Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

The purpose of this study was to explore and document the perspectives of the Black students who were the first to desegregate Roanoke, Virginia, schools during the 1960-1961 school year. In September of 1960, nine Black students were chosen to desegregate formerly all-White schools in Roanoke. The stories of these students have not been comprehensively researched or formally recorded. Their perspectives on the desegregation process provide valuable insight to add to the body of knowledge about the desegregation period. A review of the history of Black education on the national, state, and local levels, as well as a brief history of the City of Roanoke are provided as historical context for the desegregation of schools in Roanoke. A review of the literature documenting first person accounts from other Black students who went through the desegregation experience revealed only a small number of formally recorded accounts. Examining the perspectives of Black students who were among the first to desegregate schools can provide a critical perspective on both desegregation and the larger societal issue of integration. The effects of the desegregation experience on students have received little attention. Recording and analyzing their stories provides an important piece of the desegregation record that is currently lacking. The researcher conducted a qualitative case study incorporating interviews of the students, a review of newspaper articles and documents from the time period, and any artifacts and documents that the participants had retained from the time period. Five common themes emerged from the interviews with participants. They were: (a) rejection by White and Black peers, (b) family support, (c) preparation for life in a desegregated society, (d) a sense of loss related to not attending all-Black schools, and (e) the reflective meaning each participant made of their experience. These themes were similar to the experiences of other Black students who desegregated schools. These themes were also similar to themes found in the literature dealing with the value of all-Black schools. Continued documentation of the perspectives of Black students who desegregated schools is one of the recommendations of the study. / Ph. D.

O presente trabalho tem como intuito analisar como a representação visual de afroamericanos foi empregada pela revista The Crisis A Record of the Darker Races, durante sua primeira década de existência (1910-1920), com o objetivo de promover uma nova maneira de apresentar a imagem do negro para a sociedade estadunidense. Este periódico, mecanismo de protesto e propaganda da maior organização para a promoção de direitos civis dos Estados Unidos, a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP), esteve por vinte e quatro anos sob a editoração do intelectual e militante afro-americano William Edward Burghardt Du Bois e foi intrinsicamente influenciada pela forma como seu editor entendia as relações raciais, criando, muitas vezes, impasses e atritos entre ele os demais membros da NAACP. Em uma sociedade em que predominava uma imagem distorcida do afroamericano de forma a denegri-lo, pode-se dizer que a produção visual em The Crisis procurou alterar aquela antiga representação erigindo ideologicamente um senso de autoafirmação. / This study aims to analyze the visual representation of African Americans in the journal The Crisis The Record of Darker Races from 1910-1920, as part of its objective to promote a new way of displaying images of blacks to American society. This journal was the principal organ of the largest organization for the promotion of civil rights in the United States, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). For twenty-four years it was edited by the prominent black intellectual and militant William Edward Burghardt Du Bois and was intrinsically influenced by how he understood race relations, often creating friction between him and other members of the NAACP. In a society in which a distorted picture of African Americans prevailed, the visual production in The Crisis sought to alter such representations by ideologically affirming a sense of self-affirmation.

O presente trabalho tem como intuito analisar como a representação visual de afroamericanos foi empregada pela revista The Crisis A Record of the Darker Races, durante sua primeira década de existência (1910-1920), com o objetivo de promover uma nova maneira de apresentar a imagem do negro para a sociedade estadunidense. Este periódico, mecanismo de protesto e propaganda da maior organização para a promoção de direitos civis dos Estados Unidos, a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP), esteve por vinte e quatro anos sob a editoração do intelectual e militante afro-americano William Edward Burghardt Du Bois e foi intrinsicamente influenciada pela forma como seu editor entendia as relações raciais, criando, muitas vezes, impasses e atritos entre ele os demais membros da NAACP. Em uma sociedade em que predominava uma imagem distorcida do afroamericano de forma a denegri-lo, pode-se dizer que a produção visual em The Crisis procurou alterar aquela antiga representação erigindo ideologicamente um senso de autoafirmação. / This study aims to analyze the visual representation of African Americans in the journal The Crisis The Record of Darker Races from 1910-1920, as part of its objective to promote a new way of displaying images of blacks to American society. This journal was the principal organ of the largest organization for the promotion of civil rights in the United States, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). For twenty-four years it was edited by the prominent black intellectual and militant William Edward Burghardt Du Bois and was intrinsically influenced by how he understood race relations, often creating friction between him and other members of the NAACP. In a society in which a distorted picture of African Americans prevailed, the visual production in The Crisis sought to alter such representations by ideologically affirming a sense of self-affirmation.

