<p> Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established with the main objective of identifying and empowering people of African descent. Over the years, these institutions have grown, enrolling 16% of Black high school graduates and during graduation, almost 20% of African-American graduates. Using a qualitative study design, the main goal of this study was to identify the effectiveness of HBCUs&rsquo; ability to serve the interests and needs of African-American students who chose to attend and graduate from HBCUs as undergraduate students then attend and graduate from graduate schools at predominantly White institutions (PWIs.) This study inquired about focusing on the factors influencing how undergraduate students make decisions on which college to attend, what factors influence their career selection, and the impact the university experience has on future careers and overall college experience. Data was gathered from African-American HBCU graduates who then attended and graduated from PWIs in California. Interviews and online surveys were conducted with participants to collect in-depth responses regarding their experiences, views, beliefs, and motivations. The sample comprised 100 respondents out of an original 200 who were selected. The study showed that many participants attended their chosen colleges because they preferred to associate with people who shared origins like their own. Family and friends were found to be influential in college selection and educational background influenced the types of careers study participants pursued after graduation from college. Implications for future research are discussed.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative inquiry of the experiences of six African American women high school principals, current and recently exited from east coast secondary schools, employs in-depth interviews and a focus group. Through interviews I explored these secondary school leaders&rsquo; personal and professional experiences to reveal their perspectives on the ways identity informs their ability to influence others, shape professional relationships, and enact leadership in their secondary schools. Identity was also an important influence on their ability to strategically navigate power relations within and beyond their school contexts. The experiences and perspectives of African American women school leaders in secondary settings have been under-represented in the educational leadership scholarship; this study seeks to contribute to an emergent body of literature in this area. As national demographics change and more school leadership vacancies emerge, African American women leaders represent a viable candidate pool. The experiences of current African American women school leaders are valuable perspectives for leader preparation programs. This study seeks to enrich and extend educational leadership discourse and leader preparation programs, which have not fully recognized this talent pool. The findings from this study point toward ways that can be used to shape leader preparation programs and leadership recruitment efforts. Finally, this study aims to generate and share information which may support the successful navigation of this growing population of leaders within metropolitan settings, as urban school leadership changes and new positions emerge.</p><p>

<p> During the protests over the killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, #BlackLivesMatter activists like Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Johnetta Elzie, and DeRay McKesson used an African American rhetoric of design to transform Twitter into a platform for social protest. The transformative digital rhetoric of these activists, and activists in other movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street has increasingly become the focus of scholars in critical race studies, English studies, communication, and many other fields, but the emerging field of digital rhetoric&mdash;introduced by Elizabeth Losh, Douglas Eyman, Crystal VanKooten, and others&mdash;lacks frameworks necessary for engaging with these activists&rsquo; rhetoric in relation to its complex contexts. This project proposes a conceptual framework&mdash;what I call a <i>woke rhetorical ecology</i>&mdash;that provides the methodological sensitivity necessary to analyze the transformational rhetoric of activists like those in the #BlackLivesMatter movement.</p><p>

<p> The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported workforce disparities in the representation of minority ethnic groups in leadership positions for more than 5 decades. In 2011, Executive Order 13583 initiated the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, directing federal agencies to recruit a diverse workforce, cultivate inclusion across occupations, and develop strategies to enable leading a diverse workforce. This plan is important considering other research studies show various approaches to understanding leadership behaviors; however, empirical studies have yet to explore if there is a relationship between ethnic identity and leadership style to inform diversity and inclusion efforts. The purpose of this nonexperimental, cross-sectional, correlational study was to examine the relationship between leadership style and ethnic identity through the nigrescence model pertaining to Black identity theory. The research questions in this study explored predictive relationships between leadership style and ethnic identity in the context of gender and age. Study participants were 185 African American leaders randomly selected from 9 organizations in the federal government, historically Black colleges and universities, and private companies. Data were collected through the Cross Racial Identity Scale, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, and demographic surveys. Results of multiple regression analyses and multivariate analyses revealed significant predictive relationships amongst leadership style (transformational, transactional), ethnic identity, gender, and age (Millennial, Generation X, Baby Boomers). The increased understanding that diverse leadership styles exist across ethnic groups, gender, and generation could help to improve leader-follower relationships and promote positive social change that enables diversity and inclusion in the workplace.</p><p>

<p> This Master&rsquo;s thesis looks at the solidarities of black radicals in the mid-20^th century and traces how they evolved in contact with the Cuban Revolution. I argue that the Cuban Revolution refracted and altered existing threads of black radical solidarity by acting as a discursive site for theorizing and debating the tactics and ideology of black freedom. This resulted in the strengthening of black American Third World identity, the proliferation of a colonial understanding of the black condition, and the development of competing forms of black nationalism. This thesis positions the Cuban Revolution as a definitive moment in black radical intellectual history which did not necessarily originate any of the major threads of black radical solidarity, but which had a profound impact on the ways that the animating ideas of mid-20^th century black radicalism were theorized and expressed from the 1960s through the 1970s and beyond.</p><p>

