African American Studies Commons^™

A Journey To A Black Woman’S (Read Black Girl’S) Joy And Her Story Of Coming Home, Brittany Lauren Brock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an auto/ethnography about the self-actualizing journey of reclaiming storytelling as my native tongue and my journey to joy. Throughout, using my story and the stories of so many others, I not only lay out the wounds (the pain, the loss, then the hope that comes) within the academy and outside in the world but I also use storytelling as a tool of healing—my tool of healing—to show how I wrote myself free.

When Black women (read Black girls) go through The Reckoning (the moment we realize something isn’t right with how we are perceived by others) …

Beyond Bars And Bias: Unveiling Misogynoir And The Prison-Industrial Complex In Contemporary Black Women’S Literature, Abigail Myers, Abigail Myers

Honors Theses

This interdisciplinary thesis examines misogynoir through the lens of contemporary Black women’s literature and the prison-industrial complex, specifically centering on the literary work of Fannie Lou Hamer and Assata Shakur, both formerly incarcerated Black women. Misogynoir, a term coined by Black feminist scholar Moya Bailey, encapsulates the intersection of anti-Black racism and misogyny experienced by Black women, Black girls, and gender nonconforming people. This thesis unites the fields of literary studies, gender studies, critical prison studies, and African American studies to reveal Black women as affected by both misogyny and anti-Black racism in the contemporary prison-industrial complex and beyond. Drawing …

Sinning As Empowerment: Reclaiming God As A Black, Queer Woman In Alice Walker’S The Color Purple, Bethany Abrams

Audre Lorde Prize

In this paper, the author embarks on the task of re-imagining the seven sins of Christianity in the context of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, specifically in relation to the character Shug Avery.

Centers Of Community: A Spatial Analysis Of The Mid-19th Century Populaton Residing On Beacon Hill, Boston, Ma, Justin Malcolm

Graduate Masters Theses

The first Black church constructed in Boston, and the oldest extant Black church building in America, the African Meeting House was located on the North Slope of Beacon Hill; the predominant residence of Boston’s Black population during the nineteenth century. The African Meeting House has been the subject of several important archaeological investigations. In 1840, a schism within the African Meeting House congregation resulted in the establishment of the Twelfth Baptist Church. Historical contexts suggest that this neighborhood was highly segregated. A geographic and statistical analysis of the unique 1850 Boston City Census, which was made to yield spatial contexts …

Black And Silver Screens: Afropessimism And Filmic Appropriation In Contemporary Video Art, Madeleine A. Seidel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at the video works of artists Ulysses Jenkins, Ina Archer, and Garrett Bradley and their appropriation of images of Black actors in Classic Hollywood films through the theoretical framework of afropessimism.

Tilting Toward Freedom: African American Ring Tournaments In A Postbellum South, Lauren S. Hanson, Carmen Harris

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

The ring tournament is an American version of the medieval jousting tradition that had been reserved for the white wealthy planter elite in America for generations. After the Civil War it became an African American cultural practice, whose history has been all but lost to time. Immediately following emancipation, ex-slaves across the South began hosting and participating in ring tournaments through which they asserted their agency while harnessing the sport’s ability to empower the riders and their communities. The tournaments also influenced local politics and challenged power structures. In essence, the black tournaments became a symbol of freedom. The figure …

'Odd Secrets Of The Line': Emily Dickinson And The Uses Of Folk, Wendy Tronrud

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emily Dickinson and her poetry have famously been used as a defining example of American lyric poetry. The traditional scholarly perspective maintains that the lyric poem and its speaker exist in isolation and at a remove from social and political contexts. Recent scholarship on American poetry of the long nineteenth century, however, has taken a more historical and cultural turn, reconsidering how poetic and vernacular forms and genres circulated both privately and publicly. “Odd Secrets of the Line”: Emily Dickinson and the Uses of Folk joins this conversation by theorizing how Dickinson’s poetry, written during the 1859-1865 period, registers the …

