African American Studies Commons^™

The 1920s Klan, More Than Just The South: A Historiographical And Pedagogical Assessment, Nicolas Soucy

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay..............................3

II. Primary Source Documents.........16

III. Textbook Critique.........................28

IV. Textbook Rewrite.........................31

From The Words Of Our Fathers: Black Paternal Perspectives On Literacy And Recommendations For Literacy Instruction For Black Males, Imani A. Irving

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the literacy experiences of Black fathers and their recommendations for enhancing literacy instruction for Black male children from birth through Grade 12. Grounded in African American Male Theory, the research aimed to address knowledge gaps in understanding Black male literacy experiences and provide insights for improving Black male literacy education. Using participatory action research with an initial modified Delphi approach, the study gathered potential areas of consensus among Black fathers on essential curricular revisions to promote positive Black male literacies. Participants included a purposive sample of 10 Black fathers with Black sons from birth to adulthood. Through …

Hyper Segregation And Poverty: An Examination Of The Historical Forces That Shape The Academic Self-Concept Of African-American High School Students 1900 To 2000, David Byer-Tyre

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this historical qualitative study was to identify the historical consequences of segregation, racism, and poverty on African Americans residents of Hempstead Long Island, and how these phenomena shaped contemporary Black students’ academic self-concepts. Among the issues that purportedly afflict American public education are the low academic achievements of African-American students in what might be termed “inner suburban” schools. The history of how Black communities and school were created and sustained was examined through a historical review of Black education in America, and a comparative analysis of the oral histories of fourteen graduates of Hempstead High school between …

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Winter 2025, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the Down The Bay Project.

Ua19/16/1/1 2025 Hilltopper Baseball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

2025 baseball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

More Bookman Than Bookerite: William Stanley Braithwaite And Poetic Stereotypes, Susanna Ashton

Publications

William Stanley Braithwaite (1878–1962) began his life with printed words as a printer’s apprentice with Ginn and Company in Massachusetts. Unlike Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain, all of whom began their meteoric literary careers by typesetting, Braithwaite’s rise was thwarted by the cultural stereotyping around race. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that throughout his career as anthologizer, publisher, poet, critic, and Boston Evening Transcript columnist, William Stanley Braithwaite used his facility with type to inform valuations of narrative and language with an eye not to race-blind aspects of literature, but to ways race might be recognized …

Animal Triangulation – Expanding The Oppressed/Oppressor Binary To A Triadic Constituency: The Oppressor, The Proxy, And The Oppressed, Katherine A. Abelanet

English Dissertations - Archive

Drawing on three fields of study, Animal Studies, Black Studies, and Shakespeare Studies, this dissertation examines animal triangulation as a system of oppression in which three constituents are triangulated for the benefit of the oppressor. Through triangulation, the oppressed/oppressor duality expands, creating a triad: the oppressor, the proxy, and the oppressed. This reimagining of the traditional binary of oppression opens new areas of conversation by adding an additional component. In animal triangulation, a proxy is created when an oppressor trains an animal or an animalized human to produce an abusive outcome on an oppressed group. By using a proxy, the …

A Theoretical Framework For Black Women’S Leader Development, Kayla Kai Parker

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the leader development journeys of Black women, identifying key contributors and inhibitors that influence their progression into and experiences within formal leadership positions. This study employed a grounded theory methodology, integrated with an intersectional framework and Black feminist theory. Study data was gathered utilizing three methods: social media listening data points (n = 216), a leadership roadmap survey (n = 69), and structured interviews (n = 15). The open, axial, and selective coding led to the creation of a theoretical framework outlining two pathways to leadership outcomes: one shaped by inhibitors (e.g., identity management, overcompensation, hindrance, resource …

The Roots Of Womanism As Identity, Empowerment, And Liberation For Black American Women: Raciolinguistic Genealogical Exploration, Shante Noel Millercent Morgan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Black American women intellectuals, activists, and scholars have grappled with womanism in relation to Black women’s presence in the world, particularly in the context of feminist and Black liberation movements. Since womanism was introduced more than four decades ago, both movements claimed Black women were a priority in theory and rhetoric but often excluded them in practice. For this reason, this dissertation examines womanist thought as a source of identity, empowerment, and liberation for Black American women. I employed two methods to investigate womanist thought that align with a qualitative inquiry: genealogy focus and raciolinguistic genealogy analysis. I conducted a …

