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.

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.

Promising Black males are an understudied and underserved population in the field of higher education. The purpose of this study was to understand how promising Black males define academic success and to identify the factors that affect academic success at a large predominately White public institution of higher education located in the Northeast. The participants in this study are nine self-identified Black males who were not eligible to enter the Honors College upon admittance into the University, but were recruited to enroll in the Honors College following the completion of their freshmen year or were students that successfully enrolled into the Honors College after transferring from another college. The study implemented an inductive grounded theory methodology with interview data and data from an Academic and Personal Profile Assessment Form. The data were then transcribed and analyzed for major themes. The primary research questions that guided this study were: (1) How do Black male promising scholars define academic success? (2) What factors affect their academic success at a predominately White institution of higher education? The study found that participants define academic success by their grades, learning for the sake of learning, and the ability to transfer what they learn in the classroom into practical everyday life applications. Parents, mentors, peers, and community and professional oriented goals served as the primary influences in defining success for this population of students. The study also found that (1) Black males attributed a number of personal qualities possessed and study strategies incorporated for their academic success; (2) being Black was a salient social-identity; (3) there were several commonalities and distinctions among disaggregated Black ethnic-groups; (4) debunking stereotypes about Black males, high parental expectations to attend college, the hope of transforming negative situations into positive outcomes, and community-oriented responsibilities served as primary motivators for academic success; and (5) group-specific academic support programs were a significant contribution to the academic success for this group of students. Results from this study may be useful for practitioners, administrators, and faculty members within higher education institutions who are seeking to enhance the academic experiences of this population of students.

This dissertation discusses some issues related to the verb system in African American English. The meaning associated with aspectual markers is investigated, and the representations of the meaning are given in a semantic framework. The properties of finite auxiliaries and aspectual markers are discussed in the context of the principles and parameters approach of verb raising in Pollock (1990). Chapter 2 distinguishes finite auxiliaries and aspectual markers by describing their functions in question formation, negation, and VP deletion. Chapters 3 through 5 focus on the semantics of aspectual markers, showing how interpretations of habitual, remote past, and completive constructions are represented. Aspectual be constructions are analyzed as referring to generalizations with respect to eventualities which occur or hold on particular occasions. BIN is analyzed as situating the initiation or completion of an eventuality in the remote past. The completive (done) is analyzed in the underlying events framework of Parsons (1990) and compared to the perfect in Standard American English. The semantic analysis shows how these aspectual markers differ in meaning from those in Standard American English, even though they are identical in form. Chapter 6 investigates the restrictions on aspectual marker raising. The behavior of these markers is compared to that of finite auxiliaries, which are analyzed as being base generated along with aspectual markers and retained and deleted under certain conditions. Auxiliary and aspectual marker sequences are investigated in wh- and indirect questions as a means of identifying the conditions under which the auxiliaries are retained and as a means of showing further that aspectual markers are confined to their base generated positions in surface structure. Chapter 7 discusses the BIN + modal construction and the quantificational negative NP + negative auxiliary construction and raises some questions which should be addressed in future studies in African American English.