The Effect Of Gender And Racial Stereotypes And Education-Related Beliefs On The Academic And Social Identity Development Of Urban African American Girls, Wanda Marie Shealey

ETD Archive

This qualitative, ethnographic study explores various tensions and struggles around gender and racial stereotypes that three urban teenage African American girls encounter as they try to develop a sense of oneself as an individual and in relation to the world. The purpose of this study was to explore Black high school girls’ experiences in a predominately urban public school in the Midwest. This study is guided by the following research question: In what way do gender and racial bias contribute to the self-perception of African American adolescent girls? Interrogating the multiple standpoints that inform African American female identity and how …

The Sellout By Paul Beatty: “Unmitigated Blackness” In Obama's America, John E. Davies

ETD Archive

Visibility and invisibility are long-standing tropes in the African-American literary tradition. Frequently they are presented in satiric language. I argue that Paul Beatty's Mann Booker Award-winning novel The Sellout now holds an important role in this tradition. Specifically, The Sellout hearkens specifically to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and to Paul Beatty's earlier novel The White Boy Shuffle. Further, The Sellout exposes the ongoing presence and function of racism in an America that has elected its first African-American president, Barack Obama, and that now claims to be "post-racial," even as its spectral reproduction and commodification of blackness persist. By analyzing the …

The Enigmatic "Cross-Over" Leadership Life Of Dr. Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955), Greer Charlotte Stanford-Randle

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The dissertation is a deep study of an iconic 20^th century female, African American leader whose acclaim developed not only from her remarkable first generation post-Reconstruction Era beginnings, but also from her mid-century visibility among Negroes and some Whites as a principal spokesperson for her people. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune arose from the Nadir- the darkest period for Negroes after the Civil War and three subsequent US Constitutional Amendments. She led thousands of Negro women, despite social adversity, to organize around their own aspirations for improved social and material lives among America’s diverse citizens., i.e. “the melting pot.” The …

Primitive At The Plantation's Edge, Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

There comes a time when the only thing that one can do is admit defeat. Standing at the tail end of a Black Studies movement established as part of the articulation of anti-segregationist, anti-colonialist African and African American political and cultural insurgencies, one is made painfully aware of a sort of necessary and inevitable social and professional marginalization structuring the everyday existence of the so-called black scholar. The broadly imagined ethical outlines of even the most valued projects of black intellectualism continue as ornamental, overly moralistic, never quite fully valid aspects of the industry / government / education complex that …

The Impact Of Colorism On Historically Black Fraternities And Sororities, Patience Denece Bryant

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study was conducted in order to examine and gain an insight on two topics that are considered to be highly under researched: American historically black fraternities and sororities and colorism within the back American community. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact that colorism has had on black American collegiate Greek letter organizations. Using the qualitative phenomenological approach, 18 graduate or alumni members, two from each of the nine historically black Greek letter organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellanic Council were interviewed using open ended questions to see what impact (if any) colorism has …

Wilkes, Quinton, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

One of the pioneering members of the African American Studies department at Fordham University, Dr. Quinton Wilkes was born in 1941 and raised in High Point, North Carolina. Living with his grandparents in the South, Wilkes would travel north every summer to stay with his mother and other family members residing in the Bronx, giving him a knowledge of the university at which he would later go on to have such a formidable role.

Wilkes remembrances of traveling by train every year from High Point to New York City provide interesting insight into Jim Crow segregation in the South toward …

Boston Chronicle April 9, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: 'Stranger' Knifes Businesswomen; Churches Support NAACP; Ford Hall Forum; Belafonte Apperance To Aid Sitdowners Comes to Hub On April 21 [Harry Belafonte]; [Photo] Savagely Pulling a Negro Youth is a White South African; The Rambler Page 2: Youth Are Leading The Nation; The North Star; [Politcal Cartoon] Team! Team! Team!; The Facts [By William Garrison]; Music Notes [By William A. Rhodes] Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Around Boston [By Marilyn A. Carrington]; Real Estate Directory; Scottish Rite Masons in Fete; Women in Bowling [By Harriette Harkins]

