The period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is one of the darkest epochs in American race relations. During the ‘nadir,’ African Americans responded to their conditions in numerous ways, including among others the promotion of self-help, racial solidarity, economic nationalism, political agitation, and emigration. This dissertation focuses on the various organizational responses of African Americans to the rise of racial segregation and violence, from the 1880s through the first decade of the twentieth century. In particular it examines the activities of the Afro-American League, the National Afro-American Council, the Constitution League, the Committee of Twelve and the Niagara Movement, demonstrating how these organizations' platforms and activities foreshadowed the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Shifting attention away from the leadership role of W. E. B. Du Bois and his involvement in the Niagara Movement, a secondary aim of this dissertation is to highlight the roles of intellectuals and activists such as T. Thomas Fortune, Bishop Alexander Walters, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, Jesse Lawson, Lewis G. Jordan, Kelly Miller, Archibald Grimké, Booker T. Washington and John E. Milholland. The dissertation explores the way in which their participation in the organizations mentioned above contribute to the foundation of the NAACP. The ideas and the activities of the Afro-American League and the National Afro-American Council antedated those of the Niagara Movement, and much of the leadership of the aforementioned groups brought their experiences together to create the NAACP.

This thesis explores how African American children in the North learned race and racial identity during the Jim Crow era. Influences such as literature, media, parental instruction, interactions with others, and observations are examined.

This work examines the lynching of twelve female victims in Texas from 1885 to 1926.

This study traces the evolution of the anti-apartheid movement from its emergence in the radical diaspora politics of the 1940s through the civil rights and black power eras and its maturation in the 1980s into a national movement that transformed US foreign policy. Chapter one traces the emergence of this counter-hegemony discourse in the radical African Diaspora politics of the 1940s and its repression through government intervention. Chapter two takes a close look at the government's efforts to reestablish discursive hegemony in the United States by co-opting African-American leaders and organizations through “enlightened paternalism” that included covert and overt CIA funding and the establishment of anticommunist journals. Chapter three examines the re-emergence of anti-apartheid sentiment during what became known as the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Chapters four and five look at the radicalization of the black freedom movement and the development of an anti-apartheid discourse and culture in the 1970s. Chapter six examines the emergence of TransAfrica—the black lobby for Africa and the Caribbean and its challenge to Reagan's “constructive engagement” policies. Chapter seven examines the Free South Africa Movement and the revival of direct action to pressure Congress to pass anti-apartheid sanctions. Chapter eight looks at role of the Congressional Black Caucus in passing sanctions against South Africa over President Reagan's veto. And finally chapter nine examines the impact of sanctions on the release of Nelson Mandela and his colleagues from prison and his eventual election as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

This dissertation departs from current literature that treats moral reform as a conservative force in American history by focusing on the political intent of black reform activity. My overall goal is to dissociate black reform efforts from “middle-class” thinking by describing how free blacks in Philadelphia and New York City sought political change through moral improvement. In chapters on literary societies, educated ministers, Sunday schools and apprenticeships, I demonstrate the relationship between moral reform and political action. My premise is that lacking political rights and access to more direct means of protest, free blacks embraced moral reform to achieve racial advancement, refusing to accept their inferior status. However, most historians do not regard moral reform as being a legitimate form of protest. In fact, antebellum black leaders often have been unfairly disparaged in the historical record for their nonviolent reform methods. This dissertation calls for a new paradigm that merges moral reform with violent “political” action without assigning worth to either approach. It ultimately reflects the need for historians to allow for less explicitly “political” forms of protest, especially among relatively powerless groups who were precluded from directly confronting authority. This dissertation also joins with a growing body of literature that questions the presumed conservatism of “middle-class” America. Since all social classes are historically constructed, they do not possess a predetermined or fixed politics.

This dissertation examines the history and importance of Oklahoma City's Black Ethnic Enclave. It focuses on how this community developed over generations and the role of its leaders in shaping its identity, despite facing segregation. The settlement in this region began in 1889 when unassigned lands in central Indian Territory were opened for homesteaders by the US government. As a result, Oklahoma City became one of the major towns and eventually the state's capital. Most historical accounts primarily focus on the viewpoint of the white founders of the city, ignoring the experiences of minority residents and the urban aspects of the city. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining historical analysis, urban studies, and sociocultural perspectives. It aims to understand the complex relationship between racial dynamics, urban development, and identity formation. By thoroughly examining primary and secondary sources like archival records, oral histories, and scholarly literature, the research uncovers the struggles, achievements, and cultural contributions of the community builders who overcame systemic barriers to create a thriving enclave within Oklahoma City. By highlighting their stories, this research enriches our understanding of the city's history and the diverse urban experiences it encompasses.

