The African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, like many historically black denomination over the years, has been actively involved in social change and racial uplift. The concepts of racial uplift and self-determination dominated black social, political, and economic thought throughout the late-eighteenth into the nineteenth century. Having created many firsts for blacks in America, the A.M.E. Church is recognized as leading blacks in implementing the rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination. Racial uplift was a broad concept that covered issues such as equal rights, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development, and institutional and organizational building. The rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination help to create many black leaders and institutions such as churches, schools, and newspapers. This is a historical study in which I examined how education and educational institutions sponsored by a black church can be methods of social change and racial uplift. The A.M.E. Church was the first black institution (secular or religious) to create, support, and maintain institutions of higher education for blacks. I explored the question of why before slavery had even ended and it was legal for blacks to learn to read and write, the A.M.E. Church became interested in and created institution of learning. I answer this question by looking at the creation of these institutions as the A.M.E. Church’s way of promoting and implementing racial uplift and self-determination. This examination includes the analysis of language used in articles, sermons, and speeches given by various A.M.E. Church-affiliated persons who promoted education as a method to uplift the Negro race.

This diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of the conditions of lighter-skin black women of mixed ancestry, both free and enslaved, before and after emancipation, as related in four novels written by the 19th century African-American novelists: Hannah Crafts, Harriet E. Wilson, Julia C. Collins and Frances E. W. Harper. The work especially deals with the main motifs appearing in their novels, such as the interracial relationships, variations of racism toward mulattos, the problematics of ``passing{\crqq} for white and the issue of ``racial uplift{\crqq}. The analyses of the novels themselves are preceded by a survey of the authors´ lives since they drew inspiration from their own personal experience. This is followed by a brief conclusive comparison of their novels.

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In this thesis, I explore the careers and songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds—two African American female composers who were part of the Chicago Renaissance. Price and Bonds were members of extensive, often informal, networks of Black women that fostered creativity and forged paths to success for Black female musicians during this era. Building on the work of Black feminist scholar Patricia Hill Collins, I contend that these efforts reflect Black feminist principles of Black women working together to create supportive environments, uplift one another, and foster resistance. I further argue that Black women's agency enabled the careers of Price and Bonds and that elements of Black feminism are not only present in their professional relationships, but also in their songs. Initially, I discuss how the background of the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances and racial uplift ideology shaped these women's artistic environment. I then examine how Bonds and Price incorporated, updated, and expanded versions of these ideals in their music and careers. Drawing on the scholarship of Rae Linda Brown, Angela Davis, and Tammy L. Kernodle, I analyze Price's "Song to the Dark Virgin," "Sympathy," and "Don't You Tell Me No" and Bonds's "Dream Variation," "Note on Commercial Theater," and "No Good Man" through a Black feminist lens. I contend that although Price and Bonds depicted harsh realities of Black women's experiences, they also celebrated Black women's resistance in spite of intersectional oppression. Ultimately, analyzing Black feminism in these composer's careers and songs opens a path for further exploration of how Black women's agency can facilitate activism through art.