African American Studies Commons^™

Colorism: The Unspoken Preference To Skin Tone And Its Effect On African American Individuals In The 21st Century, Carolyn D. Powell

Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the perception of colorism among Black American individuals born between the years of 1952 and 1972 of the pre-Civil Rights Movement and post-Civil Rights Movement generations. Colorism has been defined as the privileging of light skin tone over dark skin tone. The stigma of colorism continues to produce discord, distrust, discrimination, and cultural disconnects between Black and White individuals as well as within the Black American family and community. The aim of the study was to explore the consciousness of colorism in the 21st century and its effect on Black Americans. Racial Identity Development was utilized …

Contributing Factors That Affect The Achievement Of African-American Females Taught By Caucasian Teachers On The Arkansas Literacy Exam: A Case Study, Felicia Renee Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative intrinsic case study was designed to assist Caucasian educators with the researched academic skills and behaviors to engage African-American females in the learning environment. The study provided strategies and recommendations to promote self-worth, self-motivation, self-efficacy, and morale in African-American females when they did not perform as well as or higher than their Caucasian peers in a high school English classroom on the state literacy examination instructed by a Caucasian teacher. The research site was a low socioeconomic urban high school with a majority of minorities with several native based home languages. The study took an in-depth approach to …

Impact Of Immigration In Zambia, Sarah Banda

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

The main focus of this paper will predominantly be on African immigrants and the impact of their immigration on the African continent specifically in the country of Zambia. I strongly believe that due to 675,665 immigrants from 57 countries receiving permanent residents status in the United States, among them Nigerian immigrants constituting the top 30 sending nations the economic prospects of many African nations is being compromised. There is no doubt that African is in fact losing many highly skilled people because of this immigration influx. As one of the many African immigrants in the United States, I can't help …

Thugz Theology: Religious Narratives And The Poetic Tradition In Hip Hop, Jenny Portillo

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

Though gangsta rappers are hardly considered bards of prophets, they are the poets and preachers of the modern-day that have chosen to leave the confines of their journals and pulpits. Despite its popularity, rap remains associated with the violence, hyper-sexuality and profanity of marginalized urban neighborhoods, or more simply, the ghetto. Rap lyrics and hip hop beats became the main story telling mechanisms for the urban culture that was born in the impoverished boroughs of New York beginning in the 1970s. Like poetry, the themes of rap lyricism can vary greatly, but there is continuity on the themes between these …

The Exploitation Of College Athletes: Education And Money, Carlton Koonce

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

A football program that has historically struggled to win games, is now winning conference championships year in and year out. The only thing that appears to be able to stop them is themselves. As a result, the university has received record donations from alumni all over the country. The university is expanding with new buildings and facilities that seem to pop up out of nowhere. Ticket prices are through the roof, and games are being sold out in a couple days' time. Not only that, but the applications for incoming freshman have more than quadrupled since the last losing season. …

Affirmative Action In College Admissions: The Past, Present, And Future, Ellen Johnson

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

The Pledge of Allegiance, which supposedly captures the core values of America, is a nostalgic hymn by virtually all citizens of the U.S. We recite it in public schools, at football games, and a wide range of ceremonies and celebrations. From the time we are young, these words become engrained in us, so much so that reciting them becomes second nature. Do we, though, truly practice the concepts held in the Pledge of Allegiance? When we pledge that the U.S. embodies "liberty and Justice of all", do we stop and think of the implications the term carries? Can we, as …

Approaches To Black Power: African American Grassroots Political Struggle In Cleveland, Ohio, 1960-1966, David M. Swiderski

Open Access Dissertations

Black communities located in cities across the country became sites of explosive political unrest during the mid-1960s. These uprisings coincided with a period of intensified political activity among African Americans nationally, and played a decisive role in expanding national concern with black political struggle from a singular focus on the Civil Rights movement led by black southerners to consider the "race problem" clearly present in the cities of the North and West. Moreover, unrest within urban black communities emerged at a time when alternate political analyses of the relationship between black people and the American state that challenged the goal …

Identity Development Of Adolescent Gay Black Males, Miles James Allen Crumley

Dissertations and Theses

During adolescence, self-identified gay black males may develop their identities differently than their gay white male counterparts. This may be attributed to the reconciliation of stressors when developing gay, black, and male identities within certain environmental contexts. To investigate this, twelve qualitative interviews were conducted of gay black males from which developmental themes were extracted. While many of the developmental processes are similar to their white homosexual counterparts, some differences were noted regarding racism, objectification by the white gay community, and use of the internet to develop particular identities. A new theory using dynamic systems theory that includes many complexities …

Be A Man If You Can: Examining Pre-Migration And Post-Watts Revolt Identities Of Black Working-Class Men In The Films Of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990, Donte L. Mcfadden

