Abstract not available.

This dissertation articulates the ways in which black (e)migration to the territorial frontier challenges the master frontier narratives as well as African American migration narratives, and to capture how black frontier settlers and settlements are represented in three contemporary novels. I explore through the lens of cultural geography the racialized landscapes of the real and symbolic American South and the real, symbolic and imaginary black territorial frontier. Borrowing perspectives from cultural and critical race studies, I aim to show the theoretical and practical significance of contemporary literary representations of an almost forgotten historical past. Chapter I traces the sites of history, memory and imagination in migration and frontier narratives of enslaved and newly freed black people in the Oklahoma Territory. Chapter II addresses an oppositional narrative of masculinity in frontier narratives depicted in Standing at the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson. Chapter III examines how the black frontier landscape can be created and recreated across three generations who endure racial threats, violence and the razing of Greenwood during the Tulsa Riot of 1921 in Magic City by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Chapter IV scrutinizes the construction of black frontier subjects and exclusive black communities in Paradise by Toni Morrison. My dissertation seeks to add to and expand the literary studies of migration and frontier narratives, taking into account two popular novels alongside a more academically recognized novel. The selected novels mobilize very different resources, but collectively offer insights into black frontier identities and settlements as sites of a past, present and future African American collective consciousness.

This dissertation undertakes a comparative analysis of the musical, written, and spoken production of Sun Ra and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti with respect to the larger African Atlantic intellectual environment, situating the two artists as both shapers of an Atlantic intellectual culture as well as artists who were, in turn, shaped by that culture. Through a reading of their creative work, the dissertation argues that, even given the obvious cultural, temporal, and temperamental differences between Sun Ra and Fela, both artists' orientations toward musical composition and performance share similar preoccupations with the recitation of cultural memory and the dialogic creation of historical narratives which is called Composing the African Atlantic. In the dissertation the concept Composing the African Atlantic is proposed as a means of describing an African diasporic version of musical composition which includes many of the so-called extramusical elements of text and performance—audience participation and dialogue being key—as constitutive elements of composition such that, in their absence, the music is not fully realized. Stated in the active present tense (Composing), identified as culturally rooted (African), and formed within a broad and discursively contested space (Atlantic), Composing the African Atlantic describes the means by which composers such as Sun Ra and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti conceive of performance as an essential part of composition, enabling the musicians and audience to craft the true Text of the music through the activation of communal memory and the dialogic contestation of history. The result, in the case of both artists, is the creation of a singular compositional and performative style which maintains its connection to its core audience through the use of ritualized concert performance, the challenging of historical myths, and the performance of historical narratives which refute the Hegelian contention that Africa is "no historical part of the world." In the process, both artists assert that there is a common African cultural memory which exists throughout the African diaspora as a result, fundamentally, of the Atlantic slave trade, but which is also a living, contemporary, cosmopolitan dialectic of representation and re-presentation.

