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This thesis is concerned with the ways in which Ebony magazine sought to recover, popularise and utilise black history between the late 1950s and the late 1980s. The dominant scholarly approach to Ebony has focused on the magazine's bourgeois values and visual aesthetics, and has ignored its importance as a creator and disseminator of black history. By contrast, I highlight the multiple ways in which black history became central to Ebony's content from the late 1950s onwards. Far from viewing Ebony as peripheral to or simply reflective of popular debates into the black past, I place the magazine at the heart of contestations between the corporate, philosophical and political uses of black history during the second half of the twentieth century. In Ebony, this shift was quarterbacked by Lerone Bennett Jr., the magazine's senior editor and in-house historian. Bennett's emergence as a prominent black historian and intellectual, and his increased desire to present history 'from a black perspective', was paralleled by Ebony's broader move from a more politicised to a more market-driven moment. Rooted in my unique position as the first scholar to look at Bennett's unprocessed papers at Chicago State University, and one of the first researchers to examine Bennett's collections at Emory University, this thesis sheds new light on the work of Bennett, on Ebony's significance as a 'history book' for millions of readers, and on the magazine's place at the centre of post-war debates into the form and function of African-American history.

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Thirty-three young Black men of the Post-Hip Hop Generation (ages 18-25) in Austin, TX, participated in a qualitative study centering on questions investigating Black manhood, media use, and the consumption of popular cultural products. Further, the researcher examined representations of Black men throughout music videos, films, and MySpace profiles. The purpose of this study was to enhance our knowledge about how Black manhood is being defined, conceptualized, and expressed by young Black men, and how significant media and cultural consumption plays a role in their lives. This study probes six questions: RQ1: How do young Black males interpret the images and messages about Black men from mainstream media? RQ2: What types of cultural products are being consumed by young Black men? Why do they consume them? RQ3: How do young Black males define Black manhood? RQ4: Do these cultural products influence the ways that young Black men define/express Black manhood? If so, how? Focus group sessions were conducted throughout the study, which were video recorded and transcribed. Transcriptions were then imported into a qualitative software program known as Atlas.ti, where statements related to the purpose of the study were coded and analyzed. These coded statements were then compared to observations made by the researcher from the examined media representations. / text

<i> History Will Be My Judge: A Cultural Examination of America's Racial Tensions Presented Through the Symbolization of Booker T. Washington</i> is an interdisciplinary study about the emergence of Booker T. Washington as a black cultural hero. By the turn of the twentieth century, Washington had become the most prominent African American educator, economic reformer, entrepreneur, and race leader in the United States. He is most recognized as the founder of Tuskegee Institute (now University) and his highly acclaimed autobiography, <i>Up From Slavery</i>, which recounts his life growing up enslaved to becoming an international icon. Since his death in 1915, several monuments, memorials, landmarks, and commemorative tributes have been established in his honor. During the 1940s, Washington became the first African American pictured on the United States postage stamp and minted silver half-dollar. Additionally, he was spotlighted in a series of media campaigns called "Famous American Firsts," and was the first African American inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Moreover, amidst the presidential transition between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, black popular media has alluded to Washington's economic philosophy through music videos, documentaries, and television programs. I argue that each of these posthumous commemorations belong to larger social justice movements, namely, the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement. Throughout these eras, Washington's legacy has served to counter white supremacy and symbolize the rise of integration, the black middle class, economic justice, black self-made, black education, and the legacy of slavery.<div> The purpose of this study is to examine how during periods of racial unrest, African Americans leverage Booker T. Washington's image to counter racist stereotypes and reaffirm black citizenship. The primary framework applied in this study is William L. Van Deburg's theory of the <i>black cultural hero. </i>Two emergent theories from this research are my developing frameworks called <i>Black Hustle Theory</i> and <i>nostalgic tension</i>. Using literary and visual analysis, I assess historical archives from popular press, black literature, American memorabilia, and black popular culture to examine Washington's commemorative legacy through a black radical lens. Specifically, I explore how the following four people have connected Washington's legacy to the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement: Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr., founder of Savannah State University; Langston Hughes, famed Harlem Renaissance poet and author; Stanley Nelson, award-winning producer; and, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, singer and pop mogul. I put Washington's legacy in conversation with each of these cultural producers to simulate a call-and-response between his lifework and the generations after him.<br><div><br></div></div>