The purpose of this research is to examine the life of a courageous woman who pioneered in the development of social organizations for the elevation and betterment of the Black community in the early twentieth century in Atlanta. The research will show how Mrs. John Hope, a black woman, struggled against a hostile and racist society in an effort to help build a respectable and healthy black community in the city of Atlanta. This research was executed by the careful examination of primary sources, such as speeches, letters, newspapers, minutes and Mrs. Hope's memoranda presently found in the Neighborhood Union Collection located in the Atlanta University Trevor Arnett Library Archives. Oral history, a new innovation in the field, is also used in the effort to present a biographical profile of this outstanding pioneer. The historical method of analyzing, categorizing, collecting, and communicating evidence and and documents are used in the presentation of this information. It is the researcher's intention to show that Mrs. John Hope was instrumental in pioneering in the idea of self-help and community building in Black Atlanta. The research also examines the activities of Mrs. Hope as a prototype of the black woman's role in the struggle for black survival and dignity.

This study assesses the levels of diversity in the jury source lists in the State of Georgia utilizing voter registration data as of February 1997, and the effects of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) on diversity levels. The data indicates that, while the NVRA has increased registration rates, the rates for blacks has been only slightly higher than that of whites. Thus, the problems of diversity have not been significantly effected by the NVRA.This paper discusses the issue of cognizable class, and reiterates arguments supporting the recognition of young persons and non-voters as cognizable. Also assessed are the methods of measuring source list disparity, with attention given to problems associated with the absolute disparity test, and argues for the use of the Chi-Square "Goodness of Fit" test to measure source list disparity.Current levels of disparity are calculated using both absolute disparity and ChiSquare. These are found in the appendix. Analysis is done by assessing the percentage of source lists (for which there is data) that should be presumed invalid using the five percent criterion for absolute disparity and the fifty percent criterion for Chi-Square.Analysis using both absolute disparity and Chi-Square indicates that many source lists in the State of Georgia are not representative of the population. While absolute disparity invalidates only few source lists, the Chi-Square statistic indicates that the problem is much more widespread.Both absolute disparity and Chi-Square results indicate that age is the most important variable with regard to under-representation. Young persons (18-29) are found to be under-represented more often than any other group regardless of race and/or sex. This is particularly evident when looking at the Chi-square results. While blacks are generally found to be under-represented more often when compared to similar sex and age aggregates for whites, the levels of under-representation of race and sex aggregates remain closely related to age. / Department of Political Science

On March 14, 1975, twenty-eight year old Portland Police Officer Kenneth Sanford shot and killed seventeen-year-old Rickie Charles Johnson in the back of the head during a sting operation. Incredulously, Johnson was the fourth person of color to be shot and killed by Portland police within a five-month period. Due to his age and surrounding circumstances, Johnson's death by Sanford elicited extreme reactions from varied communities of Portland. Unlike previous deaths of people of color by the police in Portland, Johnson's death received widespread attention from mainstream media outlets. In response, some white citizens decried Johnson's death as unjustified police brutality. Still, several white citizens defended the Portland Police Bureau and their actions. Members of Portland's African American community, however, firmly believed that Johnson's death was just another instance in the PPB's long history of police brutality within Portland's black neighborhoods. Johnson's death motivated young black activists in Portland, Oregon to form the advocacy group the Black Justice Committee (BJC). The BJC, along with several pre-established advocacy groups in Portland, demanded that the city host its first public inquest to investigate Johnson's death. A public inquest is a public "trial" that usually occurs after a sudden or unexpected death. Black citizens felt this public inquest would hold the city accountable for repeated mistreatment of the city's communities of color; whereas, the nearly all white city government believed a public inquest would quell racial unrest within Portland. Mayor Neil Goldschmidt and District Attorney Harl Haas agreed to host the inquest, at which assistant District Attorney John Moore questioned Officer Sanford's motivations and actions. Despite the advocacy efforts before the public inquest, the jury voted 4-1 for Sanford's innocence. The only black jury member casted the sole vote against Sanford's innocence. Heralded for its progressivity, the city of Portland, Oregon is contemporarily viewed as a liberal mecca where all are welcome to speak their truth and "Keep Portland Weird." However, communities of color have experienced widespread repression, oppression and discrimination since the establishment of the city. Whereas some may see Portland as a city that cherishes individuality, Portland's black community has been robbed of autonomy for generations. Police surveillance, harassment and brutality have plagued Portland's black community for years and continues to be a contentious issue within the city. This project focuses on the history of Portland's black community, the history of the Portland Police Bureau, and the relationship between the two. Starting with World War II and ending with Officer Sanford's public inquest in April 1975, this thesis showcases the unassailability of Portland's black activist community and the city's continued denial of culpability for police actions. Despite the inquest's results, Johnson's death and the advocacy surrounding the incident fueled the motivations of activists at both the national and state level, and encouraged the city to acknowledge the wrongdoings of the Bureau.

