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Pride and Pulchritude: Campus Pageant Politics, 1920–1980

Karen W. Tice

in Queens of Academe: Beauty Pageants and Campus Life

This chapter begins with two in-depth case studies of a historically black university and a predominantly white university in the South from the 1920s through the 1980s, to examine generational and ... More

This chapter begins with two in-depth case studies of a historically black university and a predominantly white university in the South from the 1920s through the 1980s, to examine generational and racialized differences in the investment, meanings, and performance of gendered and classed distinction and desirability, the impact of shifting patterns of racial integration and segregation, the policing of student bodies through etiquette and grooming, the proliferation of campus queen contests as hundreds of college women represented their dorms and departments wearing tiaras, and the commercialization and export of collegiate beauty queens to local businesses and festivals. These studies also illuminate the changing contours of campus pageants, including the impact of civil rights organizing, black power student movements, and second wave feminism. A third case study examines the protracted racial turmoil that ensued at Indiana University when African American students repeatedly challenged normative iterations of beauty in student pageant rituals.Less

Building a “New Social Order”: Teachers, Teacher Unions, and Equity in the Great Depression

in Uncivil Rights: Teachers, Unions, and Race in the Battle for School Equity

This chapter describes the start of the black civil rights movement for equal education in Harlem, which had a significant impact on teacher unionism. It is observed that in the 1930s both the ... More

This chapter describes the start of the black civil rights movement for equal education in Harlem, which had a significant impact on teacher unionism. It is observed that in the 1930s both the teacher unions and black civil rights movement took a new form in terms of political context. The riot of 1935 in Harlem and the formation of organization of parents and activists led the unionists to respond to new social and political causes. This chapter signifies that race politics was central to the competing political ideologies that resulted from the 1935 split of the Teachers Union into the communist Teachers Union and the socialist Teachers Guild. Thus, by World War II, both unions had a position in the schools of Harlem that were linked to the views about teachers, political action, and building “a new social order” by the schools.Less

Officers, Servants, and Race

Kristopher A. Teters

in Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War

While many western Union officers came to support emancipation and even the enlistment of black troops, their racial attitudes changed very little. On the whole, officers continued to view black ... More

While many western Union officers came to support emancipation and even the enlistment of black troops, their racial attitudes changed very little. On the whole, officers continued to view black people as inferior, exotic, incapable, and even subhuman. Interactions with former slaves reinforced racial stereotypes. This intense prejudice was especially prominent in the Midwest where there were many discriminatory laws. Freeing the slaves, which many officers only supported as a practical necessity to win the war, was very different from seeing black people as anything close to equal with white people. But experiences with black men and women, particularly servants with whom Federals formed long-lasting personal bonds, often tempered racial prejudices on an individual level. Black men and women who assisted the Union army by providing information, resources, and aid in dangerous circumstances also won positive comments from officers. This softening of racial attitudes, however, almost never extended to the black population as a whole, and even ardent supporters of emancipation showed little sympathy for expanding black rights. The Civil War had eliminated slavery but had hardly solved the problem of racial prejudice.Less

Political Field Alignments

Tianna S. Paschel

in Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil

This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to analyze the process through which blackness became legitimated as a category of political contestation in the eyes of the state and other ... More

This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to analyze the process through which blackness became legitimated as a category of political contestation in the eyes of the state and other powerful political actors in Latin America, specifically Colombia and Brazil. The author does this by examining archives and conducting ethnographic fieldwork over nearly eight years in the style of what scholars across disciplines have called “political ethnography.” The discussions then turn to a comparison of race relations in Latin America and the United States in the twentieth century; the adoption of specific policies for black populations in Latin America; ethno-racial policy in Latin America; and why Colombia and Brazil are obvious choices for an analysis of black rights in Latin America. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less

Unmaking Black Political Subjects

Tianna S. Paschel

in Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil

This chapter examines the extent to which Brazilian and Colombian states have implemented ethno-racial reforms and explores the ways in which these policies have changed these societies. It pays ... More

