Public History Commons^™

"Salt Cave On The Doublehead Reserve", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A salt cave located on the previous site of the Chief Doublehead Reserve and current location of Lauderdale County, Alabama is now covered by the backwaters of the Wheeler Dam. The article discusses the oral history and local folklore related to the cave.

"The View From Old Lagrange", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A brief history of LaGrange Mountain and LaGrange College, the precursor to the University of North Alabama.

"The Story Of The Shawnees At The Muscle Shoals", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A brief overview of the Shawnees in Northwest Alabama.

"A Profile Of The Indians At Muscle Shoals, Alabama", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Writings

An article that gives a brief overview of the indigenous people living in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, including key figures, such as Chief Doublehead and the Colbert family. The article is organized by indigenous group with subheadings, including the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Moundbuilders.

"Lecture At Colbert Park," “Colbert Family,” And “The Colberts And Colbert County”, William Lindsey Mcdonald

Writings

The digital file is a compilation of a speech outline entitled "Lecture at Colbert Park, June 21, 1991," "Colbert Family," and an article "The Colberts and Colbert County." The nature of the typewriter ink used in the original document causes the file to be somewhat difficult to read.

“The Contributing Cultures Of Ancient Peoples At The Muscle Shoals”, William Lindsey Mcdonald

Writings

An article that addresses the ancient history of Muscle Shoals, Alabama with particular attention to the early cultures of influence, including indigenous tribes, such as the Cherokee and Chickasaws, and eventual European settlers of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic descent.

"The Trail Of Tears" (1999), William Lindsey Mcdonald

Writings

Speech, speech outline, article, and related memorabilia commemorating the sorrow of the Trail of Tears and Commemorative Motorcycle Ride ending in Waterloo, Alabama. The pdf compilation also includes a "5th Annual Trail of Tears Pow Wow" letter signed "Your Brother, Thunderheart"

African American Gold Star Mothers: Race, Black Motherhood, Loyalism And European Superiority In The First World War, Giovanni Nickolette Gibbs

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the US government’s pilgrimages for Gold Star Mothers of the First World War. It focuses on the Jim-Crowing of black Gold Star Mothers. Through the analysis of archival records, letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, poems, and secondary literature, the thesis explores how two domineering forces, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the federal government of the United States of America, captured dissension when seeking to send black Gold Star Mothers on segregated pilgrimages to Europe. The War Department’s announcement that the widows’ pilgrimages to Europe in the 1930s would be segregated caused a great …

Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii, Talisa Flores

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as …

His 127 Microhistories: A Lens Into The Past — Apartheid In South Africa Syllabus, Marta Millar

Open Educational Resources

The microhistory course introduces students to the study of history by exploring a particular event, individual, or issue, and its legacy. Students will read both primary source documents and modern texts to examine how the topic under consideration was shaped by, and in turn shaped contemporary culture.

This syllabus is for a course focusing on the history of apartheid in South Africa. Students will analyze the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the apartheid era. This includes understanding how segregationist policies developed in South Africa, what political transformations led to the implementation of the apartheid system, how different policies …

Front Matter Volume 2 No. 2, Editors Note

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This is yet another issue of the Zamani journal which takes on varied debates and discussions of historical importance through the contributions to the issue. As we embark on volume three of the new journal’s series, this volume carries six articles, varied in scope but interesting in terms of contribution and relevance to historical synthesis. As editors, we hope that the articles contained here will be of interest to a wider audience of not only historians but also of allied disciplines, practitioners and the general readership. As we publish this volume, we also note the advantage of expanding the scope …

Crises In The Nigerian Defence Sector In The Post-Civil War Period, Hussaini Jibrin

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

History has it that post-war period in any country in the world appeared to be with many challenges of re-planning the defence system. It involves the reconstruction of pre-war institutions that are destroyed during the war for onward growth and development. Contrary to this tradition, this article explores that, in 1970 while Nigerians were celebrating about the end of the Nigerian civil war, fresh crises emerged in the country’s defence sector. Thus, General Yakubu Gowon’s government redirected its focus on addressing the crises. The crises are numerous, however, this article dwells on four only. These are demobilization exercise in the …

Performance Of Buffer Zones In Tanzania: A Case Of Maswa Game Reserve, 1950s-2010s, James Benedict Kuboja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

National parks as core protected areas are universally regarded as the most important wildlife conservancies as they are protecting pristine nature or untouched wilderness. For this reason, global conservationists, with the assistance of colonial governments, introduced buffer zones in a bid to protect important protected areas from poaching and habitat destruction. Despite the promulgation of these buffer zones from the 1950s, scholars have not exhaustively evaluated their effectiveness in the conservation of wildlife resources within core protected areas and wildlife ecosystems at large. Using the case of Maswa Game Reserve in the Serengeti Mara Ecosystem, this article argues that internal …

