African American Studies Commons^™

Citizen Engagement In Aquatics Equity: The Case Of Winston Waterworks, Steven N. Waller Phd, James H. Bemiller Jd, Emliy J. Johnson, Chermaine D. Cole, Jason Scott Phd, Angela Wozencroft, Phd

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Historically, swimming pools have been a source of inequity when it comes to the distribution of recreation services in the United States. Many of the problems that correlate with the inequitable allocation of recreation resources including public swimming pools began with ideas about race, geography, poor planning practices and faulty policymaking (Rothstein, 2017). Moreover, one of the primary outcomes of engaged, inclusive planning is equity in the provision of recreation programs and facilities. In this essay, we offer a summary of key legal cases that help address questions related resource allocation related to public swimming pools. Finally, we present a …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Aquatic Programming At Historically Black Colleges And Universities (Hbcus), Tiffany Monique Quash, Knolan C. Rawlins, Shaun M. Anderson

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This article provides a comprehensive examination of aquatic programming at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUs consist of public, private, 2-year, and 4-year institutions (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). Historically, HBCUs provided descendants of the enslaved access to higher education opportunities (Brown, Donahoo, & Bertrand, 2001). HBCUs now serve a more diverse community and the core focus remains on inclusion, social justice, diversity, empowerment, leadership, and cultural competence (Kennedy, 2012; Rawlins, 2018). Consequently, HBCUs may provide an ideal environment to address aquatic activity and the drowning disparity in the African American community. In the current study, researchers sent a …

Community Outreach And Crafted Narratives In A Collaborative Textual Editing Project, Carol Hemmingway, James Dell'alba, Ethan Leavitt

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

In this presentation, student research intern Carol Hemmingway and project participants James Dell’Alba and Ethan Leavitt, will discuss their work on Editing the Eartha M. M. White Collection. The project focuses on the personal correspondence and other documents of Eartha M. M. White (1876–1974), the founder of the Clara White Mission and a leader of Jacksonville’s African American community. Participants create, encode using TEI-XML, and edit transcriptions of the items from the collection, connecting them with White’s personal history and the African American history of Jacksonville. In Spring 2020, the project has taken the form of weekly open textual editing …

Red Hill Cemetery Project: Creating A Cultural Heritage Database, Franciso Mendoz, Laura Bullard, Andrew Pemberton, David Sheffler

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

This age of booming technological advancement has brought a breadth of new opportunities for understanding and documenting history, from digital mapping to database-building capabilities unrivaled in past historical efforts, opportunities which the research team behind the Red Hill Cemetery Project are utilizing in the effort to develop a virtual cemetery. The research team, in cooperation with the Okefenokee Heritage Center and the community of Waycross, seek to develop a scholarly understanding, grounded in consideration of the community and its history, of the oldest African-American cemetery in Waycross, Georgia. The physical cemetery, now overgrown and suffering from decades-long neglect and vandalism, …

When The Beat Drops: Exploring Hip Hop, Home And Black Masculinity, Marquese Lamont Mcferguson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this autoethnographic dissertation, I take readers on a narrative journey to three of my storied homeplaces and explore my lived experiences within each site. In the process of exploring my homeplaces, I analyze how I perform my black masculine self within the context of each location, how my cultural body supports and challenges hegemonic black masculinity, and how each location constrains and frees up my performance of self. With this dissertation, I will contribute to the field of communication studies by extending the method and writing practice of autoethnography, the theorization of the black masculine, and the exploration of …

Ua35/8 Reveille, Vol. 28, No. 1, Wku Veterans Upward Bound

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about WKU Veterans Upward Bound.