Theses and Dissertations

The films of Charles Burnett from 1969 through 1990 focus on the presentation of black working-class men in South Los Angeles as the decline of industrial jobs alters the socioeconomic landscape. Two periods that are important to understand the historical reference of Burnett's films are the Second Great Migration, in which African Americans evacuate the oppressive climate of Jim Crow to live in Los Angeles during World War II, and the Watts Revolt, a week in August in which residents of the Watts region revolted against law enforcement and business owners in response to the treatment of two African American …

Recruitment And Retention Of Kindergarten Through Grade 12 African American Male Educators In Rural Environments, Shannon Tre'mario Jernell Lewis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African American male teachers represent a disproportionately low number of educators in the American public school system. This lack of representation has implications for understanding, interacting with and educating the growing population of students of African descent in public schools. In addition, all students benefit from experiencing African American males in classrooms for cultural and educational reasons. For these reasons, recruiting and retaining African American males for careers in education is imperative.

This dissertation investigated the reasons African American males do not select careers in education given the history of this career and its prominence for people of African descent. …

What Are The Key Competencies, Qualities, And Attributes Of The African American Municipal Police Chief?, Patrick Oliver

Faculty Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and understand the dimensions of leadership of those African Americans, who are effective as the chief executive officer (CEO) of a municipal law enforcement agency, and thereby to educate and inform both those aspiring to be police chiefs and those presently serving as police chiefs, particularly African Americans. Four content areas were examined to gain a better understanding of the research question: (1) Police executive leadership literature; (2) African American leadership; (3) The trait theory of leadership; (4) emotional intelligence. Study participants were all African American police chiefs with the expertise and …

The State Of Representation And Segregation Among African American Women At The U.S. Department Of Commerce: An Examination Of The Intersection Of Strategic Planning With Race And Gender, Sesha Joi Moon

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation is to examine the state of representation and segregation among African American women across the workforce at the United States Department of Commerce. This study employs a triangulated research design to examine the relationship between elements of strategic planning and the employment patterns of African American women. This study's qualitative analysis includes a content analysis of 13 agency-specific strategic documents published between FY 1994 through FY 2010. This data is supplemented with a longitudinal trend analysis of personnel data for fulltime, permanent employees retrieved from the National Finance Center for the same time period. The …

Afrocentric Pedagogy As A Transformative Educational Practice, Miranda L. Ra'oof

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study analyzed the effectiveness of the practices and attitudes of selected African American teachers who use culturally relevant and responsive Afrocentric pedagogies as the instructional foundation for improved academic outcomes with their African American students. The theory of Afrocentricity was used as the philosophical framework to study their pedagogy. Afrocentricity is a mode of thought and practice in which in African people are placed at the center of their own history and culture; engages them as subjects rather than objects; and approaches them with respect for their interests, values, and perspectives (Asante 1980, 2003). Concepts employed from this …

Disruptions In The Dream City: Unsettled Ideologies At The 1905 World's Fair In Portland, Oregon, Kat Cleland

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of fairgoers at the Lewis and Clark Centennial, American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair held in Portland, Oregon from June to October of 1905. Historians have framed world's fairs and international expositions as sites of legitimating narratives and restagings of empire and nationhood. This thesis focuses on women, Asian Americans, and Native Americans who interrupted and disrupted the performance and exhibition of U.S. imperialism in the specific case of Portland, Oregon. It considers who benefitted from or endured loss in the demonstrations of imperial culture at the Fair. Following the premises that metropolitan and colonial …

Remembering Dearfield: A Study Of An Early 20th Century Black Community, Mary Connell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the different meanings of Dearfield, an early 20th Century black farming colony in northeastern Colorado, from the way the settlers’ conceived of their community, to the way that it was portrayed by the founder, to the way that it is remembered today. Through analysis of archival data and government records I show that there were two sides of Dearfield, that remembered by most of the settlers, and that portrayed by the founder O.T. Jackson. A magnetometer survey shows that the townsite was not as densely occupied as the common narrative of Dearfield would suggest, indeed many homesteaders …

Education And Liberation: A Look At The Early Development And Directions Of The Virginia Public School System (1879-1899), John B. Terzian

Honors Theses

From its founding in 1870 and early development, Virginia’s public school system and its leadership provide a roadmap for many of the factors that have shaped America’s social landscape and racial politics. The onset of a rapidly industrializing Southern economy was instrumental in forming the direction for black education following Reconstruction and embodies the ideological debate regarding the purpose of education as it relates to racial uplift. The emergence of leaders like Booker T. Washington had an enormous impact on reshaping attitudes toward blacks and their potential as citizens. Ultimately, the ideological hegemony which victimized blacks served as a mechanism …

"Listen To The Wild Discord": Jazz In The Chicago Defender And The Louisiana Weekly, 1925-1929, Sarah A. Waits

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the Louisiana Weekly and Dave Peyton of the Chicago Defender, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were …

African-American Language : Linguistics, Power, And The Impact On All Children, Kendra Lewis

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Addresses the issue of linguistic discrimination in educational settings with specific focus on African-American language (AAL) in historical and political context including: socio-linguistic research, theory of African-American language (AAL), analysis of syntax and lexical morphology as well as sample texts in hip-hop, poetry, prose, and drama with instructional guidelines and a field-based summary statement.

