Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'African Americans – Social conditions – 20th century'
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1
Ondaatje, Michael L. "Neither counterfeit heroes nor colour-blind visionaries : black conservative intellectuals in modern America." University of Western Australia. History Discipline Group, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0029.
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This thesis focuses on the rise to prominence, during the 1980s and 1990s, of a coterie of African American intellectuals associated with the powerful networks and institutions of the New Right. It situates the relatively marginalised phenomenon of contemporary black conservatism within its historical context; explores the nature and significance of the racial discourse it has generated; and probes the intellectual character of the individuals whose contributions to this strand of black thought have stood out over the past three decades. Engaging the writings of the major black conservative figures and the literature of their supporters and critics, I then evaluate their ideas in relation to the key debates concerning race and class in American life debates that have centred, for the most part, on the vexed issues of affirmative action, poverty and public education. In illuminating this complex, still largely misunderstood phenomenon, this thesis reveals the black conservatives as more than a group but as individuals with their own distinctive arguments.
2
Smith, Greta Katherine. ""The Battling Ground": Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4559.
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Tulsa, Oklahoma's historically African American neighborhood of Greenwood in North Tulsa has long been contested terrain. Built by black settlers beginning in the late nineteenth-century, the neighborhood evolved into a vibrant community challenged by waves of violence--segregation at statehood in 1907, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, ongoing disinvestment, and processes of urban renewal beginning in the late 1950s--that contributed to the erosion of the neighborhood and the eventual displacement of many area residents into remote housing projects further into North Tulsa. These waves of violence were propelled by Oklahoma lawmakers, local Tulsa government officials, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and private white citizens who worked to expand the city's color line by controlling the placement and visibility of black people in Tulsa and gain ownership of Greenwood--as the neighborhood was, and is, located on desirable land.
The people of Greenwood met these waves of violence with acts of resistance. They organized and lobbied against segregation at statehood, fought to save their community during the Tulsa Race Riot, and galvanized to rebuild almost immediately after. They maintained a culture of interdependence that contributed to strength in community and economy. Beginning in the late 1950s, they protested their displacement. However, by the late 1980s, the ravages of slum clearance and expressway building had rendered much of Greenwood unlivable and many residents had no choice but to relocate. The loss of historic place and increased distance between community members made it difficult to maintain their shared identity and culture of interdependence.
Taken altogether, these four waves of violence functioned as tools to carry out the city of Tulsa's longstanding agenda of reclaiming the prime urban real estate of Greenwood while broadening the area of land that segregated black & white Tulsa. At the root existed white supremacy: the belief in the inherent superiority of the white race and its fundamental right to dominate society.
3
Vipperman, Justin LeGrand. ""On This, We Shall Build": the Struggle for Civil Rights in Portland, Oregon 1945-1953." PDXScholar, 2016. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3124.
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Generally, Oregon historians begin Portland Civil Rights history with the development of Vanport and move quickly through the passage of the state's public accommodations law before addressing the 1960s and 70s. Although these eras are ripe with sources and contentious experiences, 1945 to 1953 provide a complex struggle for civil rights in Portland, Oregon. This time period demonstrates the rise of local leaders, wartime racial tensions, and organizational efforts used to combat inequality. 1945 marked a watershed moment in Portland Civil Rights history exhibiting intergroup collaboration and interracial cooperation converging to eventually provide needed legislation. Although discrimination continued after 1953, the era between 1945 and 1953 provided an era of change upon which subsequent movements in Portland were based. My thesis uses material from various collections to piece together the early struggle for civil rights in Portland, and more broadly, Oregon. These documents show that the local struggle started before the classical phase of the Civil Rights Movement, usually defined as Brown v. Board of Education to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By focusing on the classical phase of civil rights, historians miss the building of a strong foundation for Portland's Civil Rights history. My research proves the existing nuances of the fight for equality by looking at local movements rather than the national struggle. This study demonstrates the nuances by focusing on rising racial tension, the efforts to document them, and the strategies used to combat discrimination.
4
Alvarez, Luis Alberto. "The power of the zoot : race, community, and resistance in American youth culture, 1940-1945 /." Thesis, Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3008265.
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Petway, David Michael. "What effect did the Los Angeles riots have on the perceptions of young African American males regarding their future while confined to a penal institution?" CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1993. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/816.