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Ever since the development of farming humans have been implicitly linked with the landscape. Influences include the manipulation of natural environments by woodland clearance, field developments and animal husbandry. Development can also be determined by the identification and distribution of soils developed and modified by the addition of organic and inorganic components. Anthropogenic or amended soils have been identified in many forms across north west Europe that retain distinctive physical and chemical indications of historical agrarian and settlement history. This thesis researched the on-site distribution of anthropogenic and amended soils across different landuse areas and identified and quantified a range of black carbonised particles in order to investigate their role in the soils ability to retain high elemental concentrations of manuring and elements associated with domestic activity and industrial processes. Three sites in contrasting environments were chosen for analysis; in Fair Isle, the Netherlands and Ireland on the basis of an excellent agararian and settlement history and previous analysis of anthropogenic soils. The fieldwork results showed extremly deep plaggen soils in the Netherlands but considerably shallower horizons of amended arable soils on Fair Isle and in Ireland contrary to previous analysis. There was however, clear evidence of a reduction in anthropogenic and amended soils with increased distance from the farm centres as a result of less manuring. The soil pH, organic matter, particle size, magnetic susceptibility and bulk elemental analysis results showed unexpected increases in the amended soils of Fair Isle and Ireland and reflected a similar manuring process. In the Netherlands the deep plaggen soils had very low results reflecting modern arable farming. The micromorphology results illustrated distinctive characteristics associated with localised manuring techniques. On Fair Isle and in Ireland the main organic manuring material was peat and burnt peat, whereas in the Netherlands the plaggen soils were predominantly composed of meadowland and heathland turf. At all three sites there was a large number of black carbonised and black amorphous inclusions and point counting and image analysis results showed a decrease with depth and distance from settlement nucleii mirroring the fieldwork observations. The elemental analysis conducted has proved to be an extremly useful tool for the identification of various forms of black carbon and for identifying the provenance of high elemental concentrations. The oxygen:carbon ratios confirmed the origins of organic components used in the development of the amended and anthropogenic soils and the elemental analysis showed that at each site over 80% of visually unidentifiable amorphous black carbon particles were heavily decomposed carbonised inclusions. Overall the elemental concentrations within the black carbonised particles was very low but this reflected the elemental results found in the bulk soils and the inclusions contained higher concentrations of P, Ca, K, Fe and Al and considerably lower concentrations of elements associated with domestic activity or industry Zn, Cu, Ba, Cr, As and Pb.

Thesis advisor: James O'Toole / This thesis examines the extent of Jim Crow segregation in college football in the era immediately preceding World War II by focusing on three black stars: Wilmeth Sidat-Singh of Syracuse, Lou Montgomery of Boston College, and Leonard Bates of New York University. Sidat-Singh was passed off by Syracuse as a Hindu before his real ethnicity was revealed. Montgomery was benched by his Catholic university on six separate occasions, including two bowl games. Bates was the beneficiary of a massive student protest for his inclusion, but ultimately was benched by the supposedly liberal NYU. These benchings of northern players against southern teams shows the degrees the south went to in order to impose segregation on every level of society. Perhaps more importantly it shows how willing northern schools were to acquiesce to these southern demands in favor of expediency. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Lynn Lyerly / Based in 1960s Detroit, the Motown Record Company established itself and thrived as an independently run and successful African American business. Amidst humble origins in a two-story house outside of which Berry Gordy hung the sign, "Hitsville USA," Motown encouraged America's youth, urging them to look beyond racial divides and to simply sing and dance together in a time where the theme of unity was becoming increasingly important. Producing legends such as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves, Gladys Knight, and the Jackson Five, Motown truly created a new sound for the youth of America and helped shape the 1960s. Competing with the "British Invasion" and "the Protest Movement," in 1960s music, Motown is often said to have had little or no impact on the political and social revolution of the time because Motown did not produce "message music." The 2006 film, Dreamgirls even depicts Gordy and Motown as hypocrites and race traitors. Yet Motown embodied one of the principles the Civil Rights Movement preached most: black success and independence. Although the founder of Motown, Berry Gordy, never had the intention of proclaiming a message of black independence and empowerment through his actions of establishing an independent record company, he accomplished one of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement: black economic independence. The establishment and success of Motown was an intrinsically political act that served as proof to Civil Rights claims that African Americans could be just as independent and successful as whites. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: History Honors Program.