This chapter examines the extent to which Brazilian and Colombian states have implemented ethno-racial reforms and explores the ways in which these policies have changed these societies. It pays special attention to the political conditions that shape these states' decisions to make good on their promises or not. More specifically, it shows how implementation has depended heavily on the ways in which activists navigate their domestic political fields, including how they negotiate their newly gained access to the state. It is also profoundly shaped by the emergence of reactionary movements. Indeed, as the dominant classes became increasingly aware of what was at stake with these rights and policies—land, natural resources, seats in congress, and university slots that could maintain or secure one's place within the middle class—they sought to dismantle them, sometimes through violent means.Less

Self-Help and the Black Real Estate Industry

Preston H. Smith

in Racial Democracy and the Black Metropolis: Housing Policy in Postwar Chicago

This chapter examines the makeup of the black real estate industry and its political agenda, along with that of black federal housing officials, of private enterprise as the legitimate provider of ... More

This chapter examines the makeup of the black real estate industry and its political agenda, along with that of black federal housing officials, of private enterprise as the legitimate provider of housing for U.S. citizens. It details how the positions of black real estate and financial firms on housing policy after 1940, both in Chicago and nationally, facilitated their participation in the real estate business, and examines whether this participation was guided by racial democratic goals. The focus on government recognition privileged the role of black housing officials in an emerging black housing policy network, which included black civil rights leaders and black real estate elites.Less

Brothers from Another Mother: Rescripting Religious Ties to Overcome the Racial Past

Catherine R. Squires

in The Post-Racial Mystique: Media and Race in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter examines the strategy of replacing race with religion, an ostensibly more legitimate collective identity. It highlights specialty conservative Christian media created to reach out to ... More

This chapter examines the strategy of replacing race with religion, an ostensibly more legitimate collective identity. It highlights specialty conservative Christian media created to reach out to African Americans. These media appeals to black voters often attempt to rewrite black Civil Rights movements as primarily spiritual and Christian-oriented, thereby suggesting an impetus for Christian fellowship with whites in the present. Displacing the political and racial elements of these movements is suspect, however, and requires significant forgetting and forgiveness on the part of African Americans, who are encouraged to overlook the racially divisive strategies employed in the recent past by the same organizations and individuals authoring these media appeals. The chapter specifically analyzes one such appeal, the program Justice Sunday III, and concludes with a study of African American Christians who watched segments of the program.Less

Chinese Americans, Orientals, Minorities: Politics in a New Era

Charlotte Brooks

in Between Mao and McCarthy: Chinese American Politics in the Cold War Years

Chapter Six examines Chinese American political activity in the 1960s against the backdrop of the black civil rights movement, growing Asian American socioeconomic mobility, the Vietnam War, changes ... More

Chapter Six examines Chinese American political activity in the 1960s against the backdrop of the black civil rights movement, growing Asian American socioeconomic mobility, the Vietnam War, changes in US immigration policy, and the intergenerational tensions that the Asian American movement helped provoke. During this period, activist Chinese Americans youths increasingly rejected moderate politics and condemned as reactionaries the same community liberals who had long struggled against Chinatown conservatives.Less

Conclusion

Susan D. Carle

in Defining the Struggle: National Racial Justice Organizing, 1880-1915

This concluding chapter assesses the questions with which the book's narrative starts. It analyzes the complex political, legal, and social factors that influenced the way in which early ... More

This concluding chapter assesses the questions with which the book's narrative starts. It analyzes the complex political, legal, and social factors that influenced the way in which early twentieth-century national racial justice organizing developed as it did and assesses the balance between private institution building and demands for full citizenship inclusion that characterized activism during the period, suggesting that activists' work in the intersections of the public/private divide presents an area of legal civil rights history deserving far greater attention. Finally, the conclusion situates the book's narrative within the broader historiography of civil rights activism in the United States.Less

Rethinking Race, Rethinking Movements

Tianna S. Paschel

in Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil

This chapter moves toward a broader discussion of the contributions this book offers to the study social movements and to scholars of race and ethnicity. The book developed a political fields ... More