This Land Is My Land: The Evolution And Future Of Urban Homesteading In The United States, Emma Brennan

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Last Of The Bronx Giants: Mayoral Control, School Reform, And The Fate Of Bronx High Schools, Ben Delikat

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Disaster From Above: New York City Teachers' Perceptions Of School Reform, Elizabeth Baker

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Public Housing In The New York City: The Case Of The Red Hook Houses, Michael Kavanagh

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

In the United States, public housing conjures up negative images of decaying high-rise buildings, places ridden crime, drugs and gangs. This stereotype largely represents society's attitude towards the urban poor that has evolved since the housing movement began in the 1920s. When support for public housing took hold, the United States were living in tenements houses under the most horrific conditions. It is easy to forget that public housing was created in order to provide safe, affordable spaces for working and middle class families to live. However, policy changes, mismanagement, and inadequate funding are among the several factors that changed …

Transit-Oriented Development And Sustainability: A Case Study Of The Williamsbridge Metro-North Station In The Bronx, Stephen Erdman

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

The tenets of Transit Oriented Development, a planning philosophy developed during the late 20th century, has informed recent development visions in New York City. Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030: A Greener, Greater New York identifies transit-oriented development as one of the theories it seeks to implement throughout the city as it shapes new development. Likewise, the Department of City Planning's Bronx Sustainable Communities Initiative seeks to implement the ideal of transit-oriented development in the areas surrounding the Bronx's largely underutilized Metro-North stations. However, recent rezonings in the Bronx surrounding the Williamsbridge Metro-North station warrants further investigations into the City's claim that …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Discriminating Tastes: How Advertisements Taught Consumerism And Race To Gilded Age Youths, Jaclyn Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial and social trends of the Gilded Age combined to give a unique and novel power to colorful advertising trade cards that were collected, exchanged, and preserved in scrapbooks by middle-class children living in the Northeast. These children were members of one of the earliest generations to grow up with mandatory co-educational schooling and to be part of a distinctive youth culture created through peer interactions. After 1876, advertising trade cards became ubiquitous and were a significant component of that peer culture. The cards were also innovative in that they were the first example of colored images to be made …

The Recruitment Of African American Graduate Students At The University Of Arkansas, 2000-2010, Rhonda F. Gray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting this qualitative study was to identify how the U of A approached the recruiting of African American graduate students over a ten year period of time. Based upon best practices for recruiting African American graduate students which was identified in current and scholarly literature in the field, the study examined the recruiting practices at U of A from 2000-2010. The personal interview was the instrument of choice, and within this time period, 40 interviews were conducted. The participants included the chancellor, college deans, faculty, graduate coordinators and recruiters from the various departments and colleges which offered …

Race, Crime And Athletes: A Qualitative Analysis Of Framing In Local Newspaper Coverage Of Nfl Quarterbacks Michael Vick And Ben Roethlisberger, Kristi Grim

Theses and Dissertations

The present study researched the positive, negative, thematic and episodic framing contained in local newspaper coverage of two criminal investigations of National Football League quarterbacks: the Ben Roethlisberger rape case and the Michael Vick dog-fighting case. A qualitative analysis revealed stories about Roethlisberger were more likely to feature positive framing supporting the message that Roethlisberger was a good person who was innocent of criminal activity. By contrast, Vick articles were more likely to feature negative framing supporting the message that Vick was a criminal. In addition, articles on Roethlisberger were more likely to use thematic frames as a way to …

The Price Of Change: Historiographical, Fiscal, And Demographic Considerations Of The Milwaukee Movement, 1966, Jonathan Charles Bruce

Theses and Dissertations

The work presented in this thesis argues for a new schema with which to approach the civil rights literature. Arguments for the necessity of this new approach utilize Milwaukee as a case study, analyzing the texts considered canonical to the city and offering a critique that will begin to break away from a lionized individual in favor of an egalitarian approach to history, specifically through the use of non-traditional methods such as quantitative analysis. Perhaps most important to the literature, this thesis addresses a fundamental, long-ignored aspect of the Civil Rights Movement by analyzing fiscal realities that face a grassroots …

"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 …

Invisible Men: Negotiating Parisian Colorblindness & Identity Amongst African Immigrant Youth Males, Kishauna Soljour

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This research explores the process by which African immigrant youth males are accultaruing into Parsian society. The goal of this study is to provide a small window into the lives of several of these males in order to add to current research examing Parisan immigrant experiences. Current research literature primarly focuses on district factors influencing African immigrant experiences. My research compiles the narratives of three partcipants to show how these factors are impact ing Parsian African immigrant youth males.