<p> This study advances the premise that African-American parents are deliberately involved in their children&rsquo;s education; however, many educators may not recognize their involvement because it may not always align with dominant cultural expectations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore beneficial social capital and cultural capital that low-income African-American parents use to involve themselves in their children&rsquo;s suburban school education. Data was collected for this study, in a suburb outside of a large metropolitan city, through the use of a World Caf&eacute; (a type of community discussion group) and semi-structured interviews. Using portraiture research design, the findings of the study are highlighted through six participant portraits, which narrate their involvement in their children&rsquo;s education. </p><p> In summary, all of the participants utilized both social and cultural capital to become involved in their children&rsquo;s education. Generally, each interview participant&rsquo;s family cultural capital motivated her to participate in her child&rsquo;s education, in a manner unique to her own educational experiences. In addition to understanding and utilizing valuable dominant forms of cultural capital (attending parent-teacher conferences, volunteering, and communicating with the teachers, working with children at home, and having educational expectations), participants in this study also referenced the use of culture-specific forms of capital, such as: family cultural capital, family networks and church, teaching cultural knowledge, community collective beliefs, and African-American networks. Additionally, participants used the following forms of social capital to benefit their children&rsquo;s education: relocating, hiding poverty, utilizing community service resources, and using intergenerational closure. </p><p> Suggestions are made for educators to recognize and honor these non-dominant social and cultural forms of parental involvement, so that low-income African-American parental involvement can benefit their children&rsquo;s education. Participants called for more supportive social and cultural African-American parent networks to be created within schools, to help parents feel more welcome and supported in the schools, and become more knowledgeable about the schooling process. </p><p>

<p> College degree attainment for Black Americans has significantly fallen their majority counterparts. While educational attainment for this minority demographic has been less than average, a secondary trend emerges. Despite the rises in graduation rates, Black males consistently earn a smaller percentage of the degrees garnered by Black students. Furthermore, policies throughout sectors of American society produce segregation that manifests as genocidal realities in the lives of Black men&mdash;including college graduation. Thus, the purpose of this research was to determine the effect of neighborhood segregation on Black men and women&rsquo;s 4 and 6-year graduation probability and determine if Black men reduce the gap when given 6 years to graduate. The theoretical framework of African American Male Theory guided this study. Utilizing the Princeton Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF), the research utilized binary logistic regression to analyze the effect of 3 independent variables (household income, maternal education level, and neighborhood segregation) on dependent variables (4-year graduation and 6-year graduation). </p><p> A purposeful sample 1051 Black students (368 men and 683 women) from the NLSF were used in the analysis. The majority of study participants (55%) had a mother that had at least a bachelor&rsquo;s degree; 45% of the students came from neighborhoods that were majority Black (having at least 70% Black people in their neighborhood), and 15% came from poverty, 25% were low income, and 58% had incomes greater than low income. The logistic regression analysis found that for Black men, the odds of graduating and coming from a majority Black community are .506, and from a more diverse community, they are .661. For Black women, the odds of graduating in 4 years when growing up in a majority Black neighborhood were .937 and 1.6369 when growing up in a more diverse area. </p><p> The study determined racial segregation more adversely impacts Black men&rsquo;s ability to graduate with a bachelor&rsquo;s degree than it does for Black women. Even in desegregated (diverse) neighborhoods, Black men were unable to reduce the degree attainment gap given 4 or 6 years to graduate. The regression analyses yielded results that support the initial hypothesis that segregation is a significant predictor of bachelor degree attainment apart from academic preparation. Based on the indicators, predictors, and factors correlated with college degree attainment from the review of the literature, the results suggest that larger societal factors could potentially be significant predictors of college degree attainment outside of academic preparation. The findings argue for targeted interventions at the local, state, and federal levels to life course barriers imposed on Black males.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experiences and perspectives of 4 elementary school principals and 4 instructional leaders committed to social justice practices who have improved and sustained grade level performance in reading with Black students for the duration of 3 consecutive years.</p><p> Four research questions guided this study and included: What strategies are used by elementary principals and instructional leaders to advance equity, access, and opportunity, to improve core teaching and curriculum, address barriers faced, and develop resilience when leading the work of social justice? Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the intention of learning specific leadership strategies used to create, promote, and sustain equitable learning environments where Black students meet and exceed proficiency rates in reading.</p><p> Key findings suggest that leaders who accomplish and sustain high academic achievement at their schools hold high expectations for their students, immerse themselves in culturally responsive professional development trainings, seek community supports to enhance curricular programs, and invest in professional study and self-care practices to sustain themselves both professionally and personally. Recommendations for future policy demonstrate the need for principal preparation programs dedicated to addressing social justice leadership practices as a means to advocate equity, access, and opportunity for marginalized and oppressed students everywhere.</p><p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the creation of Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party in 1966. I argued that Huey P. Newton was a creation of several elements: the black ghetto of Oakland; the rise of Black Power and the death of non-violence in the civil rights movement; the New Left and its factions; and, the Black Panther Party through the "Free Huey" campaign. The "Free Huey" campaign that arose from Newton's imprisonment in 1968, constructed an iconic image of Newton that he inherited on his release in 1970. This study will contextualize Newton and refute the claims of Hugh Pearson, author of the 1994, The Shadow of the Panther, who deemed Newton as a common criminal, not worthy of historical debate.

<p>Encumbered Existence is a three-movement programmatic work for jazz orchestra that uses specific events in African-American history to capture the struggle of African- Americans and emotions provoked by these events. The first movement, ?The State of the World,? and last movement, ?Between the World and Me,? capture painful events such as the shooting of Trayvon Martin. ?Between the World and Me? uses the dates of Martin?s birth and death as set classes to guide the piece. The second movement, ?The Dream,? portrays a hopeful attitude and is inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the ?I Have a Dream? speech. Encumbered Existence is 314 measure long. Prior to the score, an analysis of the piece provides an outline of the overall structure of the work as well as illustrations of the musical quotations used throughout the piece. The compositional decisions made during the creative process are explained by highlighting individual musical moments in the piece and then examining their correlation to the work. All inspirational material is also discussed.