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Sprunger, Luke. ""Del Campo Ya Pasamos a Otras Cosas--From the Field We Move on to Other Things": Ethnic Mexican Narrators and Latino Community Histories in Washington County, Oregon." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1977.
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This work examines the histories of the Latino population of Washington County, Oregon, and explores how and why ethnic Mexican and other Latino individuals and families relocated to the county. It relies heavily on oral history interviews conducted by the author with ethnic Mexican residents, and on archival newspaper sources. Beginning with the settlement of a small number of tejano families and the formation of an ethnic community in the 1960s, a number of factors encouraged an increasing number of migrant Latino families--from tejanos to Mexican nationals to Central and South Americans to indigenous migrants of various nationalities--to settle permanently in the county. This work studies how the growth and diversification of the population altered the nature of community among Latinos, how changing social conditions and the efforts of early community builders improved opportunities for new arrivals, and how continuing migration has assisted in processes of cultural replenishment.
7
Fortney, Jeffrey L. Jr. "Slaves and Slaveholders in the Choctaw Nation: 1830-1866." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28371/.
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Racial slavery was a critical element in the cultural development of the Choctaws and was a derivative of the peculiar institution in southern states. The idea of genial and hospitable slave owners can no more be conclusively demonstrated for the Choctaws than for the antebellum South. The participation of Choctaws in the Civil War and formal alliance with the Confederacy was dominantly influenced by the slaveholding and a connection with southern identity, but was also influenced by financial concerns and an inability to remain neutral than a protection of the peculiar institution. Had the Civil War not taken place, the rate of Choctaw slave ownership possibly would have reached the level of southern states and the Choctaws would be considered part of the South.
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Cook, Christopher Joseph. "Agency, Consolidation, and Consequence: Evaluating Social and Political Change in New Orleans, 1868-1900." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/535.
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In the last twenty years, recent scholarship has opened up fresh inquiry into several aspects of New Orleans society during the late nineteenth century. Much work has been done to reassess the political and cultural involvement, as well as perspective of, the black Creoles of the city; the successful reordering of society under the direction of the Anglo-Protestant elite; and the evolution of New Orleans's social conditions and cultural institutions during the period initiating Jim Crow segregation. Further exploration, however, is necessary to make connections between each of these avenues of study. This thesis relies on a variety of secondary sources, primary legal documents, and contemporary newspaper articles and publications, to provide connections between the above topics, giving each greater context and allowing for the exploration of several themes. These include the direction of black Creole public ambition after the end of that community's last civil rights crusade, the effects of Democratic Party strategy and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy movement on younger generations of white residents, and the effects of changing social expectations and increasing segregation on the city's diverse ethnic immigrant community. In doing so, this thesis will contribute to enhancing the current understanding of New Orleans's complex and changing social order, as well as provide future researchers with a broad based work which will effectively introduce the exploration of a variety of key topics and serve as a bridge to connect them with specific lines of inquiry while highlighting the above themes in order to make new connections between various facets of the city's troubled racial history.
9
Bryan, Joshua Joe. "Portland, Oregon's Long Hot Summers: Racial Unrest and Public Response, 1967-1969." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/995.
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The struggles for racial equality throughout northern cities during the late-1960s, while not nearly as prevalent within historical scholarship as those pertaining to the Deep South, have left an indelible mark on both the individuals and communities involved. Historians have until recently thought of the civil rights movement in the north as a violent betrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an inclusive and integrated society, as well as coinciding with the rise, and subsequent decline, of Black Power. But despite such suppositions, the experiences of northern cities immersed in the civil rights struggle were far more varied and nuanced.
The explosion of racial violence throughout American cities in the late-1960s bred fear among many in the white political establishment who viewed the cultural shifts inherent in racial equality as threatening to undermine their traditional racial dominance. Partially the result of feelings of increased powerlessness, and partially in an effort of self-preservation, many in the ranks of government and law enforcement worked to oppose the seismic changes underfoot. This thesis makes a concerted effort to examine and evaluate the role that race played in the Albina community of Portland, Oregon in the late-1960s, with a particular emphasis on the motivations, impact, and legacy of two racial disturbances that occurred there in the summers of 1967 and 1969. It asserts that while racial prejudice and bigotry were certainly prevalent among members of both the city's political and law enforcement community, and did play a significant role in the deterioration of their relationship with the black community, there were many other factors that also contributed to the police-community discord in late-1960s Albina. Moreover, it asserts that the reactions of the white and African-American communities to the disturbances were, contrary to conventional wisdom, not monolithic, but rather diverse and wide-ranging.
