African American Studies Commons^™

The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Cognitive Performance In African American Older Adults, Rio S. Tate

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The number of older adults in the United States is expected to increase in the years to come. As we age, cognitive performance is noted to decline. African American older adults are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to experience cognitive impairment and dementia. It is known that physical activity is a modifiable risk factor for dementia. It is not known the extent to which physical activity engagement is related to cognitive performance in African American older adults, and which variables, if any, moderate this association. To answer this question, the authors examined the association between three intensities of physical activity …

‘Casar Public Lecture: Jazz Diplomacy: America's Conversation With The World', The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

The lectures deliberated about how the U.S. used jazz as a tool of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War, sending jazz musicians abroad to promote American values and counter Soviet influence. Jazz symbolized freedom and democracy but also highlighted racial tensions in the U.S., creating a paradox. These tours influenced global perceptions of America and supported civil rights movements at home and abroad. These lectures were a collaboration with The Music Program in the Department of the Arts at AUC.

Date: 2-3 Nov. 2025

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Women, Race, Recovery: How Some Of History’S Most Impactful Thinkers Reflect On Their Own Healing, Karol Cooper

Gatherings

With examples from influential women of color feminists, the essay points to some obstacles in the way to developing a true practice of recovery for women of color academics whose research brings them in continual contact with histories and enactments of harm against women and people of color. As women of color in higher education, articulating our health and healing needs in our own terms would help us clear a path to promoting ourselves as whole and healthy persons, in addition to promoting us along a career path. The essay collects reflections on health struggles from famous women of color …

A Little Piece Of Her Dies, Keturah L. Hancock

Gatherings

This poem explores the emotional labor of being authentic in spaces not built for women of color. This poem specifically addresses the experiences of Black women. Often, Black women find themselves torn between maintaining peace and being themselves. The poem addresses concepts such as tone policing, code-switching, and expression. It honors Black women in academia who feel they have to shrink themselves to be seen. There is a sense of safety that comes with fitting in and not making waves in a predominantly white space. However, this poem offers an alternative, calling Black women to stand up for those who …

Charlotte Dickerson, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Oral history recorded for the Bronx African American History Project on August 26, 2020 with Charlotte Dickerson, who grew up in the United Workers Cooperative Colony, or the Allerton Coops, during the 1950s and 1960s. Her mother, Dr. Angie Dickerson, was an African American human rights, peace, and African independence activist as well as a member of the Communist Party U.S.A., the Civil Rights Congress, the World Peace Council, the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women, and other organizations. In her oral history, Charlotte speaks about her childhood in the Coops with her mother, father Buddy, and brother …

Marion "Tiny" Frampton, Wildman, And Mike Sherman - Part 1, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Part 1 of an oral history with former Black Spades members Marion “Tiny” Frampton, “Wildman,” and Mike Sherman. All three are now leaders of TBS New Direction, a community safety nonprofit founded by Frampton that works with former gang members to make a positive impact on the youth. The interview was conducted by Dr. Steven Payne, Director of the Bronx County Historical Society, and Dr. Mark Naison, Director of the Bronx African American History Project.

Tiny, Wildman, and Mike talk about the conditions in the Bronx in the late 1960s and early ‘70s that led them to join the Black …

Rachel Cheeks-Givan, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

As a Bronx native and long-time resident, Rachel Cheeks-Givan embodies the community service she preaches throughout her work in different organizations, namely Jack and Jill of America, Inc., which focuses on providing a community for families of color. Growing up in Underhill, she had a strong sense of unity amongst other families in her neighborhood and their children. Each house on the block became her house, and each family was a surrogate for her own. Her mother, who immigrated from Puerto Rico, made their home a community pillar, fostering an area full of welcoming energy. Her father and his parents, …

Carline Frazier Crews, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Carline Frazier Crews’s interview with the Bronx Historical Society’s Director, Stephen Payne, is a captivating collection of stories from diverse racial and economic backgrounds. Born and raised in New York City, by plantation workers from South Carolina, her blend of southern history and city education made for an interesting upbringing that would empower her throughout her life.