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Ernest J. Gaines has published five novels and a collection of short stories about blacks in a rural southern community. This dissertation argues that these works form a corpus unified by techniques, themes, and continuity, and that underlying what appear to be simple narratives are complex structures which give depth and complexity to both characters and stories Gaines focuses on reinterpreting the racial past in light of its effects upon the present. Using distance as a controlling device, he discusses the historical separation of light-skinned and dark-skinned people within the black community in Catherine Carmier (1964), and the ever-widening gap between black fathers and their sons in In My Father's House (1978). Moreover, he suggests that this divisiveness renders blacks vulnerable and prey to whites who take advantage of their vulnerability. In Bloodline (1968) and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), Gaines delineates the changes that occur over long periods of time through progressive figures and ideas. He depicts the rise in black masculinity, the decline in black matriarchy, and the unity of black men and women in the struggle for freedom In A Gathering of Old Men (1983), Gaines develops a rhythmic frame for a core of confessions. These confessions support the idea that black men can rid themselves of the paralyzing effects of slavery if they confront the traumas and guilts of the past which diminished their manhood and self-respect and move to a course of action in keeping with standards of manhood Through each of his works, Gaines develops in part themes which acquire their full articulation in A Gathering of Old Men. His primary theme, the measure of manhood, and his secondary themes, the residual effects of slavery and the roles of black women and organized religion in the struggle for equality, attain expression through the words and actions of the characters in his works. Setting, ethnicity, the development of themes, and the continuity of time and change combine to form a corpus that is realized only through the complete canon / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines the first ten years in the publication of a literary and cultural magazine by and about Black Germans and Blacks living in Germany: afro look. The dissertation demonstrates that, in trying to develop a discourse to position themselves within German society, Black Germans are faced with a linguistic gap: they can not easily build upon the discourse advanced in race studies because the very notion of race has been discredited in Germany. My analysis of afro look shows that, with the emergence of a strong Black consciousness, Black Germans are developing new terminologies to depict and analyze their experience. An increasing number of Black Germans now refer to themselves as Blacks or Afro-Germans . The term Black may denote ethnic origin, and/or occasionally represent a political statement as well. The hyphenated identity Afro-German affirms a unique linkage with a Black and German heritage. In chapter two I present an introductory overview delineating the history of Blacks in Germany. This places the history of afro look in a wider context. Chapter three examines how Black Germans, in their search for a Black identity, are simultaneously developing a stronger Black community. In this effort, linguistic visibility proves crucial in building a self-determined social identity. Chapter four investigates the role of Black (and white) women within the context of afro look. To a great extent, Black women position themselves outside traditional western feminist discourse. Chapter five examines how Black Germans express their unique experiences in poetic form. Poetry gives these authors immediate access to their inner feelings: they make strong statements about Black German identity and the interconnectedness between ethnic and personal identities. This dissertation affirms that independent subjecthood can only be achieved after individuals have developed the ability to perform actions outside the discursive parameters constructed for them by society. Black Germans' hyphenated background places them both inside and outside the racial paradigm. Afro look proves its uniqueness, in having provided—for more than a decade—one independently minded forum that documents the continuing formation of Black German identity.

This dissertation introduces a political economic analysis of Social Reproduction. It ultimately focuses in on cooperative entrepreneurship as part of a strategy of urban industrialization which can be spearheaded in Black communities in the United States. The theoretical entry point is an examination of the economic thought of W. E. B. Du Bois. This is followed with constructive criticisms leading into a brief survey of worker ownership literature. The study culminates in an examination of the acclaimed cooperative complex in Mondragon, Spain. The evolving Political Economic framework is then used to conceptually link Mondragon to Black America. Further, "Social Energy" is conceptualized as a valuable non-material economic resource stimulated through strategic cooperation. The dissertation ends with some reflections on the art of Cooperative Economics in an era of a "New Competition."

This study examined the relative effects of socioeconomic class position and racial discrimination on young male black workers' occupational prestige and earnings attainment in the 1970's and 1980's. The data used in the present study were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The sample contained young black (N = 831) and white (N = 5882) workers who graduated from high school in 1972. Racial differences in occupational prestige and earnings attainment in 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1986 were decomposed into two portions, one reflecting the effect of class and the other reflecting the effect of race, by the method of regression standardization. The results indicated that racial disparities both in occupational prestige and in annual earnings had constantly widened over the years examined in the study, and that factors associated with race played a more important role than factors associated with class in creating the widening racial disparity in occupational prestige and in earnings. The results, however, did not totally invalidate William J. Wilson's argument that economic class position is more important than race in determining a black person's economic life changes. When economic class position is conceived as the position attained by the respondent, rather than the position he inherits from his family of orientation, the results indicated that class is more important than race in creating the racial disparity in earnings and occupational prestige. It is suggested that clearer definition/conceptualization of class as well as race (racial discrimination) is crucial in fostering a productive debate on "the declining significance of race."