• COVID-19 Temporarily Closes Veterans Upward Bound
• Veternas Administration Partners with Treasury Department to Deliver Economic Impact Payments to Veternans & Survivors

Ua94/6/1 My Story: Wku Mens Basketball's Taveion Hollingsworth, Taveion Hollingsworth

Student/Alumni Personal Papers

My Story is a series of first-person feature articles written by WKU student-athletes. The student-athletes will be telling their own stories in their own words. This article written by men’s basketball junior guard Taveion Hollingsworth, whose mission of advancing to the NCAA Tournament with his teammates was halted when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Zeitgeist, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2020 Talisman yearbook:

• Mohr, Olivia. Zeitgeist
• Disrupted – Photo Essay, COVID-19
• Brandt, Jess. Cut Short – Edward Games, Grace Jones, Jarred Corona, Joshua Crask
• Zambrano, Max. Point of No Return? – Stuart Foster, Climate Change
• Francis, Kristina. Weapons Women Carry
• Steele, Emma. Now & Again – Talisman
• Gordon, Zora. Not Just Numbers – Sam Aldrich, Social Media
• Christensen, Nicole. The K-Pop Phenomenon – Music
• Hornsby, Morgan. Everything Starts with Mama – Warren County Regional Jail
• McCormick, Dillon. Evolving Sport – Esports, Video Games
• Sheffield, Catherine. Perfect Match – Travis Hudson, Volleyball
• Dozer, Claire. Follow the Signs – Deafness, American Sign …

Ua52/1 Out Of The Box, Wku Archives

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about WKU Archives and the records management program.

Achieving Equity For African American Children And Families In Minnesota's Child Welfare System: Keeping Families Together, Abigail Kamm, Quincey Krein, Lindsay Simon, Kayla Wolff

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Despite awareness of the disparities in our child protection system for African American children and their families, including increased removal from parental care and placement in non-family foster care, Minnesota has failed to take action to remedy this inequity. Adoption of the provisions in the African American Family Preservation Act is an essential first step toward creating an equitable and accountable child welfare system for African American children and their families.

Ua3/10 President's Message - Spring Semester, Wku President's Office - Caboni

WKU Administration Documents

President's Message emails sent by Timothy Caboni to faculty & staff during spring semester, 2020.

• Announcing WKU Restart Committees & Commencement Update
• Big Red is in the Final Four! Vote Now!
• Big Red Restart Draft
• Big Red Restart Panel
• Big Red Restart Plan Answers
• COVID-19 & Holiday Schedule
• COVID-19 Testing
• COVID-19 Update
• COVID-19 Update – March 13^th
• COVID-19 Update 4.6.20
• COVID-19 Update: 3/17/20
• End of Semester
• Executive Order to Close Non-Life-Sustaining Businesses to In-Person Traffic
• Healthy On the Hill
• New Vice President for Enrollment & Student Experience – Ethan Logan

Are Police Actions Towards African Americans Different From Other Races?, Colby King

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Research implies that African Americans and other minorities experience racial disparities in their encounters with police. Their white counterparts tend to not experience any racially driven disparity. Oftentimes this research does not use different characteristics while testing for racial disparity, leaving much more to be explored when researching police encounters among minorities. I will be using data from the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics to test some of these characteristics. This study will test demographics regarding the citizens race and gender, as well as the nature of their police encounters. Using these demographics, we can find …

An Intersectional Analysis Of Structural Racism And Police Violence Against Black Women, Ceylin H. Ucok

Senior Theses

Structural racism in the United States affects racial and ethnic minorities in many areas of life. The Black community, specifically, faces the highest risk of police violence and brutality. In particular, this paper explores the ways in which adverse police violence experiences affect Black women. Black women often face marginalization in movements for racial justice and gender equality, so this paper investigates the intersectionality of how Black women experience police violence. They often face overlapping forms of discrimination and racialized gender violence at the hands of police. The negative ways in which Black women are stereotyped are discussed to further …

Chain Of Custody: Access And Control Of State Archival Records In Public-Private Partnerships, Sarah E. Carlson

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As I write this, Ancestry.com is a central party in a lawsuit with the organization Reclaim The Records, citing that it, a private corporation, received preferential priority and access to public records before individual patrons of the public in Freedom of Information requests for genealogical records.^[i] Concern that public records may move into private hands demarcates an increasingly digital realm of record-keeping and public history. As companies and the public jockey for access to records in a race for access – one open and the other annexed behind a paywall – the blatant corruption is alarming. Yet, public records …

“A Matter Of Personal Pride”: How African American Football All-Stars Exposed Bigotry In New Orleans, Including Didactic Considerations And Lesson Plans, Andreas Hofbauer

Center Austria Research

Throughout African American history, sport has played a major role in promoting integration and full participation in American society beyond the playing fields or courts. In the 1960s, after the first wave of African American athletes entering the white-dominated collegiate and professional sports leagues, active forms of protest against racial inequality in the US became gradually more relevant. Though in relatively small numbers, some African American athletes across various sports have used their privileged situation to voice the need for a revision of the system which has failed to represent and serve their people throughout American history.