Historicising Nyerere’S Presidency In The Nyakyusa Mythical Narratives, Ignas Fedeo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Julius K Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania, held office from 1962 to 1985. Much has been written about Nyerere's presidency, with the literature generally falling into two categories: strong advocacy for his decisions, actions, and ideas, and pointed criticism against him. Using narrative and new historicism theories, this article examines the recreation of the history of Nyerere’s presidency in local narratives, specifically Nyakyusa myths. The myths were collected using the oral history interviews from Kyela and Busokelo districts in Tanzania. The Nyakyusa believe that Nyerere was endowed with immense mystical powers, some of which embedded in his stick and …

Śaṅkha-Dvīpa And The Swahili Littoral: Reconstructing India–East Africa Contacts Before The Common Era, Narendra Vijayasimha

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article is the first focused attempt to explore India–East Africa relationships in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, approximately two to three millennia before the Common Era (3000–300 BCE) from a puranic perspective. While extensive scholarship exists on medieval and later Indo–African exchanges, the pre-Common Era period has remained underexplored. Drawing on Purāṇic cosmographies, Greco-Roman geographical accounts, African archaeology, and Indian Ocean trade studies, this research reconstructs possible networks of contact facilitated by monsoon navigation and long-distance exchange. Methodologically, the article integrates textual exegesis, comparative cosmography, and archaeological correlation. The findings suggest that Indian conceptions of Śaṅkha-dvīpa reflect …

Labour Migrancy And Ethnic Stereotypes: Experiences From Mufindi Tea Plantation, Ca. 1920s To 2000s, Hezron R. Kangalawe

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

While tea plantations brought good fortunes to some parts of Southern Highlands in Tanzania such as Mufindi and Rungwe during the British mandate, its production sites became centres of ethnic contestations in relation to work discipline. The colonial and post-colonial enterprises labelled some ethnic groups as “reliable labourers” and others “unreliable”. This article, uses the tea plantations in Mufindi district, Iringa, to debate the labour question and ethnic identity in tea plantations between 1920s and 2000s. It argues that tea plantations were practical point of colonial stereotyping whose architects were anthropologists. Interviews in Mufindi tea plantations and factories, archival and …

Collaboration In The Spread Of Missionary Christianity In Africa: The Case Of The Apostolic Church Of Nigeria, Caleb Abiodun Adeleye, Oluwasegun Peter Aluko

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article explores the significance of collaboration in the spread of missionary Christianity in Africa through a historical study of The Apostolic Church of Nigeria (TACN). It examines how the partnership between British missionaries and Nigerian leaders produced a hybrid mission model that combined Western ecclesiastical structure with African spirituality. Drawing on historical records, church documents, and existing scholarship, the article adopts a narrative–analytical method to trace how figures such as Pastors George Perfect, Idris J Vaughan and DO Odubanjo negotiated issues of theology, finance and cultural identity. The study finds that collaboration initially fostered institutional growth and doctrinal development …

Conga Santiaguera: A Century Of Innovation And Competition, Nick Herman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Santiago de Cuba is home to the island’s biggest, oldest, and most famous carnival.  Any local resident will confirm that “sin conga no hay carnaval (without conga there is no carnival).” In Santiago, conga refers to a vibrant street procession, the music that drives it, and the ensemble that makes the music.  Conga Santiaguera: A Century of Innovation and Competition presents a musical history of the conga from roughly 1910 to 2010.  This project, https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/conga employs an eBook, musical analysis, oral histories, and audiovisual media to show how the conga has been constantly reinvigorated by innovation, competition, and Afro-Diasporic …

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies And Southwest Cities In The Mexican American Spatial Imaginary, Jorge A. Hernández Jr.

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies and Southwest Cities in the Mexican American Spatial Imaginary examines how Mexican American writers from Tucson, San Antonio, and Albuquerque narrate, critique, and reimagine urban space across the U.S. Southwest in the twentieth century. Integrating literary studies, cultural geography, urban history, and critical regionalism, the project analyzes responses to racialized development, urban renewal, and gentrification that have displaced Mexican American communities from historic downtowns. Moving beyond borderlands and transnational models, it advances a critically regional approach attentive to local histories, municipal policies, and community pressures shaping urban life. Through close readings of creative and nonfiction texts …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Artifacts As Ambassadors: How Archaeological Artifacts Dictate Modern Diplomatic Relations And Repatriation, Emma Boyd

