<p> African American women leaders (AAWLs) experience obstacles and barriers in their quest to ascend to the highest leadership levels in U.S.-based organizations. These obstacles include intersectional oppression in the form of gendered racism, outsider status, invisibility, tokenism, stereotypes, and subordination. In the face of these challenges, AAWLs have ascended to the highest levels of leadership in U.S. workplaces. Many studies on AAWLs explore the coping mechanisms and relational strategies employed to enter, execute, and succeed in workplace leadership roles. This study explored their emotional intelligence; the non-cognitive traits, skills, and abilities that enable AAWLs to create success in their lives. This study enables comprehension of the emotional mechanisms African American women (AAW) use to lead in the face of obstacles to their ascension to high-level leadership roles. </p><p> Forty-two AAWLs, who have held leadership positions for a minimum of 3 years at the director level or three levels from the top of an organization, participated in this mixed-methods study. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) was administered to these leaders to assess their emotional-social functioning. Bar-On's (1997) model of emotional-social intelligence served as the basis for this 133-item, self-report inventory. To complement this quantitative assessment and to insert a Black feminist approach to the research, AAWLs participated in teleconference-styled focus groups in which they revealed their self-defined perceptions about their emotional intelligence and the ways those emotional-social traits, skills, and abilities create success in their leadership experience. </p><p> Emotional-social functioning of the African American women leaders (AAWLs) in the study was atypically advanced. Assessment results revealed assertiveness and independence as strengths. These leaders perceived themselves to be successful, but identified interpersonal relationship-building as an opportunity for growth. This exploration of the emotional intelligence of AAWLs expands our understanding of the non-cognitive abilities, skills, and traits employed by these leaders in their efforts to navigate complex organizational dynamics and to fulfill high- level leadership roles. </p><p> Keywords: African American women, emotional intelligence, leadership</p>

<p> The word "crisis" has been used to describe the impact of the current educational system (K-12) upon the lives of African American males. Black males are the group most likely to be negatively stereotyped, the most likely to drop out of K-12, the most likely to be harshly punished, and the most likely to be labeled as a trouble maker. "Social and incarceration problems of young dropouts are quite severe among all gender and race-ethnic groups but are frequently more severe among men and Blacks" (Sum, Khatiwada, Mclaughlin, &amp; Palma 2009, para.16). It is up to community colleges to help remedy this crisis and to educate a host of unprepared Black men.</p><p> The purpose of this qualitative study is to look at what community college leadership is doing to retain and graduate African American men. The research is primarily focused on the success or failures of Black male initiatives (BMI's) and whether or not they have been proven successful in assisting black males to succeed. Questionnaires were sent to directors of Black male initiatives to complete. In addition, document research on African American male initiatives was reviewed. Finally, the data was analyzed to address the research questions. </p><p> Researched showed that Black BMI's help to retain and graduate African Americans at higher rates than African American men not in the program.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> crisis, initiatives, leadership, community college retention, Black males.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-02, Section: B, page: . Adviser: Margaret Wallhagen.

<p> The leadership styles and behaviors of African American women executives across multiple economic sectors were studied using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach. Senior leaders from six of the following sectors Academia, Business, Government, Law, Military, and Nonprofit were surveyed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to quantitatively assess their leadership styles and behaviors. A subset of survey respondents from each sector were interviewed one-on-one to provide contextual details regarding their MLQ results, and to elicit additional perspectives on leadership styles in general and the development of their individual style in particular. </p><p> The preponderance of the relatively limited published studies on the leadership attributes of African American women have involved one or more of the following design methodologies: (a) use of qualitative methods, (b) focus on a single sector of the economy, (c) inclusion of a range of leadership positions from middle to senior management within their sample size, and (d) exploration of the obstacles and barriers encountered by the women during their journey to leadership. </p><p> The purpose of the present research augmented the scope and results of the previous work. MLQ data from a numerically significant sample of executives, coupled with the interview narratives, potentially provided the necessary quantitative and qualitative underpinnings to support and/or reshape findings from the past studies. Expanding the scope to include leaders from different sectors furnished insight into potential sector-specific influences on leadership styles; and tightening of the sampling process to include only senior-level leaders in organizations reduced experimental variability and insured a pool of participants with extensive leadership experience. The obstacles and barriers facing African American women leaders received the most attention in prior studies and therefore is not a key focus of this work. However, salient information gleaned from interviews concerning their impact on leadership styles have been reported.</p><p> It is expected that the data and information from this study has yielded a more comprehensive evaluation of the leadership styles and behaviors of these African American women executives in particular, and potentially enabled meaningful comparisons with previously published findings on such leadership characteristics in general.</p>