The goal of this narrative history is not merely to analyze the racial unrest and public response to the disturbances, but also to integrate and link the experiences of Portland's African-Americans into the broader dialogue of the civil rights movement of the late-1960s. In short, the study of late-1960s Portland allows us to reach a greater understanding of racial inequality in America during this period.
10
Jessie, Alison Leigh. "Questions of Citizenship: Oregonian Reactions to Japanese Immigrants' Quest for Naturalization Rights in the United States, 1894-1952." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2644.
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This study examines the discrimination against Japanese immigrants in U.S. naturalization law up to 1952 and how it was covered in the Oregonian newspaper, one of the oldest and most widely read newspapers on the West Coast. The anti-Japanese movement was much larger in California, but this paper focuses on the attitudes in Oregon, which at times echoed sentiments in California but at other times conveyed support for Japanese naturalization. Naturalization laws at the turn of the century were vague, leaving the task of defining who was white, and thus eligible for naturalization, to the courts. Japanese applicants were often denied, but until the federal government clarified which immigrants could or could not become citizens, the subject remained open to debate. "Ineligibility to naturalization" was often used as a code for "Japanese" in discriminatory land use laws and similar legislation at the state level in California and in other western states. This study highlights several factors which influenced Oregonian editorials on the subject.
First, the fear of offending Japan and provoking war with that empire was a foremost concern of Oregonian editors. California's moves to use naturalization law to prevent Japanese immigrants from owning land were seen as dangerous because they damaged relations with Japan and could lead to war. The Oregonian went so far as to recommend Japanese naturalization during the First World War. However, war and foreign relations were federal issues, thus the second theme seen throughout Oregonian editorials was deference to federal authority on questions related to naturalization. While suggesting that naturalization for existing immigrants might be good policy, the Oregonian urged the federal government to settle the matter. Once the Supreme Court ruled against Asian naturalization in 1922 and 1923, the Oregonian dropped its push for such rights. Nativism was another theme that influenced opinions at this time, and before 1923 the Oregonian generally opposed extreme nativist positions, while at the same time advocating for limits to Japanese immigration and against mixed marriages.
This paper does not deal with the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II because naturalization was not the issue for the anti-exclusion movement at the time. Citizenship did not give the Nisei, second generation Japanese American citizens, any protection against their wartime removal from the West Coast.
This study returns to the issue of naturalization for Japanese immigrants after the war, as a number of Issei, first generation Japanese immigrants, still lived in the United States but were denied citizenship, even though most had been in the country for decades at that point. There was less opposition to Japanese naturalization after the war due to the noted loyalty of the Japanese during the war, the focus on human rights as an issue promoted by the new United Nations, and Cold War politics which demanded better relations with Japan and thus fairer treatment of Japanese living in the United States. The Oregonian editorials reflected the shift in public opinion throughout the country in favor of lifting the racial bar to citizenship. Japanese Americans in Oregon were active in the campaign to change U.S. naturalization law. The issue was more important to the Japanese American community than it was to the Oregonian editorial board by then, as other Cold War events took precedence on the front and op-ed pages of the newspaper.
11
Smith, James G. "Before King Came: The Foundations of Civil Rights Movement Resistance and St. Augustine, Florida, 1900-1960." UNF Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/504.
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In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine, Florida, the most racist city in America. The resulting demonstrations and violence in the summer of 1964 only confirmed King’s characterization of the city. Yet, St. Augustine’s black history has its origins with the Spanish who founded the city in 1565. With little racial disturbance until the modern civil rights movement, why did St. Augustine erupt in the way it did?
