Indian Claims in the United States Court of Claims possess the unique quality of close congressional scrutiny. Because of the long-standing legislative relationship existing between the legislative branch and Indian tribal groups, the experiences of tribes in the Court of Claims held particular dynamics which were exclusively distinctive in many ways. It is my hypothesis that congressional plenary power over Indian tribes and the influential legislative control which Congress exercised over the Court of Claims combined to put Indians in a litigatory environment which doomed the possibility for the majority of tribes to achieve successful redress of grievances.

Mixed-blood Indians have occupied a strategic role in American history since Europeans first reached this continent. However, the concept of a mixed-blood Indian is too complex to be limited to a biological construct; the mixed-blood Indian represents a class, as well as a race, of people. This analysis of the social construction of the mixed-blood Indian is conducted on three levels, (1) an historiographical approach which examines the study of the mixed-blood topic, (2) a historical analysis, using federal Indian policy and Indian literature as indicators of the mixed-blood social experience and (3) the case study of Mickey Free, the socially-constructed mixed-blood Apache. The study of mixed-blood Indians comprises a study in race, gender and power relations. It is also a study on the final American frontier.

This thesis focuses on the history of a group of Lakota people who moved from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota to Alliance, a small railroad and agricultural town in the Nebraska panhandle between the 1940s and 1960s. This study addresses a gap in the research about Indian peoples in this century by virtue of its focus on a small off-reservation community. It examines the part Indians played in the local economy and explores the inter-racial dynamics affecting that role. Class and social distinctions structured Alliance's community life. Attention to key factors--federal Indian policy, military presence, labor patterns, law enforcement, corporations, railroad employment policies, and establishment of the Indian Social Center in 1949 by the United Church Women--illustrates how class and race affected Alliance's citizens. Narratives were collected from twelve residents in order to bring personal voices to the work.

This thesis both contributes to feminist scholarship that analyzes the roles of mainstream organizations to feminist reproductive freedom movement and attempts to broaden the scope of non-academic feminist political activism. In this endeavor, the thesis explores the directions of political advocacy that Planned Parenthood has utilized and analyzes the relationship of the organization's advocacy to feminist reproductive rights and reproductive freedom movements. This thesis does not intend to decipher whether or not the Federation is "feminist;" rather, it will assess and discuss the organization's historical trends of political identity and advocacy in relation to feminism. While Planned Parenthood has adopted the rhetoric of "reproductive freedom," the thesis suggests the need for Planned Parenthood to adopt a feminist politics for reproductive freedom in an effort to broaden political advocacy and secure rights for all women.

<p> In the United States, the history of racism and racial oppression is often unexamined within environmental and preservationist movements. Wilderness preservation and access to nature has been used as a method of reinforcing racial hierarchy and promoting and advancing White agendas. Environmental heroes like John Muir promoted racist viewpoints toward others through a vision of wilderness that was exclusive and inaccessible. National Parks and other wilderness areas displaced the original inhabitants of the land now are representative of nature as a place of exclusion. In order to have success with their environmental goals, White environmentalists need to recognize and account for the racism, imperialism, and nationalism, both intentional and unintentional, that has harmed their movement.</p>

Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / United States foreign policy must balance national interests with international obligations, including a commitment to human rights. Genocide represents an enormous violation of human rights but also a significant challenge to the formulation of United States foreign policies. The word genocide was created to encompass the multi-layered characteristics of the systematic and intentional nature of mass human destruction. Though the US has vowed to prevent and stop genocide from occurring, its actions do not indicate so. In Turkey the US failed to defend Armenians, using political principles to justify the decision. Association between the Holocaust and genocide has limited US recognition and action in other situations. Various methods were employed in response to genocide in Rwanda in order to avoid an obligation to action. Emphasizing the people and the society which they compose, the United States must not focus on a strict definition of genocide but must broaden its comprehension beyond technicalities in order to responsibly recognize and respond to genocide, and in doing so capture the intended comprehension of the word. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Davarian Baldwin / The multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936-1978) was one of the most thrilling jazz performers of the Sixties and Seventies, wowing audiences with his lively blend of musical styles and his unique ability to play multiple saxophones at once. Still, one particularly exciting aspect of his life is unfamiliar to most, jazz fans included. In 1970, Kirk formed an activist group which he dubbed the Jazz and People’s Movement (JPM), with the purpose of lobbying television networks to broadcast more jazz and black musicians. And in order to ensure the networks took the call seriously, the JPM seized the television studios by storm – during the taping of major prime-time programs! The JPM was one among many self-help collectives working in New York and Chicago at the time, all seeking to mediate the material and cultural stresses facing musicians following jazz’s sharp decline in the 1960s. Kirk’s movement was unique, however, in identifying mainstream culture industries as a key site of struggle in the politics of production, documentation, and dissemination. And the JPM’s dynamic public disturbance tactics contrasted with the quieter, inward-looking programs of other collectives. Its aesthetic inclusivism also set it apart from most other jazz community groups which heavily favored avant-garde music. Under Kirk’s leadership, the JPM demonstrated that the mass production and consumption of art and culture had important political relevance and power for the liberation of black music specifically, and of black America more generally. Although the movement was short-lived and did not achieve many of its stated goals, it provides a visible intersection of music, race, and society, and is thus a highly valuable historical subject. This thesis explores the impact of Kirk’s political and aesthetic ideals on his conception of the JPM; the consistently interconnected material and cultural underpinnings of the movement’s agenda; the group’s protest actions, and the accompanying reactions in the music community and the press; the causes of the JPM’s dissolution; and the movement’s broader impact and legacy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Seth Jacobs / Congress' 1964 passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution represented the pinnacle of the legislature's conscious repudiation of its role as superintendent of America's foreign policy to the executive branch. Conversely, for most diplomatic historians, the passage of the 1973 War Powers Act marked Congress' reawakening to its supervisory role and the collapse of what historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. termed the "Imperial Presidency." In fact, it was the 1970 repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, a resolution that embodied everything Congress had abdicated and all the dangers that abdication represented, that actually served to announce Congress' unwillingness to acquiesce to presidential foreign policy. The repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution had long-term implications for the exercise of America's cold war foreign policy, effects that were most keenly felt by President Gerald Ford when Congress refused to allow U.S. intervention in Angola despite Ford's personal pleas to both legislative branches. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Jacksonville has Florida's largest African American community. It is a city with a long and prosperous history characterized by tense but generally amicable race relations. This dissertation explores the political, social and economic problems facing Jacksonville's Black community during the crucial World War II thru 1970s period. Heavy emphasis is placed on the Black community's political activities. It is divided into ten chapters each covering an important period, event, or character in African American community. / It provides a link between the 1920s and 1980s period which have already been studied. It investigates the challenges faced by Blacks leaders in their struggle to elect a candidate to office. It uncovers some of the people left out of most Black histories of the city. The most important contribution this work makes is that it introduces you to a world which was generally ignored by the White community. It attempts to introduce Blacks as a human beings who were struggling against almost insurmountable odds, for simple things, such as equal treatment and a chance at a decent education. / Because Jacksonville's Black community was so large it could band together and protect itself from some of the worse abuses which Blacks in other communities endured. Because the community had a prosperous African American middle class it was able to supply the people with the economic base necessary for social survival and could band together and protect itself from some of the worse abuses which Blacks in other communities endured. Because the community had a prosperous African American middle class it was able to supply the people with the economic base necessary for social survival and economic prosperity. This work also looks at the impact the civil rights movement had on Jacksonville's African American community. It answers the question, "what part did Jacksonville's Blacks community play and who were some of the leaders?" / The two most controversial sections deal with the 1967 election and the elections of Mary Singleton and Sally Mathis to the city council and also the struggle over consolidation and its impact on Jacksonville's African American community. After 1967, Jacksonville's African American community found itself on the verge of political domination. Consolidation proved to be a very controversial subject because if consolidation passed, Blacks would be reduced from 43% of the city's population to just over 27%. However, the city would be armed with the financial resources necessary to handle future crisis. / The work concludes with a look at Earl Johnson and Frank Hampton arguably the two most important political figures in recent Jacksonville history. It explores their contributions to building Jacksonville and the part they played in ensuring Black political participation. The last section provides an overview and also a comparative look at the Black communities in Jacksonville and other major Florida cities. It compares infant mortality rates, death rates, poverty rates, and other important figures to see how Jacksonville's, Black community compares. The results are startling. Statistically, Jacksonville had the most healthiest, and prosperous Black community in Florida. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2952. / Major Professor: Neil Betten. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The Confederate veterans represent the only example in American history where a defeated army of rebellion had to rehabilitate and function under the government it previously fought. By the turn of the century, the former Confederate soldiers were beloved members of American society. / The actions that lifted the Confederate veteran from a status of defeated traitor to societal patriarch included organizing, caring for their less fortunate comrades, and convincing their Union counterparts that their loyalty was above question. They emphasized the value of reunification and built monuments to their Confederate heroes without inciting Northern anger. / The culmination of their efforts coincided with changes underway in American society that caused anxiety. The image of blue and gray reunions provided reassurance to Americans, and the public grew to treasure the Civil War veterans. / Confederate veterans played a significant role in changing national attitudes and their success in becoming valued members of society serves as a positive example to any group that feels ostracized from the American social, political, and economic spectrums. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4568. / Major Professor: Edward F. Keuchel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.