African American Studies Commons^™

Blacks And Latinos In Boston: A Community Profile, James Jennings, A. Jean Burnette

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The purpose of this Report is to provide a socio-economic and demographic overview of predominantly black and Latino geographic areas in the City of Boston. This Report is primarily in response to a request for assistance from several community-based groups and organizations, including Project FATE, the Center for Community Action, the Urban League, and the Bank of Commerce.

Based on specific requests and feedback from several individuals representing the organizations mentioned, it was decided that a "Community Profile" based on electoral districts in Boston would be useful. The request from the community organizations listed several possible items for inclusion in …

The National Congress Of Black Faculty, Ronald W. Walters

Trotter Review

In recent years serious problems have arisen in the field of black higher education that have not been subject to systematic examination and corrective programming. These problems have magnified the necessity for a vehicle through which black faculty might be mobilized to contribute to the enhance ment of their own professional opportunities and thus make a significant impact upon black higher education in general. Some of these problems are discussed below.

Commentary: The "Negro" Problem In The 1980s, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

Since 1984 the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Science has been conducting a study on the status of black Americans. And since 1986 the William Monroe Trotter Institute has been conducting a similar study. The Trotter Institute study was developed because we wanted to have the widest possible discussion of the present condition of blacks and the social policy implications of that condition.

Dynamics Of Minority Education: An Index To The Status Of Race And Ethnic Relations In The United States, James E. Blackwell

Trotter Review

Throughout this century scholars and legal experts have devoted special attention to the issue of race and ethnicity as a determinant of life chances in the United States. Some of the more influential treatises in the social and behavioral sciences, many of which have become classics, addressed fundamental, derivative (and often more compelling) extensions of race and ethnicity. They focused on such topics as race-based group dominance, ethnic stratification, structural inequality based upon racial or ethnic identification, beliefs in inherent racial superiority and status privilege, class exploitation, the nature of prejudice, and the maintenance of power over groups defined as …

Racial Insularity At The Core: Contemporary American Racial Attitudes, A. Wade Smith

Trotter Review

Survey research scientists have been interested in American racial attitudes ever since the craft has achieved a reasonable degree of precision. White attitudes toward blacks constitute the longest running topic in survey research. However, as a result of dramatic and systematic changes in racial attitudes and because of the changing nature of race relations per se, there may be less agreement now about the structure of American racial values than at any time since World War II. This paper will provide a capsule presentation of the major findings of recent research on racial attitudes and a brief summary of the …

Lead Poisoning: A Health Epidemic In The Black Community, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

Lead poisoning in humans has been identified as a cause of high blood pressure, heart disease, birth defects, complications in pregnancies and developmental problems in infants. It is a health problem of epidemic dimensions in the black community. This serious health problem is yet another example of the production of “illth” in the modern society. As the means of production create wealth for some sectors of society they also create illth.

George Alan Russell: Jazz's First Theorist, Robert E. Moore

Trotter Review

In 1953 George Alan Russell published The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. By virtue of this work Russell carved out a unique niche for himself in the history of jazz, his opus representing the first theoretical work to come out of the jazz tradition. The purpose of this paper is to define his place in jazz history and to offer a biographical sketch off jazz’s first and most important theorist. My points of departure will be references made to Russell in two widely read works—Gunther Schuller’s Early Jazz and Wilfrid Meliers’ Music in a New Found Land. …

Raising Up Our Memory, Byron Rushing

Trotter Review

There was a man named Carter G. Woodson; Carter G. Woodson was a historian. He taught school at a black college in Washington, D.C. — Howard University. He was concerned about the fact that when he went out to talk with young people — young black people in public schools in Washington, D.C. — none of the students could name a famous black person. He thought it was terrible that no young black people knew the names of famous black people; that they didn’t know the name of Frederick Douglass; that they didn’t know the names of black inventors; black …

Uncle Monroe, Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely

Trotter Review

Poem by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely, the grandniece of William Monroe Trotter.

Media Images Of Boston's Black Community, Kirk A. Johnson

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

In their efforts to report on the forces that affect Boston's racial climate, the local media have typically focused on the more obvious institutional actors: businesses, city hall, school boards, churches, the courts, neighborhood groups. Rarely have the media themselves been subjected to the same scrutiny. This study represents one such effort It is an analysis of the images of Boston's black community that are conveyed through the local news media. It asks the question: If a Bostonian relied solely on the local news for information about local blacks, 1) what impressions would he or she be left with, and …

William Monroe Trotter: A One-Man Protester For Civil Rights, Robert C. Hayden

Trotter Review

William Monroe Trotter was the first, the only and the last of Boston’s significant protest leaders for civil rights, equality and justice for black Americans in this century. He gained national stature between 1901 and 1934.

Trotter was uncompromising in his demand for complete and immediate equality for black Americans in the early 1900s. His stress on militant protest for integration, legal and voting rights for blacks during the first quarter of this century became the hallmark of the modern civil rights movements of the 1954—65 period. William Monroe Trotter was a man 50 years ahead of his time.

