Much of the sociological research on Black communities focuses on deficiencies while ignoring assets. Consequently, we do not know much about how Black communitiesamong the most historically disadvantaged of all racial and ethnic minority communities in the U.Sremain resilient in the face of assaultsboth figuratively and literallyon their bodies and indigenous institutions, such as the family, the Black church, and schools. My research addresses this gap in the literature by focusing on a historical community-based model that was successful during some of the most overt manifestations of racism during the twentieth centurythe Jim Crow era.
Jim Crow laws enacted from the 1880s to 1960s were intended to marginalize certain groups of society and privilege others (Litwack, 1998). The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was monumental in empowering Blacks during the Civil Rights Era, to combat the academic, social, and political exclusion produced by Jim Crow (Irons, 2002). Through the creation of Freedom Schools in 1964, Black youth were able to challenge and find legislative victories by using this model of mentoring (McAdam, 1988). Over half a century later, many contend that mass incarceration and the educational achievement gap, alone, constitute a new era of Jim Crow (Alexander, 2010). This research examined the way in which the Childrens Defense Fund Freedom Schools and the mentoring programs that utilize similar models to SNCCs 1964 Freedom Schools capacitate the youth to overcome a system, which is structured to alienate them from participating in it (Green, 2014). Through ethnographic study and qualitative approaches, I draw theoretical insight from the theory of community cultural wealth to counter the dominant narrative of a deficit ideology within these communities (Yosso, 2005). In light of the current social climate, and the contention that a present-day Civil Rights Movement is underway, this research is not only timely in the public sphere, but also in the academic world as contemporary theories are much needed to extend the knowledge base.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-03122017-185648 |
| Date | 10 April 2017 |
| Creators | Green, Dari |
| Contributors | Weil, Frederick, Martin, Lori Latrice, Faschings-Varner, Kenneth, Pecchioni, Loretta |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03122017-185648/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds