History Commons^™

‘Following The Line Of Least Resistance’: African American Women In Domestic Work, 1899–1940, Taylor Simsovic

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This paper examines the challenges faced by African American women employed in domestic service between 1899 and 1940, with a focus on how race, class, and gender intersected to shape their experiences. Specifically, the study investigates how these women continued to perform reproductive labor as they migrated from the South to Northern states during the Great Migration. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, the analysis argues that Black women's persistent employment in undervalued labor within white American homes was driven by the mutually constitutive systems of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. These systems channeled Black women into …

Learning By Doing In The Segregated South: The Robert Hungerford Normal And Industrial School For African Americans In Central Florida, Wenxian Zhang

Faculty Publications

The development of the Robert Hungerford Normal and Industrial School is an important chapter in the history of African American education in Florida. Through careful examinations of the school publications, records, archival correspondence, and newspaper clippings, the article seeks to document the history of the Hungerford School from its founding in the late nineteenth century until it became a public school in the Orange County, Florida in the early 1950s. Following Booker T. Washington’s ideals, the school was established with a great emphasis on economic self-help and individual advancement for African Americans. Its mission was to teach vocational skills to …

The 1985 Move Bombing: A Study In Perspectives, Kaci Delisle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a military grade bomb on 6221 Osage Avenue, a row house in a Black neighborhood in West Philadelphia. This home was occupied by a revolutionary group called MOVE. The bomb started a fire that the police and firefighters decided to “contain” rather than put out, resulting in the deaths of eleven people and the destruction of sixty-one homes. Only two MOVE members survived the fire. Using court records, documents from the investigation conducted by the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC), and other interviews regarding MOVE and the bombing, this paper reconstructs different perspectives …

The Ongoing Search For Democracy: A Comparative Analysis Of Racial Equality In Cuba And The United States, Michael T. Siderio Jr.

Honors Student Research

This Capstone Project is structured as a comparative analysis of the fight for racial equality for Afro-Cubans in Cuba and how it compares to racial equality for African Americans in the United States, specifically focusing on contemporary issues relating to employment and economic opportunities, as well as police brutality. Historical background will be given on each topic within the scope of racial equality, and a comparative analysis on how they are similar and how they differ will also be provided. The overarching goal of the research on historical background and doing the comparative analysis is to synthesize both respective movements …

Review Of African American Workers And The Appalachian Coal Industry, By Joe William Trotter, Jr., Cicero Fain

History Faculty Research

Joe William Trotter, Jr., ranks among the pantheon of America's most influential historians. For more than forty years, beginning with his 1985 work Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915–1945, he has chronicled the African American experience, most profoundly on the centrality of the Black working class to America's economic, industrial, cultural, and political development. His pioneering and provocative work examining the intersections of race, class, labor, urbanization, and gender within diverse urban- and rural-industrial settings has challenged prevailing historiography and expanded our understanding of Black migration, labor relations, and community formation. It has also added important …

“Did Emmett Till Die In Vain? Organized Labor Says No!”: The United Packinghouse Workers And Civil Rights Unionism In The Mid-1950s, Matthew Nichter

Faculty Publications

Emmett Till’s mangled face is seared into our collective memory, a tragic epitome of the brutal violence that upheld white supremacy in the Jim Crow South. But Till's murder was more than just a tragedy: it also inspired an outpouring of determined protest, in which labor unions played a prominent role. The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) campaigned energetically on behalf of Emmett Till, from the stockyards of Chicago to the sugar refineries of Louisiana. Packinghouse workers petitioned, marched, and rallied to demand justice; the UPWA organized the first mass meeting addressed by Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley; and an …

Ua12/2/67 Alpha Kappa Alpha, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Blacks In Oregon, Darrell Millner

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts of the country. It is not possible to argue with the figures—in 2017, there were an estimated 91,000 Blacks in Oregon, about 2 percent of the population—but it is a profound mistake to think that these stories and statistics tell the story of the state's racial past. In fact, issues of race and the status and circumstances of Black life in Oregon are central to understanding the history of the state, and perhaps its future …

Ua19/16/1 Lady Topper Basketball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

2021-22 women's basketball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Colonized Loyalty: Asian American Anti-Blackness And Complicity, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In this essay, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstad argues that solidarity between and within communities of color remains our only chance to fight against the brutal and insidious forces of racism, white supremacy and racial capitalism.