With the beginnings of Jim Crow in Florida around the turn of the century in 1900, St. Augustine’s black community began to resist the growing marginalization of their community. Within the confines of the predominantly black neighborhood known as Lincolnville, the black community carved out their own space with a culture, society and economy of its own. This paper explores how the African American community within St. Augustine developed a racial solidarity and identity facing a number of events within the state and nation. Two world wars placed the community’s sons on the front lines of battle but taught them to value of fighting for equality. The Great Depression forced African Americans across the South to rely upon one another in the face of rising racial violence. Florida’s racial violence cast a dark shadow over the history of the state and remained a formidable obstacle to overcome for African Americans in the fight for equal rights in the state. Although faced with few instances of violence against them, African Americans in St. Augustine remained fully aware of the violence others faced in Florida communities like Rosewood, Ocoee and Marianna.
St. Augustine’s African American community faced these obstacles and learned to look inward for support and empowerment rather than outside. This paper examines the factors that vii encouraged this empowerment that translates into activism during the local civil rights movement of the 1960s.
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"Mobility of blacks and whites in the U.S: evidence from National Longitudinal Surveys and Nation Longitudinal Survey of Youth." 2013. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5884305.
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Yeung, Ion Lam.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.
13
Roane, James Timothy. "Sovereignty in the City: Black Infrastructures and the Politics of Place in Twentieth Century Philadelphia." Thesis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7916/D88G8KW2.
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“Sovereignty in the City” contributes to the historiography of African-American and African Diasporic life an account of how twentieth century black migrant communities’ practices and politics around place shaped the social geography of Philadelphia—a primary testing ground for urban policies, sociological and historical inquiry, and social experiments of reform up through the twenty-first century. The manuscript charts a history of alternative land stewardship and governance in Philadelphia’s black working class communities from 1941 to 1991, which I set in contrast with the urbicidal practices of reformers who worked to enhance the profitability of the region at the expense of black and working class neighborhoods and communities. I name these two very different visions of social affiliation and obligation sanitized citizenship and black vitality respectively.
Building on methods and practices that Progressive social reformers, eugenicists, and sociologists co-produced, local housing reformers sought to enforce the normative patriarchal family as the ideal of health and order. This in turn, shaped their assessment of black migrants as potential vectors of biological and social contagion and justified segregation before federal policy insured it. On the other hand, from the margins black working class communities articulated new modes of sociality from within cordoned-off communities, which they refitted to the metropolis from their collective history in the agrarian and mill town South. Although otherworldliness and the tendency to participate in non-normative or queer social affiliations outside the home, often marked working class black migrant communities as criminal or odd, being out of time with the logics of patriarchy and racial capitalism also represented an important, if underappreciated, basis for envisioning a different city and world. In place of dominant conceptions of the normative family as an anchor of orderly governance and investment, black migrant communities re-imagined human belonging and practiced new modes of radical inclusivity in the city.
I make the case for a landscape approach to black history, there and in the wider diaspora, in order to bring the methods developed by social, environmental, and architectural historians as well as geographers, to bear in excavating histories of black social activism, in turn, elaborating an idiom of urban ecology in which practices of place and belonging, which are often dismissed or invisible, call into question the notions of urban life and health organized around the individual and the normative patriarchal family.
14
Glowacki, Amy E. "Old Ward Four, Indianapolis, 1870: A Comparison of the Adult, Male African-American and White Populations." Thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4965.
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Burlock, Melissa Grace. "The Battle Over A Black YMCA and Its Inner-City Community: The Fall Creek Parkway YMCA As A Lens On Indianapolis’ Urban Revitalization and School Desegregation, 1959-2003." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/5222.
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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)The narrative of the Fall Creek Parkway YMCA is central to the record of the historically black community northwest of downtown Indianapolis, which was established in the early 1900s, as well as reflective of the urban revitalization projects and demographic fluxes that changed this community beginning in the 1960s. This is because the conflict between administrators of the Fall Creek YMCA branch and Greater Indianapolis YMCA or Metropolitan YMCA over the viability of the branch at 10th Street and Indiana Avenue was a microcosm of the conflict between community and city leaders over the necessity of large-scale forces. This thesis specifically examines the large-scale forces of urban revitalization, defined in the study as the city’s implementation of construction projects in Indianapolis’ downtown area, and school desegregation, which was the focus of a federal court case that affected Indianapolis Public Schools. Delineating the contested visions held by Fall Creek and Metropolitan YMCA administrators about how the Fall Creek YMCA should have functioned within an environment changed by urban revitalization and school desegregation is crucial to understanding the controversies that surrounded major construction projects and desegregation measures that took place in the downtown area of Indianapolis during the late twentieth century. The study therefore understands the conflict between the Metropolitan and Fall Creek YMCAs over targeted membership groups and autonomy as a reflection of changes in the branch’s surrounding area. Moreover, the study utilizes such conflict as a lens to the larger conflict that took place in Indianapolis between the agents of citywide urban revitalization plans and community leaders who opposed the implementation of these plans, as well as school desegregation measures, at the expense of the historically black community located in the near-downtown area of the city. This thesis is informed and humanized, respectively, by archival research and oral history interviews with individuals who were involved in either the administration or advocacy of the Fall Creek YMCA between 1971 and 2003.