Boston Chronicle April 2, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: World Cry- 'We Want Freedom' [African Negroes March on Capital]; Sit-ins Gain More Support; Students in Tenth Week of Protest; Appointed [Photo] LeRoy A. Messam appointed memeber of NSPA [National Society of Public Accountants] Page 2: Advertisement [First National Stores and Ed Sullivan] Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Ford Hall Forum; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Floodtide of Human Freedom; The Student Demonstrations [From the Star of Zion]; The Facts [By William Harrison]; On The Book Shelf [The Wall Beteen by Anne Braden] Page 5: Poetry Nook [A Song of Courange]; Music Notes [By …

Boston Chronicle March 26, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: MCAD Probes Bias Charge; 'I'd Throw 'em Out' Harry S Truman; Negro Adventists Seek Integration; Hub Collegians Rally To Help Expelled Students In South; June Miles Heads NU Sorority; Human Rights Meet Set For April 2 Page 2: [Photo] Lt. Col, Thomas Wright [left] recieves Certificate of Achievement from Col. Albert j. Hannon [right]; [photo] Poltical cartoon; Local Comments [By Maston A. Nelson; Around Boston Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Murder in South Africa; The Rambler; [Poltical Cartoon] 'We Jes Wanna Do A Li'L Prunin'; The Facts [By William …

Boston Chronicle March 19, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Don't Patronize Stores That Segregate Request NAACP, EPIC and CORE; Intergration Works; UL Will Present Philly Choir; Mrs. Mcree Named 'Women Of The Year'; Masons Fete Grand Master Recieve NAACP Plaque Page 2: [Photo] Mayor John F. Collins Declared The Month of March for Danny Thomas St. Jude Hospital Fund Appeal; Aeound Boston; Grocery Store Advertisement Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Music Notes [By William A. Rhodes]; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Good Pope John XXIII; The Rambler; [Poltical Cartoon]; The Facts [By William Harrison]; In Our Mail; Ford Hall Forum Page 5: Shaw …

Boston Chronicle March 12, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Taylor Appointed Demo Delegate [Balcom l. Taylor]; Rev. S. L. Laviscount UL Award Recipient; Hub Students Force Store To Close; Sit Down Chillun [Jim Crow Poem]; Rights Bill Sound Necessary Says Senator Saltonstall; Progress is Goal of Business Group Page 2: [Photo] Academy Graduates; Around Boston [By Marilyn A. Carrington]; Music Notes [By William A. Rhodes; Advertisement for Washer and Dryer Page 3: Church News- Events of The Week; About People; Carrington Subs For Gov. Furcolo; Various Funeral Home Service Advertisements Page 4: Our Glorious Dawn; The Prime Minister of Israel; In Our Mail; The Facts [By William …

Boston Chronicle February 6, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Citizens Pledge to Aid, Rebuild Freedom Houses [Suffered $100,000 loss]; Steele Gets Federal Housing Position; Sweet Daddy Was Clipped for 8G's?; John Expected to Set Another Record Tonite [High Jump Track]; NU News Honors Associate Editor Page 2: Classifieds Page 4: Militant Leadership Triumphs; Constructive Advice; Ghandi of Blesses Memory; The Facts [By William Garrison] Page 3: Church News- Events of The Week Advertisements: Various Funeral Home services Page 5: [Sports] Waithe Bouyer State Favorite [Track]; Sandra Facey, Cal Douglas to seek Skate Derby Honors; Around Boston [By Marilyn A. Carrington] Page 6: Business Directory; About People; On …

Boston Chronicle January 30, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Sweet Daddy Speaks at His Own Funeral; Aristo Club to Mark History Week Feb. 7 [Oberservance of Negro History Week]; Boston NAACP Aims For Bigger Year; Thomas To Jump Against Dumas [Track Meet]; The Rambler Page 2: Sammy Davis Tells Why He Became Jew; Watch For Cars; Bill to Help Aged [Introduced by Congressman Laurence Curtis]; Forms Ready For Confab Delegates; JLC Commends Organized Labor [Jewish Labor Committee] Page 3: Rev. Alfred Qualls Speaks; Church News- Events of The Week; Church Names Officers; Advertisements: Funeral Parlor Services Page 4: Billy Graham Weighed in the Balance [Religious Tour in …

Boston Chronicle January 23, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: John Did It![High Jump]; Muslim Leader [Minister Louis]; Liberian Researchist [Miss Violet Brewer]; Baptist Ministers Elect Officers; Caples Petitions To Strengthen Anti-Bias Board; Fights Jim Crow Housing; To Speak Sunday [Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt] Page 2: March Of Dimes Medical Researchers; Various Real Estate services; Rental and services advertised Page 3: Rev. Alfred Qualls Speaks; Poetry Nook [Memory Blank by S.P Perry Jr.]; Church News- Events Of The Week; Various Funeral Home services Page 4: Anti- Semitism Endangers All; Bad News from Mississippi [From New York Times, The Parker Case]; The Facts [By William Garrison]; On the Scene [ …

Boston Chronicle January 9, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Youth Kills Mom Who Wouldn't OK His Wedding Plans; Dr. Hoffman Named To Urban League Post; Victor C. Bynoe Appointed To Boston Housing Authority; 5000 Negro Families Denied Fire Insurance; About People Page 2: Smith, Ince In K.C '600' Duel: Thomas Ready; [Boxing]The Man Who Broke Jack Dempsey's Ribs [John Lester Johnson]; At Raynham Park[Dog racing]; Side Glances; Collins, Book On Nixon Is Best Seller; [Sports]Gates Isenberg Pace Terriers to 81-60 Over B.C; Williams Draws With Don Warner Page 3: Church News- Events Of The Week; Page 4: The City, The State, The Nation; The Round-Up; The Facts …

Boston Chronicle January 2, 1960, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Newly Elected Members Of The NAACP; Benefit Cabaret Dance For Fire Victim Family; About People; Emancipation Day At Peoples Baptist; California A.F.L - C.I.O Takes Strong Anti-Bias Stand; Governor Issues Proclamation For Carver Day; Lodge Flies to Africa Page 2: Placing Responsibility; The Round-up; Poetry Nook To Africa [By Georgia Douglas Johnson]; The Facts [By William Harrison]; On The Bookshelf [By Philip Mittering]; New Edition Of Jobs Out Look Handbook Page 3: Church News Of The Week; Bontemps [Arna] Named to Library Board Page 4: Around Boston [By Marilyn A. Carrington]; Music Notes [By William A. Rhodes]; News …

Boston Chronicle December 26, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Nigeria Leader Picks Cabinet [Photo Prime Minister Balewa; Labor Leaders Orge So. Africa Boycott; Althea Black [Tennis Star]; Randolph Calls For Labor's Aid To Negro Voters; President Forms Haitian Cabinet; [Photo] NAACP Life Member Harold Kravit Presented with Plaque; Drafter of Bay State FEPC Killed in Fire; The Round-up Page 2: About People; [Photo] Smiles of Dimes Sally Blair and Dr. E.C. Maxique President of National Medical Association; Side Glances; DE Has Deaf Ear To Negros Pleadings; [Poems] Christmas Is A Face; This Mother Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: …

Boston Chronicle December 19, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Race Factor in Boston Archbeacon's Defeat [Photo Ven. John W. Burgess Archdeacon of Boston]; What will Rocky Do to Hulan Jack?; Know Facts Before Buying Small Car; K's Grandchildren Sent Christmas Card [Photo Youngsters at Morgan Memorial Youth and Childrens Center] Page 2: Around Boston; Grocery Advertisement Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: The Racist As Governor- General; The Rambler; Labor Leads Olympic Anti-Bias Fight; [Political Cartoon] A Good Beginning; On The Bookshelf; The Facts Page 5: [Photo] Rifle Display; 100th NAACP Banch Becomes Life Member; Various Advertisements Page 6: …