'The Once Peaceful Little Town:' Edmondson, Arkansas, And The Decline Of African American Landownership, Samuel Morris Ownbey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the systematic dispossession of African American property by white planters in the Arkansas Delta. It argues white planters, backed by a legal system favorable to their interests, expropriated the black land in the once flourishing community of Edmondson, Arkansas. Founded in 1902 by African American business and political leaders, the Edmondson Home and Improvement Company purchased farmland and town lots and began to sell or rent the land to African Americans coming to the area. Located in Crittenden County, Edmondson represented black defiance in the face of Jim Crow laws and white supremacy. The town consisted of …

Ua19/16/1 Wku Lady Topper Basketball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

2020-21 women's basketball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 94, No. 12, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

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

• Heicelbech, Evan & Rebeckah Alvey. Molded – Dormitories
• DeLetter, Emily & Nicole Ziege. 348 Minton Hall Residents Spend Weekend Relocating
• DeLetter, Emily. WKU to Continue Saudi Scholarship Between Countries
• DeLetter, Emily. ROTC Celebrates 100 Years at WKU, Honors Veterans
• Non-Binary: Proposal Disregards Science, Harms Non-binary Rights
• Allen, Ellie. Editorial Cartoon re: Gender Does Not Equal Sex
• Hanks, Michelle. Teaching Diversity
• Sisler, Julie. Review: Hair and the Call to Freedom & Expression – Theatre & Dance
• Holland, Kelley. In Formation – Marching Band
• Bryant, Maxis. Fresh …

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Osborne Family Materials, Osborne Family, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

The Osborne Family Collection centers on the members of an early African American family who settled in Waterville, Maine after the Civil War. The collection contains materials relating to Samuel Osborne (1883-1904), his wife, Maria Iverson Osborne (1836-1913), and their children: Flora Molly Osborne Strange (1854-1921), Amelia Osborne (1857-1930), and Lulu Clifton Osborne Connor (1864-1907?), all born in slavery in Virginia. The remaining Osborne children: Isabelle Osborne (1868), Annie J. Osborne (1869-1901), Alice E. Osborne (1871-1968), Edward Samuel Osborne (1874-1956), and Marion Thompson Osborne Matheson (1878-1954) were born in Waterville, Maine. Samuel Osborne worked as the Colby College Janitor for …

Ua19/16/1 Women's Basketball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

2018-19 women's basketball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Now, Tomorrow, Forever The Persistence Of School Segregation In America, Dustin Connors

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision has long been heralded as a landmark ruling and as evidence of America's progress toward a more accepting and equitable society. What is less widely known outside of academic circles is the extent to which that ruling failed to provide the equality its supporters were seeking. Today, America is still wrestling with a crisis most of us thought long solved: the racial segregation within our school districts. In my documentary film entitled Now, Tomorrow, Forever: The Persistence of School Segregation in America, I will set out to explore the state …

Ua1f Wku Cultural Diversity, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Records

Bibliography of sources related to cultural diversity at WKU.

The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life Of Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955), Greer Charlotte Stanford-Randle

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The dissertation is a deep study of an iconic 20^th century female, African American leader whose acclaim developed not only from her remarkable first generation post-Reconstruction Era beginnings, but also from her mid-century visibility among Negroes and some Whites as a principal spokesperson for her people. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune arose from the Nadir- the darkest period for Negroes after the Civil War and three subsequent US Constitutional Amendments. She led thousands of Negro women, despite social adversity, to organize around their own aspirations for improved social and material lives among America’s diverse citizens., i.e. “the melting pot.” The …

Oral History With Jerome Wilson, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Dr. Jerome Wilson was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1942. He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Meridian from kindergarten to secondary school, whereupon he attended Dillard University in New Orleans to earn a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics.