A self-proclaimed “thinker,” Crews was labeled an exceptional student in junior high. Although her parents, who lacked a high school education and the ability to read and write, disagreed with her pursuit of education, she was forced by her father to drop out …

Theresa Land Latta, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Born and raised in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, Theresa felt a sense of community as a child and vividly remembers feeling the security of her block. Her southern household, family right across the street, and West Indian neighbors prompted a cultural exchange that encapsulated her youth through socialization, food, relationships, music, and expression. Attending a majority white elementary school, PS 76 was a time where she cherished her teachers, while starting to understand the discrimination and racial circumstances of our country. Olinville Junior High School was a time in which her character of excelling in school was tested …

Crystal Isom, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Crystal Isom is a New York native and the eighth president of the Bronx chapter, also known as the family chapter, of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Jack and Jill works to improve the quality of life for African American mothers and their children through providing them easy access to new opportunities such as scholarships for college and other job opportunities . Isom was raised within a small family dynamic. Her mother was a seamstress who raised Isom on her own. Isom lived in an apartment in East Harlem with her mother, aunt, and grandmother. Her childhood was filled …

Terrill Hughes, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Born to parents with roots in Jamaica and Mississippi, Terrill Hughes grew up in the Bronx, which is surrounded by cultural diversity and community pride. His early experiences were shaped by both the challenges of his environment and the strong guidance of family and fraternity brothers. Hughes described how joining Kappa Alpha Psi provided him with not only mentorship but also discipline and purpose, which changed the course of his life. He reflected on his role in helping to charter the Bronx Alumni Chapter and his hopes for expanding undergraduate chapters across local campuses.

In the interview, Hughes highlighted brothers …

Adopting Stuart Hall’S “Race, The Floating Signifier” As A Conceptual Framework Within Aquatic Research And Education, Kurt J. Cordice

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

During his 1997 lecture at Goldsmiths College in London, Stuart Hall, renowned for his contributions to sociology and cultural studies, offered his argument that the concept of race functions as a Floating Signifier. In this essay, Stuart Hall’s Race, the Floating Signifier is presented as a strong conceptual framework to support more accurate and effective positioning of race as an important consideration within aquatic research and education. Evidence from a range of disciplines, including historical research, is presented to establish both the importance and challenge of race within aquatic research and education. This evidence is also used to demonstrate …

Tyler Dow, Mark Naison, Stephanie Robinson-Ramirez

Oral Histories

Tyler Dow is an actor, rapper, and activist from the Bronx, interviewed here in conversation with Doctor Mark Naison and Stephanie Robinson Ramirez. A 33 year old from Co-op City—the largest housing development in the United States—Tyler gives his perspective on the art and cultural scene of his neighborhood during the turn of the twenty-first century.

Beginning with the background of his familial ties to Co-op City, Dow explains that the first twenty five years of his life were spent in one of the neighborhood’s many high-rise apartments. He describes Co-op City as a proudly middle-class community, one that residents …

Nyc Dj Henry Memorial Event, Jimmy Luckman

Social Justice Week

The Pace community on the New York City campus was invited to celebrate the life and legacy of DJ Henry over dinner. Attendees came together as a community to learn more about the life of DJ Henry, while also engaging in artistic expression to show our resistance and social justice.

Ruthless: The Revolution Of Gangsta Rap, Laci D. Lavoy

Theses

The popularization of gangsta rap in the United States was pivotal to the advancement of Black America following the close of the Civil Rights Movement. The ruthlessness of gangsta rap created a distaste of authority that became a catalyst for Black American unity and change. Artists quickly started writing songs that spoke out against issues plaguing Black and poor Americans, realizing the power of the microphone and the radio. These rappers created an awareness for White audiences that had not been present before and even created a space for White artists with shared experiences. Female rappers took this activism a …

The Day Disco Died, Pearl Johnson

Gateway Reader- Individual Papers

• The Problem: The researcher addresses how Disco Demolition Night, while appearing to be an innocuous expression of changing musical tastes, reflected deeper societal backlashes against marginalized communities—including Black, Latin, and LGBTQ populations—who pioneered and found freedom within the disco genre during a period of civil unrest.

• The Method: The researcher analyzes historical event accounts, photographs, and media reports from the July 12, 1979 event at Comiskey Stadium, incorporating cultural commentary from music critics, social historians, and firsthand testimonies of attendees and staff.

• Quantitative Finding: The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is the highest-selling disco album of all time at 40 million …

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Review Of God’S Long Summer: Stories Of Faith And Civil Rights, Jenny N. Liang

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

No abstract provided.

Failures In Federal Responses To Natural Disasters Along The Mississippi River, Alex Mceachern

The Ozark Historical Review

The author presents an historical view on the plans for and responses to disasters on the lower Mississippi River and the inadequacies of services for African American refugees.

Into The Canebrakes: Arkansas And Naacp's Campaign For A Federal Anti-Lynching Law, Marie Claire Durr

The Ozark Historical Review

Race relations worsened and violence driven by racism increased following World War I. As a result, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, began to scout out cases they could employ in the fight to enshrine federal protections against racial terrorism that were exemplified in Arkansas' 1919 Elaine Massacre and the 1921 lynching of Henry Lowery.