Many academic and popular accounts of the Civil Rights era emphasize nonviolent activists and activism at the expense of those who embraced armed self-defense and resistance. Nevertheless, the latter played a significant role within these struggles. One of the most significant was Robert F. Williams, a black militant activist—and president of the local NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina—who embraced armed self-defense as a necessary and instrumental component for the liberation of black people in America. After publicly declaring that blacks should defend themselves and hold racist whites accountable through armed self-defense, he was met with immeasurable backlash from other civil rights leaders and organizations, including the national NAACP. The purpose of this study is to examine his beliefs in the necessity of armed self-defense, as well as his impact on the civil rights movement.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Cette thèse a pour objet la lutte pour les droits civiques dans la période qui va de la crise économique de 1929 jusqu'à l’entrée en guerre des États-Unis en 1941, et ce à travers l’examen du rôle joué par la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) d’une part et le parti communiste américain (CPUSA) de l’autre. Si ces deux organisations se firent d’abord concurrence, s’opposèrent même parfois, comme ce fut le cas lors de l’affaire Scottsboro, certains rapprochements s’esquissèrent un peu plus tard, dans la période du Second New Deal, notamment à l’occasion du National Negro Congress, tandis que la syndicalisation des ouvriers noirs devenait possible grâce à la fondation d’une nouvelle confédération syndicale, le Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). La NAACP et le PCUS, deux organisations que tout semblait séparer, furent donc amenées à se « rencontrer » autour de la question noire, et à modifier sensiblement certaines habitudes, comportements, ou réflexes. Alors que la NAACP se rapprochait du peuple noir, les militants communistes, en acquérant sur le terrain une expérience concrète, aidèrent le Parti à modérer sa rhétorique révolutionnaire. On pourrait dire aussi que la concurrence entre la NAACP et le PC constitua une sorte de préfiguration du mouvement pour les droits civiques des années cinquante et soixante. / This dissertation deals with the struggle for civil rights in the 1930s – from the economic crisis of 1929 until 1941 – through an examination of the role played by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on the one hand and the American Communist Party (CPUSA) on the other. As was evident in the Scottsboro Case, the competition between the two organizations often bordered on antagonism, even confrontation. During the Second New Deal, however, the relationship eased considerably: the National Negro Congress, and the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) manifested the growing visibility and acceptance of African-American demands for equality and fairness, both were a mover and a consequence of the now possible convergence of the activities of the NAACP and the PCUS. These two organizations, which had seemed so dissimilar, even irreconcilable, now came to meet around the Afro-American problem(s). While the NAACP now sought to move closer to the real-life conditions of the African-American masses, the grassroots experience gathered by committed Communists probably helped the Party and its members to alleviate their revolutionary rhetoric. One might add that the competition between the NAACP and the CP prefigured the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Mrs. Esther Brown, a White Jewish woman, made a significant contribution to the desegregation of public education in the 1940s. This research study establishes her role in the development of desegregation policy in public education in the contemporary public narrative on desegregation policy in the early1950s, the challenges to the implementation of the desegregation of public education, and the local context that led to the national fight against desegregation. The significance of this study is to highlight the struggles that activists, many of whom are unsung heroes, went through to navigate the struggles and processes that enabled the desegregation of public education in America.

This dissertation traces the early origins of Shirley Graham Du Bois, a well known Negro achiever in the 1930s and 1940s, from the decades preceding her birth in 1896 up through the mid-twentieth century when she has reached mid life and achieved a number of successes. It attempts to reclaim from obscurity the significant cultural production that Shirley Graham contributed to American society. Her artistry and activism were manifested in many ways. As a very young woman she conducted, throughout the northern and eastern parts of the U. S., musical concerts extolling the beauty and significance of spirituals. While attending school at Oberlin College, she wrote a musical opera that was regarded during its time as the world's first race opera. In 1936 she assumed the role of Director for the Chicago Black Unit of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). After the FTP phased out, she attended Yale School of Drama to learn the craft of playwriting, and proceeded to write several plays that were staged and viewed by interracial audiences. As the country prepared for WWII, she was selected to head USO activities in Fort Huachuca, Arizona where the largest aggregation of Negro soldiers were stationed before being sent off to battle. She subsequently became a field secretary for the NAACP during this period of tumultuous change in the nation and the world. The early 1940s would see Graham reach the pinnacle of success during this phase of her life by writing biographies for a national children's audience. This success was short lived due to the political climate of red-baiting that became fashionable during the political reign of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Graham's progressive politics, communist affiliation and marriage to W. E. B. Du Bois placed her on the wrong side of the establishment. Each chapter develops the varying forms her activism took shape in each given situation. Following the example of fore-parents who were politically and socially engaged during their lifetimes, Graham follows suit. Her efforts reveal a woman who educated, inspired and empowered others while demonstrating the different ways one could use her abilities to confront racism.