Boston Chronicle December 12, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: [Photo] Christmas Gift Wrapping; Eastern Star Officers Visit Eureka Chapter; Dr. Martin Luthe King Coming To The Hub; Prince Hall Masons Elect New Officers; United College Fund Realizes $41,000; Carrignton Is Elected To Democratic Board Page 2: Beauty Hints; Says Harlem Schools Inferior; United Nations; Music Notes Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Mr. Truman And Hot House Liberals; The Rambler; [Cartoon] Men and Machines Battle of Production; Ford Hall Forum; On Your Dial; The Facts; Poetry Nook Page 5: On The Scene [Cartoon] Numbering Plan Areas With Codes; Side …

Boston Chronicle November 28, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: In Tragic Roxbury Fire, 3 Children Die in Sleep, Brave Actions Save Five; Support Intergration To Gain Full Rights; Africa Won't Go Red; Mass. Fights Bias; [Photo] Officers of the Premiers of New York, Staged overflow Cabaret-dance in Eliot Ballroom; NAACP Election Is Set for Dec. 16; Sugar Ray's Ready Page 2: Music Notes; [Photo] Evening Dress Page 4: The Facts; [Photo] Help Thorugh Your Church Helps More; The Rambler; Kennedy's Apology [Apoligized to Katie E. Whickman for being kicked out of an event because of her race]; Current Opinions [London Times Discuesses Negro Americans]; Ford Hall Forum …

Boston Chronicle November 21, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: [Photo] Members of Entertainment Committee of Boston Branch of NAACP; Atlanta U.President to Give Integration Report Sunday; I Will Never Give Up Says South's Most Patient Man [Virgil Hawkins; Ninth Negro Rookie Award; The Round Up Page 2: Benefit Society Marks; In Memoriam; Real Esyaye Directory Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Race Relations In Films; Current Opnion; [Political Cartoon] Make A Wish; The Rambler; The Facts Page 5: Music Notes; [Photo] Officers of Omega Signa Northwastern University Womens Society; About People Page 6: Women in Bowling; About Eartha; Malden …

Boston Chronicle November 14, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: Solomons Wins Seat On Cambridge Board; Bang-Up Civil Rights Battle Looms In Congressional Session; NAACP Hails Action Taken By Justice Dept; [Photo]; The Round-up Page 2: [1960 New March Of Dimes Poster Boy] Darrell Atkins 5; NU Editor Attends Press Conference; Urge Protection Against Flu; Real Estate Directory Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Serivices Page 4: The Pot and the Kettle; Current Opinion; The Rambler; United Nations; Ford Hall Forum; [Photo] Foreign & Sports Car Show; About People; Beauty Hints; On Your Dial Page 5: Music Notes; [Photo] Play 'Jolly's Progress' Stars …

Boston Chronicle November 7, 1959, The Boston Chronicle

Boston Chronicle Newspaper

Page 1: World Roundup; [Photo] Claudienne Gordon; Boston NAACP Meets Nov. 18; Marches Against Jim Crown in SC; Mayoralty Campaign Confuses 'Experts' Page 2: NAACP Dance To Be Staged At Elliot Hall; [Photo] Morgan Memorial Day Nursery children and Replica of United Nations Building; Miss Gordon Is Praised For Her Work In Africa; Tufts Prof. Series Speaker; Classified Ads; Real Estate Directory Page 3: Church News- Events of the Week; Various Funeral Home Services Page 4: Where Do We Go From Here?; The Rambler; Ford Hall Forum; Beauty Hints; The Facts Page 5: Around Boston; Poetry Nook; Music Notes; Sccuts …