Brad Brewer, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Born in Washington, D.C., Brad Brewer moved to New York City as a child when his father joined the New York Police Department. His family first lived in Queens briefly before settling in the Soundview section of the Bronx. After his parents separated, he, his mother, stepfather, and sisters moved to Wakefield, where he spent his teenage years. His maternal family is from Virginia, and his paternal family is from South Carolina. And as a child, he usually visited family in Piney River and Lynchburg, Virginia.

Brewer discovered puppetry at an early age. By the time he was ten years …

Gregory Delts, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Growing up and living in the Bronx up until recently, Gregory Delts detailed the institutions and communities that greatly impacted his life and how he has given back. The apartment building in which Greg was raised showcased the diversity of the Bronx and the strong community that they shared among residents. Friends and family alike cared for him and the other kids in the neighborhood by sharing their homes and food with one another. Although he attended the public schools in the Bronx until high school, he was sent to the rigorous Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts for his teenage years. …

Nosagie Ekhator, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Growing up in New York City and Pennsylvania, in the city and suburbia, Nosagie Ekhator navigated and rotated between two worlds that shaped his frame of reference. Having built community through this experience, whether it be through the shared memories of moving or Nigerian social clubs and conventions, he was able to create an identity of commonality. Although he felt the differences when shifting through both worlds, he was able to find people that understood his experience, as well as understanding his own individuality through food, music, religion, and being one of the only Africans in his public and private …

Maxine Agee And Kim Mcclain, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Kim McClain and Maxine Agee, the second and third presidents of the Bronx chapter of Jack and Jill of America Inc, both have their own experiences with Jack and Jill of America Inc. that is indicative of a vibrant sense of community created by the women alongside those around them. Kim McClain spent a lot of time on her own or with her siblings growing up as she had busy, hardworking parents – her father was the first black firefighter in Queens, New York, with a bold personality and an eclectic music taste ranging from Johnny Cash to Nat King …

Abdul Qadir Askia, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

Sixth poll mark of the Kappa Alpha Psi (KAP) Fraternity, Abdul Qadir Askia is an African American man who is an accomplished professional in investment operations. He describes his early life as being nurtured with other cultures as he moved around New York City.

His father came to Brooklyn after migrating from California, where he was a member of the Black Panther Party, and where he would meet his mother. Askia lived in Brooklyn until he was seven, when he was sent to a boarding school in Senegal. When he came back, he moved around from place to place, from …

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

Frontmatter And Foreword To Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, Bill Arfmann

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Covers, Table of Contents, and Foreword:

There is much to understand about the history of Nebraska and how the past shapes the present. This book attempts to bring into clearer focus the triumphs and trials of five broad groups whose lives have often been overlooked when the state’s history is told. The authors know some of this history of racism firsthand: Most of them have lived as people of color in Nebraska. They’ve experienced “the good, the bad and the ugly” that makes up our state story. We encourage educators, scholars and family historians to continue to dig, to document …

Introduction To Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Nebraska has made racism a way of life through most of its history. It is still the way of life for many. In 2020, a Nebraska columnist wrote the following about Nebraska: “[T]he issues stemming from racism can seem like foreign concepts, confined to the larger cities (or the American South) and relics of a distant past.”2 The column goes on to show that these issues were not confined to large cities or to the South; they rested on our back door in Nebraska. Yet, one often heard back as far as one could remember that Nebraska is not and …

Faye Calhoun, Faye J. Calhoun M.S., Ph.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

A History Of African Americans In Nebraska, Preston Love Jr., Adam Fletcher Sasse, Le Clara Gilreath, Portia Love, Heather Fryer

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Black people have been present in Nebraska from its earliest days as a U.S. territory. The first U.S. Census of Nebraska, conducted in 1860, counted eighty-one Black people who, together, formed .28 percent of the young territory’s 28,841 residents. That number grew to 3,443 Black residents in 1900, representing 3.5 percent of the 102,555 residents of the state of Nebraska. The number and location of Black Nebraskans varied greatly through the twentieth century, comprising 13.7 percent of the state’s population in 1940 and 11.8 percent in 2020. Although African Americans have been relatively small in numbers, the historical record reflects …

Black Somatic Liberatory Practices: The Africanist Aesthetic In Psychotherapeutic Movement Observation, Ebony Nichols

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

This critical ethnographic qualitative study explored Black body-based healing practices and coping strategies used to resist and titrate the impact of racism and oppression. It also examined how Black individuals use their bodies to regulate their nervous systems to heal and cultivate liberatory practices. Grounded in theoretical frameworks such as Black Psychology, African Indigenous Healing Systems, Liberation Psychology, and Critical Race Theory, this research investigated the intersections of Black Aesthetics, Psychology, and the body through the lens of the Africanist Aesthetic. The study employed interaction analysis and reflexive thematic analysis to analyze non-verbal and verbal data collected from two focus …