On the eve of World War II, the American Red Cross (ARC) excluded African-American blood donors. The instructions from the Army and the Navy implied that the armed forces did not want the allegedly "inferior" blood of Blacks in the veins of "superior" White soldiers. The ARC's exclusionary policy, as mandated by defense officials in the War Department, continued the tradition of relegating African-Americans to second-class citizenship.Black newspaper editors and individual protest leaders on the national and local levels pressured the armed forces to change its blood donor policy. On January 29, 1942, the ARC started to accept blood donations from Blacks but followed a national policy of segregation. The ARC labeled and stored African-American blood donations apart from those of Whites and maintained Jim Crow blood banks throughout the war even though medical experts found no factual basis to differentiate blood by race.This paper examines how Black newspapers and individuals such as Asa Philip Randolph, Walter Francis White, William Henry Hastie, Mabel Keaton Staupers, and the Black community of Indianapolis responded to the ARC's initial policy of exclusion and then segregating AfricanAmerican blood donations. The paper attempts to modify the popular interpretation that the war constituted a watershed for African-Americans. My research indicates that while many Black leaders and protest organizations on the national and local levels challenged the ARC's blood donor policies, African-Americans did not win a fundamental change in military policy. Thus, while the fight against blood donor discrimination was a manifestation of the wartime "Double V" campaign it also represented its limitations.The paper draws on secondary sources, African-American newspapers, and the manuscript collections of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, Claude A. Barnett, William Henry Hastie, Asa Philip Randolph, and the Indianapolis Area Chapter of the ARC as well as the papers of African-American physicians in Indianapolis, Walter H. Maddux and Harvey N. Middleton of the Flanner House and the Morgan Health Center. / Department of History

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-199).

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Marilyn J. Young, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 27, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 113 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

The conflict perspective of criminology and societal reaction to crime suggests that the administration of criminal justice is determined and controlled by those segments of society which are relatively powerful. Based on this perspective, it is reasonable to expect that relatively powerful groups or categories will be far less subject to severe criminal sanctions than will those who are relatively powerless. This proposition may be tested at points in the criminal justice system where decisions are made relative to the application of criminal sanction. The findings are that the relationship between race of offender and sentence length considered both with and without selected control variables is a uniformly weak relationship. In certain categories of control variables the relationship between race of offender and sentence length does strengthen slightly, but in no case are the relationships sufficiently strong to be significant at the .05 level. Partial correlation coefficients show the relationship between race of offender and sentence length to be little affected by the control variables. Therefore, the relationship between race of offender and sentence length is in all cases considered, and by every form of analysis, quite weak. Proportional reduction in error in virtually every case considered in this study is less than 1 percent.

This thesis includes two background chapters based largely on secondary works; Chapters I and II trace the historiography of black participation in American military engagements from the American Revolution through the Korean conflict. Chapter III, based largely on primary sources, places emphasis on black resistance and attitudes toward the Vietnam crisis. Evidence indicates that the Vietnam era of black protest was not unique but was an evolutionary process that had its roots in other periods in American history. Some blacks questioned their involvement in each American military conflict from the American Revolution to Vietnam.

I began this project with the question of how today's social justice activists might find a useable history in a massively influential text like Eyes on the Prize. Thus, the broad question that motivated this rhetorical inquiry was: what means are available to people interested in social change, but whose access to the resources to influence society is limited? One important resource that oppressed peoples can lay claim to is a shared sense of the past. Through a critical analysis of Eyes on the Prize, this dissertation examines shared memory as a resource for rhetorical production. I am interested not only in how the past is re-presented in the documentary, but also what resources the documentary provides its audience to consider and take action for social change. The films present memories that complicate or run counter to the dominant narrative of the black freedom struggle and thereby make available a reservoir of rhetoric power for a political present. My analysis suggests that Eyes on the Prize does not contradict public memory's dominant values of the black freedom struggle, but it does resist their blind adherence. The documentary does not force viewers to take sides on divisive issues like separation/integration or violence/nonviolence. Instead it allows them to realize that these concepts are dialectical. These are, in my estimation, productive tensions. Eyes on the Prize is an excellent pedagogical tool for producing citizen activists. Although activism gives way to electoralism by the end of the documentary, activism is portrayed positively in the documentary. There are certainly costs to activism, as some activists experienced in the most extreme way. However, the heroes of Eyes on the Prize are certainly the activists. In an analysis of a text's rhetorical potential, it is also necessary to acknowledge how the text limits rhetorical possibility. Significantly, Eyes on the Prize inadequately addresses the importance of class in the black freedom struggle. The lacuna of class in the documentary neglects fundamental changes in the goals and tactics of the black freedom struggle and limits the material and psychological structures that maintain racism. / text