Exploring Approaches To Address Racial Discrimination, Stigma, And Provider Communication In Sickle Cell Disease Pain Management Through Interprofessional Education And Collaboration, Ronisha Edwards-Elliott

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents research across three publishable manuscripts that investigate why structural and systemic racism persist among patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) seeking pain management, and how interprofessional collaboration and education can help reduce disparities through shared learning, accountability, and standardized care (Chapters Two through Four). A scoping review identifies current interventions and strategies aimed at sharing the pain experiences and feelings of being unheard by SCD patients (Chapter Two). Findings of the scoping review revealed that although interventions and strategies exist and have been tested, the lack of implementation or buy-in from healthcare professionals has allowed racial discrimination …

“A Safe Place”: Exploring Black Couples’ Perceptions Of Black Love And Relationship Coping In The Context Of Their Lived Experiences With Racism, Melinda Murdock

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Historically, Black couples have not been studied within the context of their lived experiences as it relates to the effects of racism on relationship health. Only in the last decade have relationship scholars begun to consistently link racism-related stressors to relationship processes and outcomes. Despite the growing literature, recent studies are primarily quantitative in method and rely on samples, theoretical models, and measures that predominantly represent White couples’ experiences. It remains unclear how Black couples’ perceptions of love and relationship coping lead to resilient outcomes despite the negative effects of racism.

Therefore, the goal of the present study is to …

Arenas Of Resistance: How Oklahoma's Black Rodeos Preserved Environmental Wisdom And Community Power, Rorie Johnson

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how Black rodeos in Oklahoma emerged from post-emancipation agricultural labor and ranching traditions, serving as powerful sites of cultural preservation, knowledge transmission, and resistance to dominant narratives of the American West. Through analysis of historical records, photographic evidence, and personal family narratives, this research demonstrates how Black Oklahomans developed unique relationships with land and animals that encompassed both the "ecological burden" of agricultural labor and the "beauty" of cultural expression and community-building. Drawing on theoretical frameworks including Kimberly Ruffin's "ecological burden-and-beauty paradox," George Lipsitz's "Black spatial imaginaries," bell hooks' "oppositional gaze," and Toni Morrison's concept of "rememory," …

Iii.A.2 Displacement & Barriers To Home Ownership, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Jim Neighbors, Mark Byrnes

Crafting Democratic Futures

This document explains how systemic racism and discriminatory policies from the Civil War & Reconstruction period through the 20th century prevented African Americans in Spartanburg from building wealth through land ownership and home equity. It details barriers such as Black Codes, sharecropping, convict leasing, exclusion from New Deal programs, discriminatory housing policies, and urban renewal projects that displaced Black neighborhoods without providing equitable opportunities for economic advancement.

Iii.B.2 Educational Barriers, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Rylee Jorgensen

Crafting Democratic Futures

The document examines how historical segregation and systemic racism have shaped educational disparities in Spartanburg County, highlighting persistent inequities in school resources, teacher pay, and student outcomes. It concludes that these historical barriers continue to influence academic performance and post-secondary enrollment, with schools serving more diverse populations often facing lower proficiency rates despite high graduation rates.

Iii.F.2 Safety And Security, Kimberly Rostan, Bria Harper, Jim Neighbors

Crafting Democratic Futures

The document details the persistent and systemic violence against Black people in Spartanburg County from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights era, highlighting the role of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Red Shirts in enforcing white supremacy through terror, intimidation, and murder. It emphasizes that this continuous threat of violence created lasting psychological trauma and served as a major barrier to economic and social progress for Black communities.

Islamic Themes In Us Hip-Hop Culture, Anders Ackfeldt

Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts

Explores how Islam is produced in American hip-hop culture by both Muslims and non-Muslims

Islam has been a part of hip-hop culture since it sprang from New York’s street culture in the 1970s. Today hip-hop has evolved into a global artform with a diversity of Muslim Islamic discourses expressed. Using tools from the field of social semiotics, this book examines how Islamic themes feature in US hip-hop culture, maintaining a particular awareness that both Muslims as well as non-Muslims participate in their production.