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Courau, Rogier Philippe. "States of nomadism, conditions of diaspora : studies in writing between South Africa and the United States, 1913-1936." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/162.
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Using the theoretical idea of ‘writing between’ to describe the condition
of the travelling subject, this study attempts to chart some of the literary,
intellectual and cultural connections that exist(ed) between black South
African intellectuals and writers, and the experiences of their African-
American counterparts in their common movements towards civil liberty,
enfranchisement and valorised consciousness. The years 1913-1936 saw
important historical events taking place in the United States, South Africa
and the world – and their effects on the peoples of the African diaspora
were signficant. Such events elicited unified black diasporic responses to
colonial hegemony. Using theories of transatlantic/transnational cultural
negotiation as a starting point, conceptualisations that map out, and give
context to, the connections between transcontinental black experiences of
slavery and subjugation, this study seeks to re-envisage such black South
African and African-American intellectual discourses through reading them
anew. These texts have been re-covered and re-situated, are both published
and unpublished, and engage the notion of travel and the instability of
transatlantic voyaging in the liminal state of ‘writing between’. With my
particular regional focus, I explore the cultural and intellectual politics of
these diasporic interrelations in the form of case studies of texts from several
genres, including fiction and autobiography. They are: the travel writings
of Xhosa intellectual, DDT Jabavu, with a focus on his 1913 journey to the
United States; an analysis of Ethelreda Lewis’s novel, Wild Deer (1933), which
imagines the visit of an African-American musician, Paul Robeson-like figure
to South Africa; and Eslanda Goode Robeson’s representation of her African
Journey (1945) to the country in 1936, and the traveller’s gaze as expressed
through the ethnographic imagination, or the anthropological ‘eye’ in the text.Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.
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Mtshiselwa, Vincent Ndikhokele Ndzondelelo. "Re-reading the Israelite Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-55 in the context of land redistribution and socio-economic justice in South Africa : an African liberationist perspective." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19149.
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The main question of this research which focuses on the role of the Old Testament in the South African context is: If reread from an African liberationist perspective in the context of land redistribution and socio-economic justice in South Africa, could the Israelite Jubilee legislation in Leviticus 25:8-55 offer liberating and empowering possibilities for the poor in South Africa? Methodologically, both the historical-critical method and the African liberationist approach are employed in the present study. The exegesis of Leviticus 25:8-55 in which the historical-critical method is employed lays the foundation for the contextualisation of the issues arising from the exegesis. Furthermore, within the African liberationist framework, the South African context served as a lens to interpret Leviticus 25:8-55.
Significantly, this study shows the misuse of power on the part of the rich élites to confiscate productive land from the poor Israelites in the pre-exilic setting. Not only were the rich élites elevated at the expense of the poor, the Levites were equally favoured economically in the Babylonian period. In post-exilic Yehud, of significance is the fact that the Jews were faced with the challenge of loss of land, indebtedness and poverty. The striking parallels between the contexts from which the text of Leviticus 25:8-55 emerged and the context of the modern reader of the Bible in South Africa are shown. It is revealed that African-South Africans who lost their productive land during the colonial and apartheid eras continue to experience indebtedness and poverty. At the same time, the political élites contribute to the present disproportionate benefits from land ownership and socio-economic injustice in the country. Like the context of Leviticus 25:8-55, in South Africa, the rich continue to be richer while many African-South Africans are trapped in the poverty cycle.