William Monroe Trotter: A Twentieth Century Abolitionist, William A. Edwards

Trotter Review

William Monroe Trotter was a twentieth century abolitionist. He was a man of principle whose dedication to the cause of equality was never disputed. Many criticized his methodology, but the l960s saw a revitalization of his direct action approach. His life is an interesting profile in the study of leadership. He left no long standing organization, but in the history of the NAACP we can see his influence, His life is also the story of opportunities that converge but do not merge.

Geraldine Pindell Trotter, Julie Winch

Trotter Review

Geraldine Louise Pindell (or “Deenie” as she was known to those in her circle) was born on October 3, 1872, the daughter of lawyer Charles Edward Pindell and his wife, Mary Frances Pindell. Socially, the Pindells belonged to Boston’s black elite. Eschewing the Baptist and the AME churches, the Pindells were Episcopalians. Genteel, cultured and wealthy, the family was not without a commitment to the welfare of the larger black community. Geraldine’s great-uncle, William Pindell, had been one of the leaders in the struggle against school segregation in antebellum Boston.

Geraldine Pindell had known William Monroe Trotter, six months her …

Editor's Note, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

Since this winter issue of the Trotter Institute Review coincides with Black History Month, we are dedicating this issue to an important figure in Afro-American history —- William Monroe Trotter, after whom the Institute was named.

The lead article is the transcript of a speech given by Massachusetts State Representative Byron Rushing during the Black History Month ceremony at the Massachusetts State House on February 1, 1987, on the importance of knowing black history. The other articles and the poem in this issue were taken from presentations made at a symposium on William Monroe Trotter during the re-opening celebration last …

Race And Capital Punishment, Michael L. Radelet

Trotter Review

Whether it be lynching or legally-imposed capital punishment, the threat or use of death as a punishment has been a powerful means of class and race intimidation throughout American history. In the nineteenth century, statutes that explicitly considered race were not uncommon; in Virginia, for example, the statutes of 150 years ago listed five capital crimes for whites and 70 for black slaves. Today, historians interested in capital punishment use records of state compensations to slave owners to learn how many slaves were executed.

The Search For Voice: Ideology And Perspective In The Black Community, Phillip L. Clay

Trotter Review

During the last seven years, there has been a significant shift to the right in the ideological perspectives of Amencan political institutions and behavior. Despite some in consistencies, the direction is clear. The term “moderate” has acquired a conservative meaning, and liberals have been split into neo-liberal and neo-conservative camps. At this moment American society is informally declaring that it is not committed to achieving the goal ofequal outcomes long espoused by a mainly liberal national political and institutional system.

The shift to the right is working changes on traditional black ideological perspectives, both among blacks and between black and …

The "New" Black Neo-Conservativism: A Critique, James Jennings

Trotter Review

In this presentation, I will examine some of the general ideas, explanations and logic regarding black life conditions offered by a group of intellectuals who have come to be described as “Neo-Conservative.” I will not concentrate my critique on particular individuals, however; my focus will be primarily on the ideas and proposals that they have offered, especially those ideas that have been associated with public policy proposals.

In my opinion, the media and the scholarly community have focused too much on individuals, rather than examining closely and analytically the public policy ideas associated with Neo-Conservatism. I will seek to critique …

Reel Blacks: The Good Old Days, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

Like most of my colleagues engaged in film studies rather than film practice, I occasionally allow myself to fantasize about the kind of films I would produce if I were a film maker. Several commercial films popular in the last fifteen years have inspired in me a bare bones scenario. My movie would have an all black “ensemble” cast. The plot would contain flashbacks tracing the events in the characters’ adolescence that solidified their friendship. These flashbacks would be punctuated by rhythmless music performed by white artists, Although no hint of “soul” would be tolerated on my movie’s soundtrack, my …

The Search For Voice: Ideology And Perspective In The Black Community, Phillip L. Clay

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

During the last seven years there has been a significant shift to the right in the ideological perspectives of American political institutions and behavior. Despite some inconsistencies, the direction is clear. The term "moderate" has acquired a conservative meaning, and liberals have been split into neo-liberal and neoconservative camps. At this moment American society is informally declaring that it is not committed to achieving the goal of equal outcomes long espoused by a mainly liberal national political and institutional system.

The shift to the right is working changes on traditional black ideological perspectives, both among blacks and between black and …

Editor [Submitted To A Boston Daily], Mary Helen Washington

Trotter Review

Many people in the black community (I among them) strongly object to the "Frontline" documentary, "Street Cop," which was shown on Channel 2 on March 31. But I have even stronger objections to Ed Siegel's review of "Street Cop," which commends the show as "street smart" and dismisses all the serious criticisms of the show from the black community as "not convincing." I am not exactly sure why "street smart" has such a sterling quality for Siegel, but it is disturbing that such a criterion would take precedent over the criticisms that the program stereotypes blacks and Hispanics and misrepresents …

"Street Cop" Is Not Street-Smart, Kirk A. Johnson

Trotter Review

"Frontline," the award-winnnng WGBH-TV series, is airing a nationally televised special on the war against street drugs. The show, called "Street Cop," takes viewers to Boston's inner city for fifty minutes of heart-pumping violence. We see the police take a sledgehammer to an apartment door in search of drugs as the women and children inside scream in wide-eyed terror. We watch police officers wrestle a young man to the pavement over a suspected drug deal, and we feel the tension mount during a domestic argument until in the confusion a woman is arrested for throwing what an officer thought was …

Newspapers And Their Relationship To The Black Agenda, Dexter D. Eure Sr.