This paper focuses …

Neighborhood Change Within New Jersey: The Evolutionary History That Led To The New Newark, David Medina

Student Publications

As Newark lies 10 miles west of Manhattan, there is an increased encroachment from investors and gentrifies as surrounding cities such as Hoboken and Jersey City become too expensive and overcrowded. Known as the “Brick City”, Newark has history dating back to 1666. Leading up to World War II Newark was thriving, until an increase in suburban development and white flight that altered the race demographic. After years of racial stigma, the history of Newark is at risk as gentrification and neighborhood change looms over the city and its 282,862 residents, many of which are minorities.

Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System Of Taxation, Palma Joy Strand, Nicholas A. Mirkay

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article describes the connection between wealth inequality and the increasing structural racism in the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. A long-term sociological view (the why) reveals the historical racialization of wealth and a shift in the tax system overall beginning around 1980 to protect and exacerbate wealth inequality, which has been fueled by racial animus and anxiety. A critical tax view (the how) highlights a shift over the same time period at both federal and state levels from taxes on wealth, to taxes on income, and then to taxes on consumption—from greater to less progressivity. Both of these …

Environmental Injustice's Impact On Asthma Disparities In Nyc, Tayler J. Rodriquez

Student Publications

Understanding the social determinants of health is essential when looking at low-income minorities in urban cities. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environment in which people are born, which affects a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes. Amongst other determinants, adequate housing can have a significant influence on population health outcomes such as asthma. Zoning inequality negatively and disproportionately impacts the health and the overall quality of life of low-income minorities; zoning is correlated to environmental injustice fueling adverse health effects and health disparities among low-income minority populations. Without the opportunity to receive adequate and affordable housing, …

African American Disparities Within The Medical World, Claudia E. Mischler

Student Publications

There are many challenges that African Americans face and the lack of quality in care towards African Americans is an ongoing problem. Black men and women are not given the same care compared to their white counterparts. African Americans are faced with numerous disparities in the medical world. This can exist due to factors that are out of their control such as; failure of medical professionals recognizing the sociocultural differences, distrust in the health care system, cultural differences in understanding and explaining illness, history of hospital and medical office segregation, and knowledge of available services. It is very unlikely to …

Gentrification In Seattle: Amazon Overpowers The City Council, Keyleigh N. Wallick

Student Publications

In this paper, I will analyze gentrification in the city of Seattle, Washington. I argue that gentrification in Seattle is driven by the tech and real estate industries that are powerful and lucrative enough to deter accountability despite the City Council’s efforts. First, I will discuss gentrification mostly through a sociological lens. Then, I will consider gentrification in Seattle, focusing on the Central District, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, and First Hill neighborhoods. Additionally, I will discuss the role immigration plays in gentrification and the vulnerability of certain communities in Seattle. Finally, I will analyze the efforts the City Council …

Bodies Without The Burden: White Appropriation And Exploitation Of Black Appearance And Culture, Marisa E. Balanda

Student Publications

Critiques of cultural appropriation in regards to inappropriate Halloween costumes and the phenomenon of Instagram models “black-fishing” their followers are more prevalent now than ever before, but white exploitation of black culture and appearance is nothing new. In academia, the term “cultural appropriation” describes how aspects of a marginalized group’s culture are taken by those in a dominant group without regard to their cultural significance. In her chapter, “Black Culture Without Black People,” Imani Kai Johnson refers to appropriation as “colonialism at the scale of the dancing body or the sacred ritual object, its life and dynamism reduced to a …

Covid-19: The Industrial Prison Complex And Black Bodies, Christian A. Rodriguez

Student Publications

COVID-19 has exposed a variety of issues and insecurities in our world since its eruption in 2020. While it is heavily discussed, debated and researched, much of the virus’ impact is not covered in communities and areas where marginalized bodies suffer disproportionately. One of the most undermined and blanketed populations in our country during the time of the pandemic (and for decades before) is the prison population, which has seen soaring cases and deaths since the virus first touched down in the states. Much of the prison population consist of black men and women and sadly mirror the same health …