In the end, it is argued that when re-read from an African liberationist perspective and in the context of the land redistribution and socio-economic justice discourse, Leviticus 25:8-55 can contribute positively to the redress of inequality and consequently to poverty alleviation in South Africa.Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology
D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies (Old Testament))
18
Booth-Yudelman, Gillian Carol, and Gillian Carol Booth Yudelman. "South African political prison-literature between 1948 and 1990 : the prisoner as writer and political commentator." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15480.
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This thesis examines works written about imprisonment by
four South African political prison writers who were incarcerated
for political reasons. My Introduction focuses on current
research and literature available on the subject of political
prison-writing and it justifies the study to be undertaken.
Chapter One examines the National Party's policy pertaining to
the holding of political prisoners and discusses the work of
Michel Foucault on the subject of imprisonment as well as the
connection he makes between knowledge and power. This chapter
also considers the factors that motivate a prisoner to write.
Bearing in mind Foucault's findings, Chapters Two to Five
undertake detailed studies of La Guma's The Stone Country, Dennis
Brutus's Letters to Martha, Hugh Lewin's Bandiet and Breyten
Breytenbach's The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist,
respectively. Particular emphasis is placed on the reaction of
these writers against a repressive government. In addition,
Chapters Two to Five reflect on the way in which imprisonment
affected them from a psychological point of view, and on the
manner in which they were, paradoxically, empowered by their
prison experience. Chapters Four and Five also consider capital
punishment and Lewin and Breytenbach's response to living in a
hanging jail. I contemplate briefly the works of Frantz Fanon in
the conclusion in order to elaborate on the reasons for the
failure of the system of apartheid and the policy of political
imprisonment and to reinforce my argument.English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
19
Asenas, Jennifer Nichole 1977. "The past as rhetorical resource for resistance : enabling and constraining memories of the Black freedom struggle in Eyes on the prize." 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/15859.
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I began this project with the question of how today's social justice activists might find a useable history in a massively influential text like Eyes on the Prize. Thus, the broad question that motivated this rhetorical inquiry was: what means are available to people interested in social change, but whose access to the resources to influence society is limited? One important resource that oppressed peoples can lay claim to is a shared sense of the past. Through a critical analysis of Eyes on the Prize, this dissertation examines shared memory as a resource for rhetorical production. I am interested not only in how the past is re-presented in the documentary, but also what resources the documentary provides its audience to consider and take action for social change. The films present memories that complicate or run counter to the dominant narrative of the black freedom struggle and thereby make available a reservoir of rhetoric power for a political present. My analysis suggests that Eyes on the Prize does not contradict public memory's dominant values of the black freedom struggle, but it does resist their blind adherence. The documentary does not force viewers to take sides on divisive issues like separation/integration or violence/nonviolence. Instead it allows them to realize that these concepts are dialectical. These are, in my estimation, productive tensions. Eyes on the Prize is an excellent pedagogical tool for producing citizen activists. Although activism gives way to electoralism by the end of the documentary, activism is portrayed positively in the documentary. There are certainly costs to activism, as some activists experienced in the most extreme way. However, the heroes of Eyes on the Prize are certainly the activists. In an analysis of a text's rhetorical potential, it is also necessary to acknowledge how the text limits rhetorical possibility. Significantly, Eyes on the Prize inadequately addresses the importance of class in the black freedom struggle. The lacuna of class in the documentary neglects fundamental changes in the goals and tactics of the black freedom struggle and limits the material and psychological structures that maintain racism.text
20
Hall, Emily M. "The Poor People's Campaign : how it operated - and ultimately failed - within the structure of a formal nonprofit." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/7993.
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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This thesis shows that because the Poor People’s Campaign was created by and operated within the formal structure of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - a nonprofit organization - it was unable to achieve success by almost any measure. SCLC’s organizational structure made it extremely difficult to create a national campaign from the ground up, and its leadership strategy guaranteed that it would be virtually impossible to sustain that kind of national campaign.
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Hall, Emily. "The Poor People’s Campaign: How It Operated - and Ultimately Failed - Within the Structure of a Formal Nonprofit." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3623.
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This thesis shows that because the Poor People’s Campaign was created by and operated within the formal structure of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - a nonprofit organization - it was unable to achieve success by almost any measure. SCLC’s organizational structure made it extremely difficult to create a national campaign from the ground up, and its leadership strategy guaranteed that it would be virtually impossible to sustain that kind of national campaign.