Based on the research questions employed in this study, the Nigerian immigrant community first began with student sojourners and is currently more effective within the African-American context. This community would perhaps have been much slower in evolving but for the crisis of institutional instability back in the Nigerian homeland as well as the policies of two American presidents. The major features of the Nigerian immigrant community with varying degrees of influences in America are: the Nigerian offspring, the Nigerian church, the Nigerian community media, the Nigeria women association, the Nigerian attorneys and physicians. The Nigerian offspring represent a conciliatory generation to Black America, the Nigerian homeland, Euro-America, and the most favorable orbit of incorporating Nigerian indices into the American mosaic. Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta exhibit one of the strongest evidences of the Southern typology of Nigerian immigrants in the U.S. Within this same setting, the generational and socio-cultural experiences of Nigerians and African-Americans are closely related. Both in their American agenda as well as aspirations toward the homelands, Nigerians are replaying the generational schemes of Black America. Analyses of the relationships between the generations of forced migration and voluntary migration in the Nigerian-U.S. based community media conform to a greater degree of understanding than misunderstanding. The benefits derived from the two historic migrations of black Africans to the U.S. are lopsided. Predisposed to neither assimilation nor integration, the Nigerian diaspora in particular exhibit a carefully selective pattern of socioeconomic identification which corresponds with segregated incorporation into society. Generally, the incorporation of the African diaspora in America favors a north to-east to-south thrust of the races of Africa. Africans from West and Central Africa, where a majority of the forced migrants were taken, are more likely to occupy an unfavorable orbit of American incorporation. Due mostly to American slavery, the Nigerian-African variable represents the most distinctive phase of reactive-global migration into the U.S. after decolonization. The predicted problem of "color line in the twentieth century" also corresponded with the reactive patterns of cross-cultural migrations particularly of the races of color and mostly at the intersection of the fifth wave of global migration. Sustained exchanges between Nigeria and the U.S. after colonialism therefore began with the fifth wave of reactive global migration. This marks an important new phase in the development and integration of Nigerian-African indices into the modern world.

The purpose of my study is to investigate, through in-depth phenomenological interviews, the methods or strategies African American artists have employed to either: (1) survive in a Eurocentrically biased art world; (2) combat a Eurocentrically biased art world; or (3) challenge or change a Eurocentrically biased art world. The methods these artists use to survive, combat, or attempt to change the art establishment affects what we see as observers of the artist's visual expressions. The same methods also give us clues to how African American artists survive in contemporary society. The nine artist participants were Lois Mailou Jones, Calvin Burnett, Richard Yarde, Kofi Kayiga, Cheryl Warrick, Nelson Stevens, Paul Goodnight, Michael Borders, Shirley Whitaker. Each interview was conducted in three parts, with each session lasting at least 90 minutes. Part I focused on the past experiences of the participants. This could involve childhood experiences as well as those relating to their artistic training. Part II concentrated on present experiences, what is it like to be an African American artist in the northeastern United States in the 1990s. Also, how these artists go about finding exhibition opportunities, how their work has been received, and in their opinion why. Part III centered on meaning, what the participant's experiences as an African American artist, communicator, and individual mean to them. The interviews were audio tape-recorded and later transcribed and analyzed. It is the written transcript that formed the foundation of the participants' profiles. The artist profiles have made it clear that these artists do indeed reflect a microcosm of African American society, with all its biases, dreams and aspirations. The study has reaffirmed that a given racial group can have a common goal, but the means to achieve that goal can be viewed with all the variations of hues that make up the African American community. When the concept is understood, that we are all individuals, categorization by race or sex seems quite an inadequate means for understanding who African American artists are as people or as image makers. These artists are a mirror of society in general, and their art is a catalyst for the discussion of larger issues that affect the entire African American community.

Negative sentences with two negatives are subject to locality conditions that prohibit negative concord interpretations in some cases. This phenomenon appears to be universal, whether negative concord is a part of the grammar with (+NEG) lexical feature overtly manifested phonetically as a copied (+NEG) element in African American English or whether it is a part of the default grammar with (+NEG) lexical feature marking or "negativizing" the indefinite as in Standard American English. The children in this study were presented with short stories followed by questions where the negative indefinite NO was hypothesized to have two possible sites of interpretation. One option is inside a VP PP adjunct where negative concord (NEG$\rm\sb{con}$) interpretations are expected and the other option is outside the VP in a noun complement clause or PP argument where true negative (NEG$\rm\sb{true}$) interpretations are expected. Other stories were also presented followed by questions where n-words (a term used here to avoid making a claim yet whether the words in question are negative polarity items or negative quantifiers) were expected to be interpreted as negatives. A cross-sectional study with 61 AAE and SAE children aged 5.2 to 7.11 and a smaller single language observational study with 5 younger AAE children aged 4.5 to 4.10 found that children 5 to 7 years of age clearly interpreted n-words as negatives and differentiated them from polarity NO in nonconcord environments. Two-thirds of the majority of the children differentiated the two possible structural environments for negative indefinite NO, and refused to extract it from inside a PP argument but allowed concord inside a VP PP adjunct. This confirms other findings that children's early grammars are sensitive to universal constraints on movement (deVilliers & Roeper, 1995). However, the remaining one-third of children allowed NEG$\rm\sb{con}$ in these more subtler barrier cases. Does this mean that some children 5 to 7 years of age do not understand barriers? If so, how are barriers considered a phenomenon of UG? Explanations for these findings are framed in terms of children's knowledge about negative concord and locality conditions on movement.

