<p> This mixed method research investigated the question: What elements do African American charter school parents in a Southern California community identify as important in their children's charter schools? Twenty-three African American families who had enrolled their children in charter schools in a Southern California community responded to a survey. Five respondents were randomly selected for semi-structured interviews. </p><p> The history of African American parents and children in this country has been one of limited access and choice. Early African American educators proposed education as the means by which African Americans could improve their lives and pursue the American dream (Dubois, 1989; Washington, 1901; Woodson, 1933). After centuries of being in traditional public schools the majority of African American children are not being successfully educated (Johnson, 2002; Haycock, 2009). As a result of widespread dissatisfaction with public schools, an increasing number of African American parents are choosing charter schools as an alternative to traditional public schools (Zimmer et al., 2003, 2009). </p><p> The African American families in this study shared the following six elements that influenced their decision to enroll their children in charter schools: academic achievement/ curriculum, parental engagement, quality of teaching, class/school size, safety/ security, and extra activities. Implications from this research and future research are included.</p>

<p> African American grandmothers raising grandchildren is a rapidly increasing phenomenon that merits further exploration. This phenomenological research study examined the lived experiences of 10 single, low-income, African American grandmothers raising grandchildren. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the personal experiences of this population from the perspective of the grandmothers. The results from this study provide professional working with this population additional insight into the challenges and needs African American grandmother caregivers encounter. Through the use of semi-structured, open-ended conversational interviews, data was gathered to provided in-depth information about the complexities and distinctive needs of this family unit. Using a step-by-step phenomenological data analysis process, five themes emerged: Loss of Personal Self, Main Supporter: Church, Cognitive Dissonance, Second Chance Feelings, and Psychosocial Stressors. The findings from this study provide additional knowledge for mental health professionals, public policy makers and academicians working with this population to help decrease service barriers.</p>

<p> This dissertation analyzes the narrative use of sound, the rhetorical appeal to be heard and the trope of listening in African American literature as well as Hollywood and international cinema. Contributing to the burgeoning fields of film sound and listening studies, Chapter One explores the relationship between the first experiments with synchronous sound recording technology and the construction of subjectivity along the lines of ethnicity, religion and gender in early talkies such as Al Jolson's <i>The Jazz Singer</i> and Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Blackmail.</i> Chapter Two surveys a range of abolitionist texts and select essays from the Civil Rights movement&mdash;particularly David Walker's <i>Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,</i> Frederick Douglass's first autobiography <i> Narrative of the Life</i> and his novella "The Heroic Slave," W. E. B. Du Bois's <i>The Souls of Black Folk</i> and Richard Wright's <i> White Man, Listen!</i>&ndash;in order to review the role of listening across racial divides in the United States. Chapter Three analyzes the multiple ways in which listening functions for narrative purposes in Wright's best-selling novel, <i>Native Son;</i> and Chapter Four addresses the trouble with listening in Wright's posthumous novel <i>A Father's Law</i> and Hitchcock's first color film, <i>Rope.</i> </p><p> Contributing to film studies, gender studies, and critical race theory, this thesis argues that the act of listening comes to function figuratively as a trope, signifying not only a means of recognition, interpellation and subjugation of an Other but also an instrument of justice; a matter of politics; a means of education; a potential remedy for alienation, while at the same time working as a tool of oppression; a formative act in familial and other social relations; a governing form of surveillance; an audial gaze, so to speak; a way to frighten, or more generally, evoke emotion; a part of the therapeutic process; an indication of trust or confidence; a manifestation of (sexual) desire; and, last but certainly not least, an age old form of entertainment forever transformed by sound technology of the industrial age. </p>

<p> The thesis explores the ways in which residents of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana experienced and altered race and class boundaries during the process of emancipation. Planters, laborers, and yeoman farmers all viewed emancipation as a jarring series of events and wondered how they would impact prevailing definitions of labor and property that were heavily influenced by slavery. These changes, eagerly anticipated and otherwise, shaped the experience of freedom and established its parameters, both for former slaves and their masters. Using the records of the Freedmen's Bureau and local planters, this paper focuses on three common responses to emancipation in West Feliciana: <i> flight, alliance,</i> and <i>violence,</i> suggesting ways in which those responses complicate traditional views of Reconstruction. </p>

<p> This dissertation considers the extensive and multifaceted efforts by civil rights activists to fight racial discrimination and promote social and economic equality in the nation's capital city. It examines the prolonged battles District of Columbia activists waged to end segregation and discrimination and encourage integration and equality in public accommodations, schools, employment, housing, and voting rights over the course of the mid-twentieth century. As the nation's capital and seat of the federal government, Washington, D.C. represented a significant symbolic and strategic location for nationally-focused institutional campaigns; however, the District of Columbia's pervasive Jim Crow policies and significant black population meant the city also served as an important site for local grassroots activism. Civil rights groups, often comprised of interracial coalitions of residents, pioneered complex strategies that employed direct action protest, espoused political rhetoric, and engaged the federal establishment to challenge discrimination and promote justice. While federal officials expressed various positions on civil rights, from supportive to antagonistic, the complex, overlapping, and often competing jurisdictions of the federal state made deep-seated and long-lasting progress difficult.</p><p> This project also explores the complicated role of the state in promoting, obstructing, and institutionalizing civil rights programs in the city. Additionally, this dissertation analyzes these civil rights campaigns within the context of shifting social and political circumstances within the city and nation. As the city underwent massive demographic shifts with rural African Americans moving into the city and white residents moving out to the suburbs, civil rights activists responded with more aggressive campaigns focused on economic and political issues. While leaders of the burgeoning Southern civil rights movement concentrated on legal freedoms and individual rights, local efforts emphasized fairness and collective equality. Civil rights activists employed more aggressive rhetoric and more assertively demanded justice. Despite the turn toward a more militant tone, the men and women in Washington remained committed to the liberal ideal of making the city truly democratic. It was not their dedication to liberal ideals and solutions that impeded progress in the city, but rather the convoluted federal power structure in the city that impeded meaningful progress and hindered the movement toward full equality. As in most places, the legacy of the civil rights movement in Washington, D.C. remains ambiguous.</p>