Anders Ackfeldt analyses a collection of lyrics, sounds and images to show how Islamic themes are featured …

Blackness And Nineteenth-Century Art In The Atlantic World, Rachel Hooper

Curatorial Publications

No abstract provided.

Sunrise In The Heartland: The Ahmadiyya Movement And The Foundations Of African American Islam, Hazel Videon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During the early 1920s, an immigrant missionary from colonial India named Muhammad Sadiq established headquarters in Chicago for a branch of Islam called the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (AMI). The AMI became the first institutional expression of Islam in the United States to draw a significant number of American converts and was particularly popular among African Americans. Following the Second Great Migration, Black migrants to the urban Midwest sought new ways to express their identity, fulfill both spiritual and material needs, and resist racist violence. The AMI became attractive to them as an alternative to respectability politics and drew upon …

Sojourner Truth’S Vision: A Life Dedicated To Ending Injustice, Nyla R. Stokes

Emerging Writers

This essay explores the profound legacy of Sojourner Truth, a pivotal figure in the fight against injustice. Through a personal narrative interwoven with historical analysis, the author reflects on their initial ignorance of Truth's significance and how a school project transformed their understanding. The paper delves into Truth's life, including her experiences as a formerly enslaved woman, her impactful speeches and her collaboration with other notable activists. It examines the complexities of her identity as a Black woman in the 19th century, the societal perceptions of femininity, and the challenges she faced within the feminist movement. The author also draws …

The Application Of 4e Cognition To Counseling And The Intersectional Experiences Of Black Individuals With Disabilities, A. Albright, Clarence K. Bumpas, Jeff Moe

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Black Americans with disabilities experience a range of inequities including barriers to access, social stigmatization, and health outcomes that are greater than both their White and their nondisabled peers. This conceptual article explains in detail these inequities. The authors provide an overview of the existing models of disability used in counseling, healthcare, research, and educational settings, as well as a rationale for why they are limited. The authors then suggest a 4E cognitive framework rooted in cognitive sciences, philosophy of mind, and neuroscience. The authors explain why a 4E cognitive framework may be better suited than existing models to conceptualize …

Volume 18 - Issue 1: La Créole - A Journal Of Creole History & Genealogy, Melissa Daggett, Alan Rosenberg, Pat Marant Schexnayder, Mark Charles Roudané, Nancia R. Sterling, Kalie Dutra, August J. Darbonne, Angela D. Aubry, Alex Da Paul Lee, Kimberly F. Monroe Ph.D, Gisele Perez, Katy Morlas Shannon, René Grandjean

La Créole - A Journal of Creole History & Genealogy

The Louisiana Creole Research Association, Inc., known as LA Creole, was founded on August 21, 2004 as a New Orleans-based, non-profit family research and educational organization. Its purpose is to assist Creoles of Color in researching their ancestry, to educate the general public about Creole history and culture, and to celebrate the contributions and legacy of a unique, sometimes forgotten people. La Créole, the Association’s journal is published annually.

Marked By Valor: The “Lost” History Of The 6th United States Colored Troops, Heavy Artillery, Daniel William O’Sullivan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

“Marked by Valor: The ‘Lost’ History of the 6 th U.S.C.T., Heavy Artillery,” argues that the camaraderie of having been a Black Union soldier solidified a sub-culture of Black veterans and their families in Natchez, Mississippi, that cohered throughout the Reconstruction period using the tools and the affiliations first gained in slavery and strengthened during the soldiers’ time in the army. Underlying this narrative is an interpretation of Southern history that maintains that we cannot understand the events of the postwar period—not only for Black veterans, but to some extent all freed people—if we do not understand all that came …

Norfolk Core Redevelopments And Population Disruption Dispersal, Sumner Darling

Institute for the Humanities Master's Papers, Projects, and Capstones

This project is an analysis of the racial impacts of the redevelopment of the downtown area of Norfolk, Virginia in the period of 1939-1959. The overall goal is to understand the ethnic and racial impacts of redevelopment and how populations were treated differently during the two styles of redevelopment that were employed in the city. The existing research on this topic tends to focus on the segregation of the education system in the city over the community population segregation. This makes it difficult to find sources that show the impacts of other factors like redevelopment of minority communities. Through research …