Problem: Distrust and socioeconomic barriers are widely recognized as contributors to disparities in the healthcare system, particularly as it relates to mental health care (Lindinger-Sternart, 2015; National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). African Americans continually experience societal pressures to disassociate with African American culture and to assimilate into mainstream culture. Perhaps accessing mental health services via a counselor is an extension of that pressure. In this way, the traditional counseling model for mental health intervention is a culturally counterintuitive approach for developing mental health among African American men. Men are a subset of the African American community that tends to engage in mental health treatment at a significantly lower rate than the general population. Conversely, research suggests that their distress is as significant if not more so than that of majority groups (Mental Health America, n.d.; Roberson & Fitzgerald, 1992; Snowden, 2012). Research shows that cultural and systematic factors drive the underuse of mental health services among African American men (particularly counseling). Community-based psychoeducation spread by community members may be a means of making mental health information more accessible to this population in culturally congruent and enfranchised ways. Method: A quantitative, non-experimental survey design was employed to examine the relationship between 1) ethnic identity salience, 2) socioeconomic status (the exogenous variables), and 3) attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment (both endogenous and exogenous) as predictors of receptivity toward community-based psychoeducation (the dependent/endogenous variable) among African American men. ANOVA and Structural Equation Modeling were employed to consider the relationship between variables and the latent construct. Convenience sampling was used to recruit a nationally representative sample of 461 African American men from across the country through the employment of Qualtrics data collection servicer. Following data collection, data were screened and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software programs to ensure valid interpretation. Results: The results indicated that African American men are most receptive to discussing/receiving mental health information with counselors, friends, and family, and in the corresponding settings (in counseling, social settings, or at home, respectively). Receptivity in those settings had no significant difference, which conveys comparable openness to discussing/receiving mental health information (i.e., psychoeducation). Such findings are indicative of community-based psychoeducation as an alternative to counseling. Overall, respondents were somewhat receptive to a variety of identified settings/individuals; however, barbershops/barbers were the least preferred option for discussing/receiving mental health information. Further, the original structural equation model poorly fit the collected data, so it was adjusted as informed by theory and supported by the literature. The final, good-fitting model explained only 18% of the variance in the dependent variable though it yielded unique insight into the relationship of the variables. Ethnic Identity Salience and Socioeconomic Status were meaningful predictors of Receptivity to Community-based Psychoeducation. Help-seeking Propensity was the only assessed Attitude toward Seeking Mental Health Treatment that was meaningful in the empirical model. Conclusions: The findings support the existing research that African American men are receptive to community-based psychoeducation when administered through the appropriate channels. Given issues with feasibility and access, community-based psychoeducation dispersed through families and friends at home and in social settings may be preferable to counseling as a means of increasing mental health literacy among the general U.S. population of African American men. Future studies should strive to conceptualize mental health intervention in culturally congruent ways, develop community-based intervention modalities, and study African Americans in novel exploratory ways to generate practical mental health advancement. They should also consider how the changing zeitgeist, individual attitudes, and meaningful personal relationships impact the discussion of mental health and utilization of services among African American men.