Honors Papers and Posters

In this thesis, I examine and re-center the roles of archaeological artifacts and conceptions of ownership in global politics, drawing on debates about cultural heritage and diplomacy. This thesis will emphasize debates around ownership and repatriation, articulating their value in international relations and diplomacy between Western countries and postcolonial nations, as well as between federally recognized Native American Indigenous Tribes and the United States government. The thesis review takes the Elgin Marbles, arguably the most debated subject, as a model for my case study analysis. I will explore complications driven by conversations of repatriation. Overall, this thesis will propose theories …

In The Miery Swamp: Metacomet And Memory, Allison Rose, Marianne Holdzkom

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract for “In the Miery Swamp: Metacomet and Memory”, written by Allison Rose and sponsored by Dr. Marianne Holdzkom

Memorials have become omnipresent ties to our communal past. Plaques and dedications materialize in our town squares. Statues loom over our city parks. Monuments tower over our cemeteries. A large issue facing public historians today is the disconnect between the original intent of public memorials and the collective representation of diverse histories. “In the Miery Swamp: Metacomet and Memory” addresses how interactions with the public alter and transform four public memorials. Through a chronological and historical analysis of four monuments to …

Norris Burroughs, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Solini Chan Shue, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

For many years, organizations such as Jack and Jill were the least of Solini’s concerns as she worked multiple jobs, working hard to support her family. Until she was about 30, when she was introduced to the organization through a neighbor, and was instantly intrigued by the service for the Bronx community. This was yet another opportunity Solini took in order to participate in community service. For her, the most impactful forms of service she participated in were the Black College Tour and her work with formerly incarcerated women. Through the Black College Tour program, high school students toured historically …

Charity Simone, Mark Naison, Anthony Abd-Al Shafi Rosado

Oral Histories

Simone’s path to leadership was inspired by her late mentor, Charles Foster, who encouraged her to be an active voice in their community. After seeing issues with building maintenance and a lack of clear communication, Simone ran for office and was elected Treasurer of her Building Association in 2023. Through this role, she noticed that community work is complex and needs navigating different opinions, yet the experience ultimately reinforced her belief that community is a “verb.” To her, it is an intentional, ongoing action that requires showing up every day to hold the system accountable.

A significant aspect of Simone's …

Rudolph Coombs, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Coombs went on to attend Payne College in Georgia through a basketball scholarship. During his time at Payne, he became president of the undergraduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, where he fundraised. His time at Payne would be unfortunately cut short when he was wrongfully arrested for assault and robbery. This happened when he was leaving a jewelry store in the Bronx during one of his breaks from school.

This would effectively change the trajectory of Coombs’ life. He was tried three times, found guilty two times, but on the third time, he was declared innocent after the victim told …

Joseph Cordero, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Ammar Abdul Rahman, Mark Naison, Anthony Abd-Al Shafi Rosado, Jane Kani Edward

Oral Histories

As a leader, Rahman plays many roles beyond leading prayers. He serves as a counselor, advisor, and guide, especially for immigrants and first-generation college students who may lack extended family support. He helps community members navigate not only education but also careers, marriage, and faith-based decisions through an Islamic lens. At Fordham University, he works to build a Muslim community through programs such as Ramadan events, spiritual counseling, mentorship initiatives, and multifaith dialogue.

Overall, Imam Rahman's lived experience demonstrates the role of a religious leader who continues to support minority communities and immigrants. His messages and teachings show how Islam …

Sam Boakye, Mark Naison, Anthony Abd-Al Shafi Rosado

Oral Histories

At the end of the interview, Boakye explains what he wants for Kwasi Paul in the future, both in the Bronx and in the fashion industry. For the Bronx, he wants it to represent Ghanaian fashion, something Ghanaians in the Bronx can be proud of. He wants the Bronx to be seen as something better, not a “dirty” borough, as stereotypes would have it. For fashion, he wants to be another lens of living with in-between identities, for everyone who falls into these categories of multiple identities, especially for people in New York City.

He encapsulates the Bronx as “The …

Kleaver Cruz, Mark Naison, Anthony Abd-Al Shafi Rosado

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Kleaver Cruz

Interviewer: Anthony Rosado

Summary by Serena Velasquez

November 18, 2025

Kleaver Cruz, a Bronx native, acknowledges the legacy of “Las Mariposas,” martyrs from the Dominican Republic who opposed Trujillo, setting the tone for this event’s influence on their family’s migration stories and cultural connectivity. Having lived their whole lives in the Bronx, Cruz’s Afro-Latin identity and community became integral to their activism. Having grown up during the 90s, Cruz touches on economic hardships and living through the crack epidemic, yet asserts that they had a great childhood despite these circumstances. Cruz was influenced by figures throughout their …