ABSTRACT Much of the research on Black males in education focuses on their underachievement, low graduation rates, and below average standardized test scores. At the same time, researchers often view urban neighborhoods where African Americans live from a deficit perspective. The present study aims to uncover how Black male high school students make use of neighborhood-based capital to succeed in school and explore how Black churches influence their academic trajectory. Drawing on Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Model as a framework, the strengths-based qualitative study takes place in an urban neighborhood located in a mid-sized Northeastern city. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is employed to provide context for the study and pinpoint the residential locations of participants. Based on interviews and participant observations in a variety of contextual settings, participants identified ten neighborhood-based resources, including recreation centers, parks, and churches. They also describe their neighborhood level experiences and make clear how they leverage social, aspirational, family, and navigational capital. The findings from the study shed light on their educational and social realities and suggest that urban neighborhoods can be places of possibility. Implications discuss strategies that educators, administrators, and churches can employ to increase the academic engagement and performance of Black male students. / Urban Education

The number of African American women who have never married has increased significantly. This is an ethnographic study of eight Young High Functioning (YHF) African American women from the Washington, D.C. and New York City metropolitan areas. Six of the women participated in focus groups and two were individually interviewed to understand how they perceive marriage and their thoughts about being single. YHF is defined as women who are 25-35 years old, have at least a bachelor's degree and make at least $35,000. All of the eight women had never married. The six major themes that emerged in the course of the study were: perceptions of marriage, expectations for balancing work and family, criteria for a perfect mate, dating experiences, the African American family and spirituality. While much of the literature on the decline in marriage among African Americans focuses on the sex ratio of males to females, these YHF African American women were much more concerned about the eligibility of the men in the dating pool than the ratio of males to females. They are looking for mates who share their core values of spirituality, goal oriented, family oriented and they are looking for supportive partners. / Master of Science

This dissertation comparatively analyzes the architectural and visual histories of two black churches as examples of the material contribution of African Americans to the nation’s built environment. As cultural repositories, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) (1881-1886), Washington, D.C., and the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1, Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (1925/1957), Detroit, MI, are two sites that represent distinct forms of Black Nationalism. The history of Metropolitan AME uncovers aspects of late nineteenth century Classical Black Nationalism cultural practice. The Shrine of the Black Madonna #1 reflects the revisionist agenda of the Black Cultural Nationalist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The objective of this study is to expand through a cultural lens the growing body of scholarship that seeks to excavate under-recognized African-American visual and architectural traditions. This study contrasts different modes of claiming space for cultural affirmation: construction and real estate acquisition. Chapter one offers a rationale for the artifactual interrogation of African American churches and outlines the interdisciplinary methodologies employed in the case studies. In chapter two, Metropolitan A.M.E. Church’s architectural history presents an instance of an African American community using popular architectural and artistic styles in an associative manner to articulate racial advancement. Chapter three documents the aesthetic legacy of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church by considering the sanctuary’s stained glass window program, mural commissions executed by two rarely-discussed African American artists, donated art objects and the circulation of images of the religious site. Chapter four explores the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1’s 1957 purchase of a 1925 Colonial Revival ecclesiastical structure. This assessment contextualizes the lived interventions of a radical congregation to understand how shifts in material and visual patterns expressed cultural identity. Chapter five critically explores the aesthetic history of the Shrine of the Black Madonna #1 that begins with the Black Madonna and Child (1967) chancel mural by Glanton V. Dowdell. As the conclusion indicates, African American churches contain visible but hidden histories that expand African American art by introducing new iconographic considerations and revealing new art communities.

The problem under investigation is that there is little research about how church leaders develop and design HIV/AIDS education and support programs in selected counties of New York State. The gap in the literature is that there is little known about how church leaders support the educational process for the HIV/AIDS Black community in New York state. The theory of normative decision making was the primary conceptual framework for this research. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multi-case study was to discover how church leaders managed their HIV/AIDS outreach program strategies. The overarching question asked what programs and education do church leaders use to support those with HIV/AIDS and how can church leaders within the selected counties, provide preventative education forums within their congregations. Data collection occurred through 6 semi structured face-to-face interviews with church leaders in the counties of New York State. Data analysis resulted in themes that included how managing HIV/AIDS outreach strategies increases participation, promotes understanding, and immobilizes the spread of HIV/AIDS. The themes that emerged suggested that democratic leadership style made for successful program leaders and existing program features built trust between the church and those in the surrounding communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. Recommendations for action include examining the structure of an active outreach ministry, synchronizing programs, and increasing resources to manage Faith-based organization strategies effectively. This study contributes to positive social change by religious leaders serving as peer educators and advocates within their church community for HIV/AIDS prevention education, igniting discussions, removing stigma, and increasing the number of individuals who voluntarily test for HIV/AIDS.

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AAMSM (African American men who have sex with men) endure homophobia and racism in their political realities because of their identity. How do multiple oppressions impact the experiences of AAMSM participating within Black churches? Despite the Black church's legacy for liberating African Americans, AAMSM feel demonized and alienated while enduring religion-based homophobia espoused within many Black churches. In the church, AAMSM are pushed further down the hierarchy of oppression and privilege. In response to these observations, this thesis employs a sexual discourse of resistance. I engage this discourse with a literature review in order to discover links between homophobia and AAMSM in an interdisciplinary manner. Jungian psychology is then utilized to interpret internalized oppression. This leads to a discussion of social and religious justice for AAMSM in the Black church through the lens of liberation theology. While the oppressed have become oppressors within the Black church as regards AAMSM, liberation theology affirms all of humanity. Liberation theology provides a message of love for AAMSM and a source of Christian ethics for the Black church.

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This research is an ethnography which investigates the effects of Hurricane Katrina upon the capacity of African American Protestant churches in New Orleans to provide spiritual and social ministry to the city's underprivileged. More than three years after Hurricane Katrina unleashed its fury upon the city, fifty per cent of the churches remain as the hurricane left them. Pre-Katrina, fifty per cent of the population lived at or below the poverty line and depended upon faith-based programs as part of their support network and ladder toward selfsufficiency. Because of the disaster, there was substantive loss of parishioners, financial resources, and program operational infrastructure that severely limited or destroyed faith-based capacity to serve. The purpose of the study is to examine what social vulnerabilities and barriers hinder churches' capacity to serve community needs in four particular areas, including providing and advocating for affordable housing, quality health care, strategies for eliminating poverty, and disaster evacuation education, preparedness and response. The researcher hypothesizes that structural and institutional racism were already undermining that capacity pre-Katrina and continues to hinder it more than three years since. The study investigates the veracity of this hypothesis. It attempts to offer strategies to help mitigate the social vulnerabilities and increase the community's resiliency and sustainability against future disasters. This research is important because it provides increased awareness and understanding of how pre-existing social vulnerabilities in combination with Hurricane Katrina contributed to the lingering diminished capacity of the church and community. It also provides insight into how the faith community's attitude and action toward handling its vulnerabilities lead to increased resiliency and sustainability, and suggest a course of action toward the alleviation of marginalization of both the faith institutions and the people they serve.