<p> From slavery to modern times, African American males have faced a wide range of obstacles growing up in America. This study used resiliency and self-determination theories as the lenses to understand the experiences of 21 academically successful African American males. Their stories were examined to better understand their experiences. Interview data were analyzed to extract subject matter from each interview to develop codes and themes within the participants&rsquo; experiences. Demographic questionnaires are used to enhance and supplement the individual experiences of each participant. </p><p> This qualitative study highlighted the fundamental reasons why a small group of African American male high school juniors and seniors in the selected high school have succeeded academically. Through interviews, and field notes, I uncovered factors related to home and school environmental factors, academic and surrounding community factors, factors of self-motivation from participants, and the role of sports and extracurricular activities, which contributed to the success of these African American males. </p><p> The qualitative methods used in the study gave voice to the students and made their individual experiences clear. The findings indicated that parent and teachers&rsquo; high expectations and positive relationships, loyal peers who also served as accountability partners and a strong relationship with their parents; especially their mothers contributed to their academic success. An in-depth examination of the study findings could lead school personnel to actively participate in critical conversations about issues related to African American male achievement. The context centering on the mutual themes present in the lives of the 21 participants of this study may lead to significant school-based, school district, local and national school reform and increased achievement for all students; particularly African American males.</p>

abstract: This thesis looks at the 1842 Supreme Court ruling of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the events leading up to this case, and the subsequent legislative fallout from the decision. The Supreme Court rendered this ruling in an effort to clear up confusion regarding the conflict between state and federal law with regard to fugitive slave recovery. Instead, the ambiguities contained within the ruling further complicated the issue of fugitive slave recovery. This complication commenced when certain state legislatures exploited an inadvertent loophole contained in the ruling. Thus, instead of mollifying sectional tension by generating a clear and concise process of fugitive slave recovery, the Supreme Court exacerbated sectional tension. Through an analysis of newspapers, journals, laws and other contemporary sources, this thesis demonstrates that Prigg v. Pennsylvania and the subsequent legislative reactions garnered much attention. Through a review of secondary literature covering this period, a lack of demonstrable coverage of this court case emerges, which shows that scant coverage has been paid to this important episode in antebellum America. Additionally, the lack of attention paid to this court case ignores a critical episode of rising sectional tension during the 1840s. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2010

<p> Clergy leadership is identified as an immensely challenging vocation. This study proposes that challenges African American clergywomen face are exacerbated due to the combination of their ethnicity and gender. Forces such as patriarchy and gender discrimination are explicated in this study and identified as major sources of oppression for African American women in clergy leadership. This study provides historical background by exploring gender arrangements both on the African continent and in the United States, to allow the reader to understand frustrations that African American clergywomen experience as they encounter myriad challenges to emerging and thriving in clergy leadership roles within the Black church setting. </p><p> Social science literature, leadership and management studies, Theological studies, and biblical accounts are provided to offer the researcher propositions, theories, philosophies, and frameworks that aid in providing perspective and understanding of the research topic. The origin, prominence, and role of the historic African American church is also discussed extensively in the study. The African American church has been instrumental in advancing the liberation of African Americans at large, but is also directly complicit in the challenges African American clergywomen experience. As such, this study seeks to identify leadership strategies and practices employed by African American clergywomen to overcome the myriad challenges in their leadership roles. Furthermore, this study highlights how African American women in clergy leadership measure their success. The study also spotlights recommendations and lessons African American clergywomen offer to others in similar leadership positions.</p><p>

