United States History Commons^™

0897: William A. “Red” Dawson Collection, 1915-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

William Alfred “Red” Dawson, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, led his high school football team to a state championship and played for four years at Florida State University. Dawson briefly played professional football for the Boston Patriots in the AFL and the Orlando Panthers. He was serving as an assistant football coach at Marshall University when a fatal plane crash killed seventy-five players, coaches, staff, and prominent citizens of Huntington. Dawson was essential in restarting the Marshall University football program, serving as acting head coach and coached through the 1971 season. He then began working in the construction industry and …

“This, To Me, Was My Town”: How Segregation Shaped Huntington, West Virginia’S Black Community, Jillian Alexis Kendall

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Using Huntington, West Virginia as a case study to examine Black urban-Appalachian communities, this thesis analyzes Huntington’s Black “city within a city” from 1934–1961, exploring how city-sanctioned segregationist practices shaped the community. In 1929, The Herald Dispatch asserted that Black Huntingtonians were able to thrive due to racial harmony facilitated by the “tolerant” attitudes of white Huntingtonians. However, closer inspection reveals that the city’s Black population survived in spite of persistent racial intolerance from white citizens, as well as city, state, and federal authorities. Though Huntington was not technically segregated by de jure means, it is apparent that the city …

“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 …

Reframing “Southern Justice”: Public History And The Cultural Legacy Of The Civil War In Orlando, Sarah M. Boye

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Civil War memory has shaped historical consciousness throughout the American South, sometimes in surprising and unexpected ways. An unusual example of this phenomenon can be found in Orlando, Florida. Unlike in other Southern cities, in Orlando, Civil War memory did not grow out of wartime experience. Instead, it developed decades later during the post-Reconstruction period as generations removed from the war itself constructed their own understanding of the war’s history and its meaning. As the city grew, Greenwood Cemetery became a key site where Civil War remembrance functioned in Orlando. Women’s organizations played a major role in shaping Civil War …

The 1973 Detroit Teachers' Strike And Its Long-Term Effects On Labor Negotiations, Jacob Staten

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

This paper examines the efforts made by Detroit educators in 1973 to secure better wages and smaller class sizes as well as Board of Education decision-making processes in response to budget cuts imposed by the city. Further, this research traces concurrent socio-economic issues that were morphing into political issues, helping define not only the labor struggles of teachers but also reflecting struggles felt by citizens in Detroit and other U.S. industrial cities. This study aims to contribute to research on how local budgets and federal policy have impacted and continue to impact public education nationwide to the present day.

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.

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.

The Crossing: El Paso, The Southwest, And America’S Forgotten Origin Story, Carlos Kevin Blanton

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Bridles And Biscuits: Contraband Culture In Spanish East Texas, Liz Elizondo

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Shared Space, Contested Space: Enslaved Women In The Contested Space Ofwhite Texas Baptists, 1840-1860, David Wilkie

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

“River Of Death”: Industrial Pollution And The North Texas Trinity River Inthe Progressive Era, Meghan Scott-Chaber

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Redefining Frontier Womanhood: Irish Female Landownership In Mexican Texas, Kelly Mcmichael

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Editorial Team

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Editorial Team

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of Policy In Theatre: The Influence Of Public & Political Policy On The Theatrical World, John Q. Rhodes

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the second half of the twentieth century, there is distinct evidence to exhibit a direct correlation between daily occurrences and matters of public policy. This paper serves to analyze the impact of U.S. public policy on theatrical practices. To provide a detailed and targeted analysis of the exponential impact public policy had upon the theatrical industry, this examination will look at theatre beginning in 1961 and will extend towards the current administration of President Donald Trump and is organized in ten-year segments. Each decade will be generalized for its direct or indirect changes that occurred within the period and …

Between Hard And Soft Power: A Historical Analysis Of U.S. Defense Diplomacy, Shuhei Takahashi

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

In recent years, countries around the world—those of Europe but also Japan, China, and Russia—have accelerated their efforts to use military assets as instruments of diplomacy. This trend has contributed to the rising prevalence of the term “defense diplomacy” in national security discourse. The United States is no exception. Its abundant military assets and its global network of bases clearly demonstrate that it is the world’s leading practitioner of defense diplomacy. Yet the United States lacks a clear strategic document outlining the concept. Moreover, because existing definitions remain theoretically ambiguous and methods for assessing the effectiveness of defense diplomacy initiatives …

Socialism’S Contribution To An Important Episode In Bronx And New York Music History, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

At a time when NYC may be electing its first openly Socialist mayor, it is time to share this story about Socialism’s contribution to an important episode in New York Music History.

0894: G. W. “Jerry” Sutphin River Transportation Collection, 1832-2024, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Gerald W. “Jerry” Sutphin was a nationally recognized river historian from Huntington. He graduated from Mullens High School and Marshall University and became an army officer. Sutphin worked for and retired from the United States Army Corps of Engineers before spending twenty years operating his own business, Visual Information Ltd. The author of Sternwheelers on the Great Kanawha River, he also wrote a number of articles and contributed to numerous publications with words and/or photographs. Sutphin provided historical presentations on the Delta Queen and other large sternwheel excursion boats and served as a consultant for several documentaries and exhibits. Sutphin …

A History Of Native People In Nebraska, Part I, Gabriel Bruguier

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

The following isn’t a comprehensive history; the aim is to highlight important events and the ideas of those whose actions brought forth the history of the region and eventually the state of Nebraska. Using an analogy from the book The Nebraska State Constitution, we can think of how the state developed as a sort of fence, a way of separating what is “mine” and “yours”, who is “us” and “them,” and who the “insiders” and “outsiders” are.9 In examining the period leading up to the formation of Nebraska Territory, it is instructive to point to how outside forces desired and …

Voices Of Latinidad: A Truth And Reconciliation Movement To Preserve Latino And Latina History, J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sándoval

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

This chapter began as a quest to tell the story of Latinidad in Nebraska. It is not meant to be a historical account of Latinos or Latinidad, nor a socioeconomic analysis. Instead, it has evolved into an accessible narrative highlighting the accomplishments of Latinos in Nebraska. The accounts and data presented serve as a public testimony and starting point for discussions that acknowledge Latinos’ presence. These accounts were not designed as an academic treatment for scholarly work but aim to inspire future scholars to research the lives and accomplishments of Latinos in Nebraska. Latinos have long been an integral part …

Native Americans, Part Ii, Kevin Abourezk

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s – aimed at abolishing legalized racial segregation and discrimination across the United States – found expression in Nebraska in many ways. From college protests to marches in Lincoln, the movement found a home within the youth and counterculture communities of Lincoln and Omaha. But less known is the way the movement impacted Native American populations, especially those in remote Nebraska communities. “Just as young Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans across the nation were learning the lessons of the black experience of the 1960s and expressing their identity as they sought to …

Contributors And Acknowledgments For Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Paul A. Olson, M. Dewayne Mays, Gabriel Bruguier, Kevin Abourezk, Preston Love, Jr., with Adam Fletcher Sasse, Heather Fryer, Sharon Ishii-Jordan, Emira Ibrahimpašić, and Julia Reilly

Acknowledgements