Making Sense of Her Journey: Exploring African American Female Executives’ Leadership Experiences within Nonprofit Organizations African American females have a desire to lead and some have even reached the executive leadership table. However, as there remains a significant absence of African American female executives at the nonprofit leadership table, by investing in this group of resilient and determined women, nonprofit organizations are better positioned to meet the critical needs of their communities, encourage diversity in decision-making and strategically tap into the leadership experiences of a group of women who are often being served by this industry. This study explored how African American female executives made sense of their leadership experiences within the nonprofit industry in the United States. Through exploring the lived experiences as narratives shared by African American female executives within the nonprofit industry, this study offered insight into the complexities of their levels of oppression and discrimination and how these uniquely positioned women made sense of their leadership journeys within their organizational settings. Specifically, this study sought to make a valuable contribution to Black Feminist Thought/Theory (BFT) in the nonprofit industry in particular, as a majority of the literature has been focused on academic settings. The research sample included nine (9) African American females who are or were executive directors of a nonprofit organization based in the United States. The time period studied was bound by the years (1990 to 2020) to ensure the foundational research related to Black Feminist Thought/Theory (BFT) and current research were captured. This study utilized qualitative research methods through narrative inquiry analysis. Data have been collected from participant interviews, as transcribed from digital recordings. This study was based on four key assumptions; 1) Sensemaking as a process was central to the participants’ unique lived experiences, 2) Oppression was a constant, ever-present and institutionalized obstacle under which the participants lived into their executive leadership experiences, 3) African American females often had interconnected experiences of multiple identities in society, and 4) African American sisterhood was an intentional relationship the women built or sought out to provide a supportive space as African American female executives within the nonprofit industry. This study showed how ultimately, who the women were could not be confined to only one identity, as their realities consistently supported them living out their experiences through the intersection of their multiple systems of oppressions connected to the interwoven nature of their race, gender, and for some class.

This study of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) investigates the operations of the national office and examines its interactions with local branches, particularly in St. Louis. As the organization's president, A. Philip Randolph and members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) such as Benjamin McLaurin and T.D. McNeal are important figures in this story. African American women such as Layle Lane, E. Pauline Myers, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman ran MOWM's national office. Of particular importance to this study is Myers' tenure as executive secretary. Working out of Harlem, she corresponded with MOWM's twenty-six local chapters, spending considerable time espousing the rationale and ideology of Non-Violent Goodwill Direct Action, a trademark protest technique developed and implemented alongside Fellowship of Reconciliation members Bayard Rustin and James Farmer. As a nationally recognized African American protest organization fighting for a "Double V" against fascism and racism during the Second World War, MOWM accrued political capital by the agitation of its local affiliates. In some cases, like in Washington, D.C., volunteers lacked the ability to forge effective protests. In St. Louis, however, BSCP official T.D. McNeal led a MOWM branch that was among the nation's most active. David Grant, Thelma Maddox, Nita Blackwell, and Leyton Weston are some of the thousands joining McNeal over a three-year period to picket U.S. Cartridge and Carter Carburetor for violating the anti-discrimination clause in Executive Order 8802, lobby Southwestern Bell Telephone to expand employment opportunities for African Americans, stage a summer of sit-ins at lunch counters in the city's largest department stores, and lead a general push for a "Double V" against fascism and racism. This study of MOWM demonstrates that the structural dynamics of protest groups often include a discrepancy between policies laid out by the organization's national office and the activity of its local branches. While national officials from MOWM and National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People had an ambivalent relationship with each other, inter-organizational tension was locally muted as grassroots activists aligned themselves with whichever group appeared most effective. During the Second World War, this was often MOWM.

This dissertation investigates the role of company executives‘ racial ideology in the relegation of black workers to inferior, lower paying jobs in the Pullman Railroad Company (1858-1969). I argue that it is important to recognize that employers, like white workers, were not driven simply by material interest; rather their actions were often guided by their ideologies and deep seated beliefs and prejudices. My argument that employers‘ racial ideology was a causal factor in black workers‘ marginalization is developed through a historical analysis of the Pullman Railroad Company archives.