<p> This basic qualitative study addressed one research question: <i> How do African American male leaders in predominantly white K-12 independent schools describe their strategies for navigating social identity?</i> The study utilized the semistructured interview format (Merriam &amp; Tisdell, 2016). The criterion-based sample (Merriam &amp; Tisdell, 2016) included 16 participants who identified as African American men who were in their second year or more of a role that reported directly to a white head of school in a predominantly white K-12 independent school. </p><p> The study was grounded in the social identity theory of leadership, which &ldquo;asserts that leadership is a recursive, multi-dimensional process that centers on leaders&rsquo; capacities to represent, advance, create, and embed a shared sense of social identity for group members&rdquo; (Steffens, Haslam, Reicher, Platow, et al., 2014, p. 1002). The research question aimed to understand how nonprototypicality (Hogg, 2001) affects the experience of leadership for African American men in predominantly white work environments and the strategies they use to navigate those experiences. The study also had foundations in Wingfield&rsquo;s (2007) concept of gendered racism, which acknowledges that the experience of racism is different for African American men and African American women because of the intersection of race and gender. </p><p> Key findings from the study included identity entrepreneurship (Steffens et al., 2013; Hogg, 2016) and assimilation (Hornsey &amp; Hogg, 2000) as less utilized strategies for African American men leading in predominantly white K-12 independent schools. The key strategy used by the leaders was the cultivation of allies and mentors. The study also found that the leaders exhibited a sense of pride in being nonprototypical leaders as well as having feelings of anger, frustration, and isolation that align with other experiences of African American men in the workplace (Chavez &amp; Wingfield, 2018). Participants discussed the role of direct reports, colleagues, and their own supervisors in helping them navigate nonprototypicality&mdash;mainly the need for their colleagues to invest in their own diversity education. Implications of the findings are discussed for the social identity theory of leadership and for the concepts of intersectionality (Collins, 2015) and gendered racism (Wingfield, 2007). </p><p>

<p> A Paut Neteru Journey: An Autoethnographic Study of a Black Female Charter School Leader Using an Africentric Approach by Patricia Linn Williams This dissertation seeks to examine the obstacles and experiences of a Black female charter school leader using an Africentric approach to educating Black children, and ways in which social and material inequalities may have shaped her journey. A conceptual framework that blends African-centered pedagogy, African womanism, and transformational leadership is used to guide this qualitative autoethnographic study. Use of the autoethnographic method provides an opportunity to examine the relational dynamics of the experiences of this Black female charter school leader in the cultural context of the Black community and neoliberal education. Data analysis is captured from autobiographical storytelling within three key time periods or epochs of her 17-year experience starting, operating, and closing a charter school. Data analysis includes coding based on themes that emerged from the data collection process. Findings indicate how attempts to implement an African-centered approach to educating Black children in a DC charter school in the U.S. Eurocentric education model in the neoliberal era was compromised by neoliberal policies, particularly high-stakes testing, a history of separate and unequal education, the lack of support for African-centered education, and the lack of access to facilities. These findings also support the need to continue to examine how non-European children can be educated, not just schooled, in a manner that places them at the center of their learning, builds agency, and develops them into creative and critical thinkers and future builders.</p><p>

<p> The correlational study focused on the relationship between academic achievement and mattering theory of African American undergraduate men attending private historically black colleges or universities. The 45 question <i> Mattering Scales Questionnaire for College Students</i> (Kettle, 2001) instrument was administered to (N = 75) undergraduate African American men attending a private historically black college in the southeastern United States. The results indicated a positive relationship between interactions with the administration and academic achievement. The findings also suggested undergraduate African American men attending historically black college or universities expressed unfavorable or neutral perceptions of mattering toward historically black colleges or universities.</p><p>