This thesis examines Alberta and Manitoba sugar beet farms as carceral sites for displaced Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Previous literature has focused on the relocation of Japanese Canadians but has not addressed the many distinct sites that marked the boundaries of incarceration for Japanese Canadians. By exploring issues of citizenship and history, this thesis examines the many ways that regulation was imposed on Japanese Canadians by state and extra-state organizations and individuals. This subject was explored using critical discourse analysis of the Calgary Herald and the Winnipeg Free Press for a twelve month period beginning February 1, 1942, two months prior to the announcement of the Sugar Beet Programme and ending January 31, 1943, as original beet contracts covered only the 1942 crop year. My analysis follows two major themes: sugar beet farms as carceral sites and the use of citizenship narratives to both legitimize and erase Japanese Canadian labour. Utilizing Fbucault's notion of 'carceral', I show how disciplinary strategies were used to strip Japanese Canadians of their social, economic and political citizenship. While Japanese Canadians were never formally incarcerated, I argue that the term carceral needs to be reworked in order to include losses of liberty that are not formally sanctioned. I examine newspaper reports regarding official state policy, local community responses, protests and individual letters to the editors, and conclude that, indeed, Japanese Canadians underwent surveillance, supervision, constraint and coercion, all markers of incarceration. Citizenship discourses were a crucial tool of both state and non-state agencies. Further, 'whiteness' was central to these discourses. Citizenship discourses such as patriotism and duty were directed at 'white' citizens to encourage their acceptance of Japanese Canadian relocation. Further, these same discourses were used to recruit a volunteer 'white' labour force. However, despite the significant contributions of Japanese Canadians to this wartime industry, never were these types of discursive rewards or the subsequent material benefits offered to them. Further, the voices of Japanese Canadians were also silenced by the media. Thus, Japanese Canadians became invisible and silent workers who could claim no voice and thus, no membership in the nation. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis presents how the American race issue was depicted in Sweden during the 1960s until the early 1970s by studying the work of Sven Öste in Dagens Nyheter. Sven Öste was Dagens Nyheter’s Washington correspondent between 1963-1966 and 1968-1971, where he did prize winning reporting on the Vietnam war and covered the American race issue. Previous research has shown that the race issue was one of the key factors that changed Sweden’s perception of America. Despite this, there is a lack of research on how the American race issue was depicted or discussed in Sweden. This is important to remedy. Providing an understanding of how the American race issue was depicted will improve our knowledge of the Swedish image of America at this time. I will explore how Öste wrote about the Black liberation movement, the white resistance and how we are to understand his reporting. The results show that Öste contributed to a negative image of America through his reporting on the race issue. Öste supported the Black liberation movement, as shown through his emotional and moral writings. Furthermore, Öste compared the race issue to the struggles in the Third World, which contributed to the negative image of America. In doing this, Öste became a transnational actor. With these results, new insight is provided into how the American race issue was depicted in Sweden.

Federal interference in the battle for states’ rights in Mississippi during the 1950s and 60s birthed a civil rights movement that made the Department of Agriculture its main opposition. Alongside state-sanctioned organizations like the Citizens’ Council and the Sovereignty Commission, the USDA used their resources to deter civil rights groups, black farmers, and black agents alike from protesting against segregationist policies. Mississippi Mud uses agriculture as a lens to illustrate how the USDA’s refusal to denounce Jim Crow, especially after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, led to black farmers and extension agents pursuing legal action against the Cooperative Extension Service, alleging racial discrimination that impacted black farmers and extension agents throughout the state. Because of this, black Mississippians turned their sights to dismantling the state’s dual system of higher education based on de jure—legally recognized and enforced—segregation. In Mississippi’s agricultural history, this dissertation situates its story within a larger narrative of agrisocial reform.

Abstract not available

The purpose of this study is to reexamine the assumption in American historiography that the United States Supreme Court's monumental decision in the Civil Rights Cases striking down the 1875 Civil Rights Act represented the end of the Nineteenth Century commitment to "equality under the law" and the civil rights issue. The evidence shows that while the decision had overwhelming support, much of this was support for the Court’s view that such legislation was not within the scope of Federal power. Eleven states responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by rapidly enacting civil rights legislation. The research centered on gathering data (legislative journals, proposed bills, and newspapers) to examine the depth and nature of this response. The evidence does seem to suggest that the legacy of "equality under the law" did continue into the 1880’s. Also the great degree, of partisan behavior displayed by some toward the bills and the caution in defining positions shown by others indicates that politicians were very concerned with the power of the black voter. The black man's rights and the black man's vote were not forgotten by the politicians in the 1880's.

This dissertation is an historical and philosophical study on the development of a subjective concept of individual rights. It takes the form of a history of ideas informed by genealogical methods of inquiry. Rather than seeking an origin for and underlying truth to human rights, it treats human rights as a product of various historical developments which are capable of being investigated in terms of their contingency as well as their continuous traditions. The thesis begins with an analysis of political theory in ancient Greek thought, primarily as a means of suggesting possible alternative political philosophies to the rights-based approach dominant in modern Western societies. The thesis then considers the theologicalpolitical discourse on sovereignty in the early Middle Ages, revolving around the doctrine of divine right and influenced by the function of the Christian Church in defining the nature of government. This is followed by an examination of the emergence of hierarchical, feudal relations and the formulation of feudal rights as based on proprietary notions and coinciding with individual liberties. In the following chapter there is a discussion of the juridical construction of sovereign power that emerged from the reception of Roman law and the development of canon law, the influence of legal textuality on the granting of rights and liberties, and the emergence of a discourse on public right as a way of defining the relationship between the prince and his subjects and thus delimiting sovereign authority. Finally, the thesis considers the legacy of the theory of natural rights and its relationship to forms of liberty, with an analysis of: firstly, the idea of natural rights that developed through canon law and the discussions surrounding the Franciscan poverty disputes; secondly, the role of property rights in the formulation of the rights of liberty; thirdly, the Christian understanding of liberty as a subjective attribute or power through the theo-ontological theory of human nature as represented by the free will; and fourthly, the transformation in Renaissance and early modern legal and political theory of the concept of liberty into a political doctrine about individual autonomy and inherent freedom. The purpose of the dissertation is to describe the multiple and complex historical processes from which the idea of subjective rights has emerged, as a means of understanding how human rights have come to play a seemingly essential role in modern legal and political discourses and practices.

This thesis shows that because the Poor People’s Campaign was created by and operated within the formal structure of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - a nonprofit organization - it was unable to achieve success by almost any measure. SCLC’s organizational structure made it extremely difficult to create a national campaign from the ground up, and its leadership strategy guaranteed that it would be virtually impossible to sustain that kind of national campaign.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis shows that because the Poor People’s Campaign was created by and operated within the formal structure of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - a nonprofit organization - it was unable to achieve success by almost any measure. SCLC’s organizational structure made it extremely difficult to create a national campaign from the ground up, and its leadership strategy guaranteed that it would be virtually impossible to sustain that kind of national campaign.

No description available.