal discourse influence our perceptions of students labeled as basic writers and these students’ perceptions of themselves? How does standards-based discourse affect student writers’ abilities to define themselves in academe? This dissertation involves an examination of legal and public discourse surrounding Ayers v. Fordice, one of the most prominent desegregation cases in higher education, in an attempt to answer these questions. Its intent is to explore how conceptual metaphors prevalent in these discourses affect our understandings of basic writing programming in the state of Mississippi but also in the field of composition more globally.

My …

"Are You Better Off"; Ronald Reagan, Louisiana, And The 1980 Presidential Election, Matthew David Caillet

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis describes how Ronald Reagan succeeded in carrying Louisiana in the 1980 Presidential election. Initially, pundits predicted the election, both statewide and nationwide, would be a “dead heat” between Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Southern voters supported Carter, despite his many blunders; many American voters wondered if Reagan would be a competent leader. Reagan had a well-organized campaign and spent plenty of time in Louisiana, considered a pivotal “swing state.” His campaign team prepared speeches, explained issues, and received information and support from state Republican leaders, including Governor David Treen and Congressmen Robert Livingston and Henson Moore. Good local …

From Brown To Bakke: Race Change And The Birmingham City Schools, 1963-1983, Johnmark Allen Edwards

All ETDs from UAB

When in 1954 the US Supreme Court declared that "separate but equal" was inherently not equal, every segregated school system in America was supposed to desegregate. This was easier said than done, and more successful in some systems than others. Here is a case study of that episode in American history focused on Birmingham, Alabama. This city's tumultuous road to educational desegregation unfolded in four phases: non-compliance (1954-1963), incremental desegregation (1963-1967), "freedom of choice" (1967-1970) and zoned integration (1970-1983). In this context, the thesis has three objectives: first, to explore how people of Birmingham - black and white, male and …

School Choice At The Crossroads Of Race, Class, And Accountability: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Voluntary School Choice On Elementary Schools In A Large District In The Southeastern United States, Teresa Craig Evans

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the responsibility for the desegregation of American public schools has transitioned from federal court mandates to school board programs and policies. There is widespread belief that this has resulted in the resegregation of schools across the country. One popular policy that is purported to provide the opportunity for voluntary integration, along with accountability for academic quality, is school choice. The purpose of this study was to consider the implications of such a policy in one large school district. There is an extensive body of research exploring who participates in school choice, how they make their choices, and …

Fifty Years Of Challenges To The Colorline Montgomery, Alabama, Alison L. Murphy

History Theses

After fifty years of challenges to the color line in Montgomery, Alabama, the Metropolitan Statistical Area is more integrated now than it was in 1950. Through exploring the effects of Brown v. Board of Education, the bus boycott, school integration court cases, re-segregation of schools in city and suburban districts, and federal open-housing policies, the volatile transformation appears to shows how, after fifty years, Montgomery has moved from a segregated dual society to a partially integrated society in spite of the massive resistance to integration.

The Desegregation Of New Orleans Public And Roman Catholic Schools In New Orleans, 1950-1962, Kristina D. Mckenzie

LSU Master's Theses

New Orleans has recently been called a “chocolate city” by its mayor. It is a curious choice of words, but resonates with anyone who knows anything about New Orleans, a city heavily populated by African Americans. The city is crime ridden and poor; consequently, New Orleans is ranked near the bottom in terms of education. Why does the city’s population remain uneducated? It would be presumptuous to suggest that there is only one reason; there are several. However, one of the most obvious reasons is the utter failure of desegregation in the city. New Orleans has always experienced atypical race …

"Shut It Down, Open It Up": A History Of The New Left At The University Of Virginia, Charlottesville, Thomas M. Hanna

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a history of social and political activism in Charlottesville during the 1960s focusing on new left student organizing at the University of Virginia. It is a work of social history that establishes a community that has been generally ignored in traditional histories of the new left as one of the most influential centers of new left activism in the South and asserts that this prominence was due to years of activism by local liberals, civil rights advocates, and students during the city's unique experiences on the front lines of the southern desegregation, civil rights, and anti-war struggles. …

Virginia's Pupil Placement Board And The Massive Resistance Movement, 1956-1966, Sara Kathryn Eskridge

Theses and Dissertations

Virginia's Pupil Placement Board was the most enduring vestige of the state's "massive resistance" movement in the 1950s. Following the example of other Southern states, the state's General Assembly passed the Pupil Placement Act in 1956 as part of a package of legislation designed to counteract the Supreme Court desegregation ruling. The Act, and the Pupil Placement Board that enforced it, lasted a decade, much longer than any of the other legislative initiatives born during that session, longer than the massive resistance movement itself.Whites, including many of Virginia's leaders, considered the Board to be ineffective at stemming the onslaught of …

Integration Within Desegrated School Systems: Guthrie High School, A Case Study, Eric A. Moore

McCabe Thesis Collection

Integration within desegregated school systems is a topic that, according to several authors and professors, can be "counted on with two hands." This is an exaggeration; however, recent literature in this area is lacking. There have been several federally funded case studies, but all of the case studies have apparently been confined to urban settings. This thesis is unique in that it focuses upon the Guthrie, Oklahoma, 6 public high school system. Unlike many larger urban areas, this high school does not experience major problems such as busing, "white flight," the inability to find teachers with the resolve to teach …

The Treatment Of Orval Faubus By Five Publications During The 1957 Little Rock School Integration Crisis, Bobby Shepherd

Honors Theses

The following research paper is the result of many hours of research into the events of September and early October 1957, the height of the Little Rock School Integration Crisis, as recorded by the nations' press.

This paper is concerned, in particular, with the treatment in the news reporting and editorial comment which Governor Orval E. Faubus received during this period from five publications, three newspapers and two news magazines. These publications are: The New York Times, The Arkansas Gazette, The Arkansas Democrat, Time, and Newsweek magazines.

The objective of this paper is to determine to what extent, if any …

A Study Of Little Rock School District 1966-1968 Elections And Their Effect On Public School Policy, Ray Earl Garner

OBU Graduate Theses

For many years, the school elections in Little Rock have followed a traditional pattern of meager voter turnout . School elections, prior to the 1967 election, were mentioned briefly in newspaper articles. The platforms were of the same general nature year after year. They included taxes, school expansion, better facilities, and higher teacher salaries. Candidates seldom, if ever, campaigned publicly and actively. Posters were usually placed throughout the city. A few days prior to the election, newspaper ads with the candidates' pictures would appear in the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette. The 1967 school election was significant, because that …

Education For Negroes In New Orleans Prior To 1915, Marie Dejan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

No abstract provided.