Trotter Review

The news media, by print or electronics, influences and shapes society's attitudes; it is essential then, if not vital, that the media accurately reflect every aspect of our society - including the good, the bad, and the ugly. By keeping this nation - as well as the world - in its proper context, we can better understand - and thus better solve - the problems that envelop us, such as racism, sexism, unemployment, hazardous waste, and the consequences of a nuclear meltdown.

To help present an accurate picture of who we are and what's happening around us, the news media …

Commentary: Trotter Review, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

This issue of the Trotter Institute Review is devoted to the portrayal of blacks in the media. The mass media can be a positive or negative force in the struggle for racial progress. Unfortunately, the black community faces media that provide many negative influences. Consequently, there is a continuing need to address this issue.

The mass media is a major instrument of socialization in the American society. As such, it helps to determine how an individual sees the world. The prevailing definitions of social reality and social problems, as well as the characterization of groups of individuals, are learned through …

Media Images And Racial Stereotyping, Kirk A. Johnson

Trotter Review

To better understand how the local media portray Boston's black community, I monitored news reports from a sample of newspapers and radio and television stations for one month during the summer of 1986. I noted the roles blacks played, the activities blacks were shown to be engaged in, and the events that brought blacks into the news. By comparing the portrayal of blacks in Boston's major media with portrayals in the black media, I sought to understand the criteria that reporters and editors use to judge the newsworthiness of items relating to the black community, and to determine whether (and …

Boston School Desegregation: The Fallowness Of Common Ground, Robert A. Dentler

Trotter Review

This essay scrutinizes the book by J Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, to assess whether it presents a valid and reliable account of the issues, people, and events it chronicles. The substantive core of the book is shown to be the politics of Boston public school desegregation. The parts played by the three families in this event are dramatically portrayed but cannot be corroborated and are not interpreted. The parts played by five major policy leaders, when tested against other evidence, are found to be distorted, questionable legends woven in …

Reel Blacks: Blacks In Disguise, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

Gremlins and Little Shop of Horrors are very likeable films. The former is rather charming, and the latter is one of the most originally-rendered musicals ever produced. Indeed, it is the positive surface of the films that makes their underlying message so insidious. Fortunately, the final twist common to both films can give solace to the viewer who would like to see the disguised blacks triumph. At the end of Gremlins the original Mogwi is still alive, albeit back in the capable hands of the mysterious Chinese man, and Little Shop closes as the camera follows Seymour and Audrey into …

Preliminary Report On A Comparative Analysis Of The Underlying Dimensions Of Unemployment Among Blacks, Hispanics, And Whites In Boston, Jeremiah Cotton

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

There are four major objectives of this research. The first objective is to determine whether and to what extent differences in unemployment rates in Boston among black, Hispanic, and white workers are due to the following: (1) the differences in the percentage of individuals in each group who experience a spell of unemployment at one time or another during the year, that is the incidence of unemployment; or (2) the differences in the average number of spells of unemployment during the year, that is the frequency of unemployment; or (3) the differences in the average length of time a spell …

Fire At The Door: The Black Student Union Movement At Boston English High School, 1968-1971, Michael T. Tierney

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

Rickie Thompson and his friends were surprised by the mob as they cut through the Harvard Medical Complex from Brigham Circle to Louis Pasteur Avenue on their way to Boston English High School. The three black youths, earnest sophomores in the college engineering track of the 1,100-student, all-male high school, had expected a typical day. Rickie had even stayed up past eleven finishing geometry homework that now lay, apparently useless, in his briefcase. To be sure, there had been rumors of a walkout the day before-something to do with the seniors who had been suspended for wearing dashikis. But Rickie …

Affirmative Action: Problems And Prospects, James Farmer

Trotter Review

We live in complicated times today, and one of the sparks that flies off from such complicated times involving difficult issues is that words have all kinds of meanings, and they tend to confuse. I was astonished to hear our president, Ronald Reagan, say that if Dr. King were alive he would agree with him in opposing affirmative action, because King was color-blind and so is Ronald Reagan. This was a stopper, really, a real stopper. Affirmative action has had an interesting history. I, with no attempted modesty, claim to have proposed the idea to Lyndon Johnson, in either late …

Editor's Note: Trotter Review, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

This edition of The Trotter Institute Review addresses issues in economics and the entertainment media. Topics include employment, affirmative action, income, and the black experience as presented in movies. The articles address these concerns at what may be a critical point in race relations in the United States. At a time when the national mood suggests that civil rights and economic opportunities have been provided sufficiently to blacks and that nothing further needs to be done, these articles suggest how far we have to go before that is a reality.