Cannabis And Its Historical Role In America’S Intentional Segregation Of Race, William E. Kelley

Student Publications

One of the more dramatic shifts in attitudes towards a particular trend or culture we have seen during the turn of the century is none other than attitudes towards marijuana. The Cannabis plant, commonly known as marijuana, has been illegal in the United States for a while now. In the past ten years, we have seen an influx of states and countries relaxing their attitudes towards marijuana, and it's potential benefits. While this shift in attitude towards a relatively harmless drug is a step in the right direction, many are unaware of the sinister and racist history behind outlawing the …

The Impact Of Marriage On African American Educators In Bexar County, 1880-1950, Jordan Lejeune

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

As a society, we are still having discussions about whether or not women “can have it all.” We have not moved past gendered expectations for men and women. Mollie Carey Brown, Fanny Ellis Starnes, and Lady Henrietta Boyd were Black educators in the San Antonio public school system in the late nineteenth century who have incredible stories that may feel familiar to some women today. Mollie Carey Brown and Fanny Ellis Starnes both got married and ended their careers. Henrietta Boyd never got married, and remained a teacher until retirement. All three of these women had to fight gender expectations …

Racism In America: A Psychological Approach, Brett S. Burton

Student Publications

America is a country that has racism interwoven into its history and ingrained within its society. Blacks have been subjected to this racism and oppression for generations, and at a higher level than other minority groups. More recently in American society, we can see a transition from overt discrimination to covert discrimination through policies and legislation that affect racial groups differently. Foucault and Bentham’s Panopticon can be used to discuss the true systematic violence imposed on blacks and we can further that discussion by investigating the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration and how they represent reincarnations of previous Babylonian …

G. William Bouldin, More Than A Businessman, Mario M. Gutierrez

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

When the average person thinks about African American history, the two major historical subjects that possibly comes to their mind are slavery and the civil rights movement. I believe this is the case because African American history is a subject with a limited curriculum in the history classes of our public schools. Possible causes for this problem could be budget restrictions, limited amounts of time in classes, or even to ‘soften’ the reality of American history. Despite these reasons, the undeniable fact is that African American History has many unresearched areas within the subject. For instance, the historical study of …

Research On The Demographic Changes Around San Antonio's St. Paul Square From 1880 To 1920, Christopher D. Oliver

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

We often hear of the massive boom in population experienced by various Northern cities during the Great Migration (1916-1960), where over 6 million African Americans would migrate across the country in search for better opportunities. What we do not often hear is how such migration affected the larger Southern cities. Such a seemingly important and relevant question deserves to be covered extensively. San Antonio, while a large city (and once the largest in Texas), has been left unexplored on this question, while other Texas cities like Houston are receiving some coverage on this topic. I want to begin answering this …

The Unheard Stories Of Former San Antonio Slaves, David R. Harris

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

While the end of slavery in America was a huge step to provide equality to all, the livelihood of former slaves after the Civil War took many different paths, some of those paths ended up in San Antonio, Texas.

Founding Of Naacp In San Antonio 1918: A Call To Activism, Eric D. Nolden

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

Enter the Progressive era a time of social activism and political reform, an era aimed at finding a cure for industrialization and urbanization nationally. There were also societal issues that needed to be resolved, issues of governmental corruption, government machines and their overseers, women’s suffrage, child labor laws, the practice of Eugenics, and safer food and medicine for all citizens. Although the reformers of the era were trying to create a “Great America,” the Progressive era encouraged discriminatory rules; rules which aided in the re-emergence of the KKK and lay the foundation for the Immigration Act of 1917. Policies that …

Progressive Era Activism For Black Orphanage, Isaac L. Godoy

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020 (Archived)

A group of American citizens that are historically overlooked and underserved are impoverished and homeless children. According to the United States Census Bureau as of 2017, when this group is divided by race, the number of African-American children that live in poverty is higher than others. This kind of data has only been available since 1959. Previously, the federal government did not have any involvement in assisting with any services to impoverished children came in the form of community activism. The most prominent institutions to provide care to homeless children were in the form of orphanages.