[Review Of The Book America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta In The Shadow Of The Confederacy, By J. O. G. Ogbar]., Marvin T. Chiles

History Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Since the mid-twentieth century, Atlanta has occupied a special place in American culture. From entertainment to industry to politics, Atlanta is one of the few places in America where what happens locally matters nationally. As a results, Atlanta has occupied an outsized space in African American, civil rights, and southern historical literature, leading to its own subgenre that can be called Atlanta studies. The historiography, including notable volumes such as Ronald H. Bayor's Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta (Chapel Hill, 1996), Kevin M. Krusc's White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton, 2005), Tomiko Brown-Nagin's …

The Black Panther Party: From Militancy To Social Activism, De'andre Brown Jr.

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

This research project examines the ways in which the Black Panther Party (BPP) was negatively portrayed by the media and targeted by the government from the moment of the organization's inception in 1966. The BPP’s shift in rhetoric style from militancy to social activism is emphasized by examining the organization’s “survival” programs, such as the Free Breakfast Programs, Free Health Clinics, and Education Programs, and their impact on black communities around the country. Past scholarly opinions about the BPP were driven by a fear from white America toward the organization’s aggressive style of protest and social activism. The government looked …

No Hope?: Queer Negativity, Afropessimism, And The Limits Of Futurity, Colton Barton

Theses and Dissertations--English

Since their inceptions, black and queer studies have sought to articulate the positions of “black” and “queer” within American social life—often converging on the goal of liberation. This thesis examines the intersection of two “negative” theoretical frameworks—Afropessimism and anti-social queer theory (or “queer negativity”)—to interrogate both the limits and generative potential of radical negativity. Though emerging from distinct intellectual traditions, these frameworks conceptualize blackness and queerness as constitutive negations—gaps within the dominant social order that render those so marked inassimilable to normative notions of humanity. While the convergences of these theories can be illuminating, their shared pessimism risks obscuring alternative …

“A True And Broad Sympathy:” Thomas Hughes, Medievalism, And Social Justice In The Nineteenth Century, Sarah E. Stapleton

Theses and Dissertations--History

Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), used medievalism to help solve social problems of the Nineteenth Century. This contravenes the traditional view of medievalism, especially Anglo-Saxonism, since others have used it to justify the subjugation of people of lower social status, namely the poor in England, enslaved African Americans in the United States, and Indians under British rule.

While the use of medievalism is veiled in Hughes’ work, the subtext of Tom Brown’s Schooldays demonstrated Hughes’ Anglo-Saxonism. Tom Brown and the intertextual material surrounding his narrative exhibit the characteristics of Anglo-Saxonism through cultural primitivism, the concept of allodial, …

Review Of Food Power Politics: The Food Story Of The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Bobby J. Smith, Charles E. Jones

Publications

No abstract provided.

Feminine Felons: Violent Offenders' Intersectional Experiences In Twentieth-Century Montana, Cassidy Ann Vander Voort

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the treatment of violent female offenders in Montana in both the media and prison system from 1900-1960. Women of all races faced gender discrimination from both the carceral system and popular media. Local newspapers sensationalized crimes committed by female offenders, portraying them as women who lived outside of the expectations of womanhood in the twentieth century. Newspapers and courts placed women into two categories: “mad/sad” female offenders, who received forgiveness for their crimes; or unforgivable, “bad” offenders. Crime did not determine these categorizations; instead, gender expectations of the white middle class shaped female criminals’ treatment. If these …

Chasing Dreams In Modern America: Can We All Still Reach The Stars?, Selina Osebre Yawson

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

Judges' Statement

"Chasing Dreams in Modern America: Can We All Still Reach the Stars?" is an excellent and timely examination of the American Dream during a time of political polarization and economic uncertainty. Yawson synthesizes systemic social critique with close literary analysis, applying a reading of Langston Hughes' poetry to address the current moment. Her unique selection of sources and well-reasoned call to action earned the paper an honorable mention.