<p>In our society the media has presented itself as an important tool in shaping both the identities of groups and individuals. In film, and possibly more deeply in African American films, the prolonged emotional and multi-sensoral experience heightens this importance. In America, there has been a historical presence of stereotypical characters in Black film and television shows as early as the 1800s. My assertion is that African Americans who are exposed to media images with stereotypical African American characters are affected negatively in psychological and social respects. The impacts include but are not limited to self esteem issues, poor identity development, negative social perceptions from non-Black groups, and a diminishing of confidence in Black capabilities (e.g. professionalism, intelligence etc.). In addition, it is my assertion that African Americans can take control of stereotypical images in the media through the development of independent film projects. There is a hunger for palatable portrayals of African Americans, and the presence or absence of such portrayals is experienced severely by African American viewers. This research will take a historical look at stereotypical images, the difference in content when examining commercial and independent film releases, and the motivations of Black independent filmmakers to change the landscape of Black film. </p>

<p> Common discourse concerning the educational trajectories of African American males consists of dismal future outcomes due to defective schooling experiences in kindergarten through twelfth grades. There has been a disregard of counter narratives of high academic achievement and overall school success coupled with a highlighting of failure through deficit-based research practices. Consequently, African American males are positioned as delayed or troubled, which serves to perpetuate educational inequity. This study attempts to increase the scarcity of literature by giving voice to the experiences of high achievement among African American adolescent males attending a school designed to support the achievement of impoverished youth of color. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the lifeworlds of nine African American males in seventh and eighth grade at a private, college preparatory middle school in southwestern Florida. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted regarding their experiences of academic success. The results indicate that these young men developed positive scholar identities through a process that included the cultivation of academic achievement, sacrificing to succeed, trailblazing, striving for the good life, and planning for success while simultaneously rejecting deficit-based and peril portrayals of Black males. Practical implications for school psychologists, educators, and parents are discussed. </p>

<p> This quantitative corrleational descriptive study was to investigate if a correlation existed between the emotional intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership attributes of African American men and women. The study used 23 African American men and women in management or leadership positions throughout the United States. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership skills of African American men and women. The research questions guiding the study were (a) is there a significant difference between EI components of African American men compared to African American women? (b) Is there a significant difference between the EI components and transformational leadership skills of African American men compared to African American women? The EQ-i by Reuven Bar-On (2006) and the MLQ5x by Avolio and Bass (2004) were used as the instruments to assess emotional intelligence and transformational skills. Overall, results from the data revealed that a positive correlation existed for the emotional intelligence attributes for African American men and women. The results also indicated there is no significant correlation with emotional intelligence and transformational leadership skills of African American men and women. Further studies should be initiated to explore this research with a larger sample size and across ethnic groups.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative research guided by resilience theory was to investigate the experiences of four Black women senior student affairs administrators at predominantly White institutions in order to understand the strategies for success that led to their advancement to senior level positions. Participants included four deans of students and/or vice presidents for student affairs (reporting directly to the president of the institution) at four-year small private predominantly White institutions (enrollment under 5,000). The participants' recounted experiences of tokenism, perceptions of the appearance, perceptions of communication styles, and inequitable compensation. They also reported support systems such as mentors, giving back, and spirituality that influence their thoughts, actions, reactions, decisions, and motivation to continue in the field, in their position, and ultimately in higher education. The implications of the study encourages institutions to provide funding, personnel resources, and training for all employees as well as encourages current Black women administrators to discuss their professional experiences to continue to inform scholarship and practice.</p>

<p> Research on race and sentencing is increasingly moving beyond racial category analyses to include more subtle attributes such as skin tone and facial features. In keeping with this progression, this research examines the extent to which convicted offenders' Afrocentric facial features interact with sex in order to create longer criminal sentences for stereotypically Black males and females. A random sample of Black and White males and females currently serving prison sentences in the state of Oregon were selected for inclusion in the study. A preliminary regression analysis was run in order to determine the effect of broad racial category on sentencing length when controlling for offense characteristics, offense history, and extralegal factors. Additionally, photographs of a sample of 110 Black males and 91 Black females were rated for strength of Afrocentric facial features by undergraduate students. These ratings were averaged to create an Afrocentric rating for each Black individual in the sample. Regression analyses were then conducted for Black individuals in order to determine the effect of Afrocentric facial features and sex on sentence length. Results suggested that although broad racial category is not a significant predictor of sentence length, Afrocentric facial features interact with sex to produce longer sentences for Black males, but not Black females, with stronger Afrocentric facial features. Individuals with the fewest Afrocentric facial features were excluded from the analysis in order to limit the potential misperception of racial category by judges. These findings are consistent with current understandings of feature-trait stereotyping, as well as the focal concerns perspective regarding judicial decision-making. </p>