This chapter moves toward a broader discussion of the contributions this book offers to the study social movements and to scholars of race and ethnicity. The book developed a political fields approach in order to make three substantive arguments about the causes and consequences of the shift to ethno-racial legislation in Colombia and Brazil over the last three decades. The first argument is that the interplay between global factors and national political developments—paired with the strategic action of small black movements—best explains why Colombia and Brazil adopted these historic reforms. The second argument is that black rights and policies in Colombia and Brazil unfolded in two distinct moments of alignment, each of which corresponded with a different notion of blackness. The third and final empirical argument is that while there is no doubt that black movements in Colombia and Brazil have both been successful in pressuring the state to make both symbolic and substantive reforms, their struggles have led to only partial victories.Less

The Spoils: Politics and Black Mobility

Eric S. Yellin

in Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America

This chapter discusses political patronage and how essential it was to black rights and mobility in Republican Washington. The job security of African American civil servants depended upon a ... More

This chapter discusses political patronage and how essential it was to black rights and mobility in Republican Washington. The job security of African American civil servants depended upon a Republican patronage network of black and white politicians born during Reconstruction. Patronage was more than a party scheme for black Americans; it represented the right to a decent livelihood and social mobility. Black men and women worked hard to succeed in federal offices, and they managed their political affiliations carefully and skillfully to ensure that their efforts would be rewarded. Connections to important people and politicians created a web that could keep vulnerable citizens from falling victim to the hardening bigotry in turn-of-the-century America. This chapter explores the nineteenth-century origins of those connections and their functioning into the early years of the new century. It makes apparent the political system that created black Washington's opportunities and would become the target of white progressive reformers.Less

Black Rights, Women's Rights, and Civil War

Faye E. Dudden

in Fighting Chance: The Struggle over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America

This chapter examines black rights and women's rights during the Civil War. It considers how Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony reshaped their movement, and how their focus on the vote put ... More

This chapter examines black rights and women's rights during the Civil War. It considers how Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony reshaped their movement, and how their focus on the vote put them into closer alignment with advocates of political rights for free black men. It also discusses the two women's lobbying for woman suffrage and how they effectively placed their cause alongside black suffrage; Stanton's speech on woman suffrage which she delivered to the New York legislature in 1860; and the creation of the Women's Loyal National League by Stanton and Anthony. The chapter concludes by analyzing how the Civil War affected American politics and created the kinds of opportunities politically minded radicals like Stanton and Frederick Douglass had been hoping for.Less

Afro-Colombian Social Movements

Kwame Dixon and John Burdick

in Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America

This chapter explores the struggle for land rights in Colombia as well as the ways grassroots activists are using new laws to challenge social discrimination.

Prologue

Nadine Cohodas

in Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

This chapter shows that it was more a path emerging than a promise fulfilled that put Nina Simone on a makeshift stage in Montgomery, Alabama, on a sodden March night in 1965. Nina wanted to sing for ... More

This chapter shows that it was more a path emerging than a promise fulfilled that put Nina Simone on a makeshift stage in Montgomery, Alabama, on a sodden March night in 1965. Nina wanted to sing for the bedraggled men and women who had trekked three days from Selma to present their case for black voting rights to a recalcitrant Governor George Wallace. She was following the lead of James Baldwin, her good friend, mentor, and sparring partner at dinner-table debates, a role he shared with Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry. They were her circle of inspiration, writers who found their voice in the crackling word on the page—the deft phrase and the trenchant insight that described a world black Americans so often experienced as unforgiving.Less

Nixon, the NAACP, and the Courts, 1924–1934

Will Guzmán

in Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism

This chapter recounts how Nixon helped lay the foundation for Black voting rights in the South as the central plaintiff in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases: Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. ... More

This chapter recounts how Nixon helped lay the foundation for Black voting rights in the South as the central plaintiff in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases: Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. Condon (1932), and the little-discussed case of Nixon v. McCann (1934), Nixon's third attempt to dismantle the all-white Democratic primary. Nixon, along with the NAACP, helped set legal precedent that ultimately led to the dismantling of all-white primaries throughout the entire South. The political and social climate at the local, state, and national levels during the 1920s, as well as the 1923 Texas law that barred African Americans from voting in the Democratic primaries, compelled Nixon and the NAACP to take action. As these changes were brewing in the South, many—such as the Ku Klux Klan—would come to see them as a threat.Less

Creating Community in the Midwest: Chicago

Wanda A. Hendricks

in Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race

This chapter examines Fannie Barrier Williams' move to Chicago with her husband S. Laing Williams and how she built a strong local coalition that eased her entry into the segregated world of the ... More