Wilson later earned an MA in Immunology and Biochemistry from Cornell and, in 1983, earned his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spent much of his career as a researcher and a research administrator in the pharmaceutical industry, later transitioning to academe when he helped set up the department of epidemiology at Howard University. …

Ua1b2/1 A Commemoration Of Wku's Integration: 1956-2006, Howard Bailey, Monica G. Burke, John Hardin, Sherese Martin, Maxine Ray, C. J. Woods

Monica Burke

A publication that chronicles the history of WKU's desegregation efforts. This commemorative publication is also an historical document that highlights the prolific accomplishments of WKU African American graduates. The impact of Western's spirit on countless African American graduates and the Bowling Green community unfolds in the pages that follow. The joy of having access to an education, the struggles of transforming an institutional climate, the kindness of WKU faculty, staff, and students and the rewards of walking across the stage in Diddle arena are chronicled by those who experienced it firsthand.

Owens, Nellie, 1912-2007 (Sc 3051), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text scan (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3051. W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) sewing notebook of Nellie Owens, Louisville, Kentucky, containing fabric swatches and sewing samples.

Reparations For Racism: Why The Persistence Of Institutional Racism In America Demands More Than Equal Opportunity For Black Citizens, Alexander Lowe

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Freedom Rides (Sc 2966), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2966. “Official Application for Freedom Riders,” a parody application for civil rights activists intending to protest segregation in Southern interstate bus terminals, to be submitted to George Rockwell, Hell Raiders, Inc., Arlington, Virginia, asks for data such as “Address” (“Place where body can be sent”); “Do you bleed easily?”; “State how you prefer to defend yourself” (Fisticuffs, Hand Grenade, etc.); and “State your wish for the following” (Rope neck size, bullet caliber, coffin color, etc.)

The Creation Of A Model Pediatric Ward For African American Children In 1920s Kansas City., Jane F. Knapp, Robert Schremmer

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

‘Be Nice To People’ – Grandmother’S Advice Could Fix Many Of World’S Problems, Anthony Major

UCF Forum

As I began to write this column, my ears were ringing with the news story of another senseless shooting. This time it’s of nine people at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Live, Learn – And Let Live, Anthony Major

UCF Forum

I grew up in a segregated community in Florida and attended supposedly “separate but equal” schools in a small town that had separate water fountains, bathrooms and even beaches, among other restrictions. We were expected to cross the street when a white woman was approaching and never look a white man in the eyes - that is if you didn’t want to appear defiant.

History Curriculum Needs More Coverage Of Black Inventors, Anthony Major

UCF Forum

There is a reason we study Russian and European history as an integral part of our history curriculum. History is required from pre-K to college because it is a vital part of knowing how you and your country came to be.

Ua12/2/62 Delta Sigma Theta, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Anna Julia Cooper: A Quintessential Leader, Janice Y. Ferguson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study is a leadership biography which provides, through the lens of Black feminist thought, an alternative view and understanding of the leadership of Black women. Specifically, this analysis highlights ways in which Black women, frequently not identified by the dominant society as leaders, have and can become leaders. Lessons are drawn from the life of Anna Julia Cooper that provides new insights in leadership that heretofore were not evident. Additionally, this research offers provocative recommendations that provide a different perspective of what leadership is among Black women and how that kind of leadership can inform the canon of leadership. …

Life Is Like A Salad Bowl (Or Should Be!), Anthony B. Major

UCF Forum

Everyone in the world eats salad of some sort. We enjoy all the different ingredients in our salads depending on what we have a taste for at the time.