This chapter examines Fannie Barrier Williams' move to Chicago with her husband S. Laing Williams and how she built a strong local coalition that eased her entry into the segregated world of the white female club movement. It first considers how the Williams couple's introduction to Chicago's black community allowed Fannie secure a place in the privileged and cultured circle of black midwestern aristocracy. It then discusses Barrier Williams' meeting with Mary Jones, who together with her late husband John Jones advocated for black rights that benefited late-nineteenth-century migrants like Barrier Williams. It also eplores Barrier Williams' transition into the culture of the new generation of elite blacks, who faced far less racism than the so-called old guard had, and her involvement with the Prudence Crandall Literary Club and the Illinois Woman's Alliance. Finally, it describes the interracial cooperation that was displayed with the creation of the Provident Hospital and reflected the progressive nature of the Midwest.Less

Caste Abolished: Integration for Freedom, 1840–1900

Zoë Burkholder

in An African American Dilemma: A History of School Integration and Civil Rights in the North

Chapter 1 examines the earliest debates over school integration in Boston, Rochester, Cincinnati, Jamaica (New York), and a number of smaller towns. It argues that Black northerners viewed integrated ... More

Chapter 1 examines the earliest debates over school integration in Boston, Rochester, Cincinnati, Jamaica (New York), and a number of smaller towns. It argues that Black northerners viewed integrated public schools as essential to abolishing slavery, establishing Black citizenship, and eliminating racial prejudice. For abolitionists and Black leaders, the symbolic ideal of school integration took precedence over concerns about the quality of education available to Black youth. In contrast, Black families and teachers prioritized access to high-quality education and believed separate schools could better meet this goal. The ensuing debates between Black integrationists and separatists were intimately tied to the abolitionist movement, Civil War, Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow. By the turn of the twentieth century, Black northerners had won the right to attend public school on an equal and integrated basis, yet they struggled against a rising tide of bigotry and residential segregation.Less

A Powerful Weapon: Integration for Equality, 1940–1965

Zoë Burkholder

in An African American Dilemma: A History of School Integration and Civil Rights in the North

Chapter 3 highlights a resurgence of northern Black support for school integration alongside the expanding civil rights movement. The outbreak of World War II created economic opportunities that drew ... More

Chapter 3 highlights a resurgence of northern Black support for school integration alongside the expanding civil rights movement. The outbreak of World War II created economic opportunities that drew Black migrants North in a second wave and sparked more militant civil rights activism. NAACP leaders persuaded northern Black communities to reject school segregation. By citing anti-discrimination legislation and organizing petitions and boycotts, these activists won the formal desegregation of public schools in the North between 1940 and 1954. A potent combination of civil rights activism, the decline of scientific racism, and the emergence of the Cold War pushed school integration to the forefront of national politics. Following the Brown decision, northern Blacks demanded school integration. The process was contentious, especially when districts closed Black schools and fired Black teachers. By 1965, many Black northerners expressed frustration with school integration and what they viewed as its failure to improve the quality of education for Black youth.Less

Compositions of No Ordinary Merit and the Struggle for Black Rights

Aston Gonzalez

in Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century

This chapter studies the process by which Robert Douglass Jr. and Patrick Henry Reason expanded their activist networks through their artistic production during the 1840s. Reason joined the campaign ... More

This chapter studies the process by which Robert Douglass Jr. and Patrick Henry Reason expanded their activist networks through their artistic production during the 1840s. Reason joined the campaign to secure voting rights for free black men in New York, and both he and Douglass protested plans for black colonization. Douglass returned from Haiti and traveled to England, where he strengthened his antislavery networks and developed his artistic skills. The images and lectures resulting from Douglass’s trip to Haiti celebrated it as a model for black leadership, self-determination, and the building of black cultural institutions in the United States. The paintings he completed in Haiti communicated the possibilities of black rights, leadership, and political organization that might serve as an example for those in the United States. Likewise, Reason created prints of black leaders to highlight domestic black achievement and commemorate role models who worked to overcome and eradicate racial prejudice. Douglass and Reason’s adoption of different business strategies and new visual technologies provided avenues to critique and correct racial inequalities.Less