MA, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

MAYS, NICHOLAS S, M.A. AUGUST 2014 DEPARTMENT of HISTORY NORTHTERN REDEMTION: MARTIN LUTHER KING, THE UNITED PASTORS ASSOCIATION, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLES IN CLEVELAND, OHIO (118 pp.) Director of Thesis: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor This study examines a turbulent time in Cleveland, Ohio, when African Americans endured racial inequality and poverty rooted in de facto segregation and discrimination. Racism and poverty led to the 1966 Hough Riot in a predominantly African American neighborhood, which left four African Americans dead. In response, local religious leaders, particularly the United Pastors Association (UPA), prompted by fears of further unrest, a desire for better race relations, and improved economic conditions—reached out to Martin Luther King. Although Northern Redemption seeks to complicate the dominant narrative regarding Martin Luther King’s Northern contribution, my chief aim is to reveal Martin Luther King’s contribution to the civil rights struggle in Cleveland, Ohio. As such, I argue that King’s direct engagement and leadership skills helped galvanize and mobilize the African American community to confront injustices against Blacks. With this in mind, I seek to understand: how did Martin Luther King convince Cleveland’s African American community that had only recently erupted in the Hough Riots to embrace nonviolent direct-action protests to achieve economic, social, and political change? In exploring Martin Luther King’s contribution to the local civil rights struggle in Cleveland, Ohio, this thesis offers a history of race relations and Black oppression in Cleveland, as well as a study of African American triumph against White aggression and racism during the latter 1960s. This thesis offers more insight on the impact of King, however, it does not attempt to perpetuate the nostalgia that already exists in many civil rights histories. Instead, this thesis reco (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Advisor); Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member); Leonne Hudson (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; History

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

From 1956 to 1971, the FBI conducted a number of operations under the name Covert Intelligence Program, otherwise known as COINTELPRO. These illegal operations were performed with the goal of disrupting the efforts of political organizations such as anti-Vietnam war groups, Chicano and black power movements, the KKK, among many others. There were many methods used, like assassinations and manipulation of the legal system, but on occasion, the program utilized carefully created printed art and photography to undermine public opinion of the organizations. The prime example would be the 1969 Black Panther Coloring Book, published ostensibly by the Black Panthers, but was in actuality a book of violent imagery distributed by the FBI to disturb more moderate members of the community, and push them away from associations and collaborations with the Panthers. This thesis discusses the precarious position occupied by this coloring book as both a genuine piece of Black Panther imagery that aligns with their visual program, while simultaneously used against them in non-member audiences by the FBI. The result is a unique piece of propaganda that has simultaneously positive and negative impacts depending on who is doing the distributing, and who it is being distributed to. Scholarship regarding the use of visual media in these operations is sparse, so this thesis conducts an original survey of how the United States government utilized and manipulated art to further their counterintelligence mission and undermined political activism.

Committee: Shana Klein (Advisor); Ann Heiss (Committee Member); Pinyan Zhu (Committee Member); Joseph Underwood (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2023, History

This project explores the political organizing and intellectual writings of Mae Mallory during the 1950s and the 1960s. Mallory is a Black working-class woman who emerged as an influential figure during the struggle to integrate public schools in 1950s Harlem, New York. Mallory's maintained her commitment to self-determination, self-defense, and Black internationalism, despite the pervasive anti-communism of the Cold War. Mae Mallory's opposition of the Cold War climate by the refusal to dilute her ideology and organizational goals, complicates the idea of the “classical narrative” of the Civil Rights Movement. This conception of the movement, coined by Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin, is defined by male-centered leadership, non-violence, integration, and inclusion into American citizenry. Mallory, her writings, and her organizing were antagonistic to these notions, throughout her career she maintained a community-centered and militant approach.

Committee: Michael Stauch (Committee Chair); Chelsea Griffis (Committee Member); Shingi Mavima (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, History

This thesis explores the complex and politically significant history of America's Religious Right. From the 1940s to the end of the 20th century, the Religious Right built upon public fear and unease, shaping their social and political positions for political, not theological, impact. As a political group, the Religious Right necessarily included a more social perspective to their political actions with the notion that certain elements of American society were morally dangerous and looking to the government to correct these flaws. By personalizing politics and emphasizing divisive wedge issues, they built a network of dedicated supporters who propelled their rise to power. This approach revitalized economic principles and introduced new wedge issues to direct public debate to follow the path they chose. The underpinnings of the Religious Right began to emerge in the 1940s and 1950s as World War II dramatically changed the character of life in the United States. Televangelists began to become major household names with reach and sway as economic and technologic effects of the war created a new market of television viewers. At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement started to threaten the stability of the racial hierarchies that the social order was based upon to a large extent. All the while, communism loomed as a dark specter over the nation. By the late 1980s and 1990s, the Religious Right had firmly entrenched itself as a political and social landscape of the United States. This achievement was the result of calculated political maneuvering over multiple generations, utilizing personal matters to unite a passionate and determined political base. Notably, the Religious Right's causes were manifestations of the public fears of their time. The dangerous element invoked by these fears evolved from communism to civil rights activists to LGBTQ+ individuals who bucked the roles society established for them. For the Religious Right, the theological backing for their cau (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Rosenberg (Advisor); Travis Proctor (Committee Member); Thomas Taylor (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Political Science; Religion; Religious History

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2023, Art

This study sought to understand how nonviolent strategies can be communicated in a way that facilitates self-awareness among people who want to engage in social change. The foundation of this research and its design outcome were informed by two theories –– the Attribution Theory and the Expectancy Value Theory –– to explore what young Black Americans value from nonviolent strategy, understand how their attitude toward nonviolent strategy impacts personal social action today, and examine participants' willingness to shift perceptions based on new knowledge of the movement and their personal experiences. A mixed-methods approach accumulated data from participants who identified general knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement, perception of nonviolent strategies, opinion on the effectiveness of nonviolent strategies, and answers related to personal experience with race-related confrontation and personal nonviolent resistance. The design intervention, a social media toolkit, includes educational, self-guided prompts aimed at connecting users with practical nonviolent applications. The design encourages participants to identify reasonable nonviolent actions, provides context for how those actions can be completed given internal and external factors, and fosters a digital community to discuss progress related to social causes.

Committee: Dennis Cheatham (Advisor); Zack Tucker (Committee Member); Lauren Evans Toben Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Design

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2022, Curriculum and Instruction

This qualitative case study examined the implementation of a four-week instructional unit on the Civil Rights Movement taught through a human rights lens and emphasizing written discourse in the classroom. The study was conducted in a large, urban high school in the Midwest near the end of the 2022 spring semester. The instructional unit, a critical case, was taught as part of the curriculum of an American History class required for sophomores but including some juniors and seniors. Data from 32 students who met the attendance and assignment submission requirements of the study were included. The framework for the case study was the intersection of theories of history instruction, human rights education, and discourse. Data collected included student created classwork and artifacts, teacher-researcher participant observations, and curricular and instructional materials. The research questions addressed the ways students independently and collaboratively reflected on history and human rights, the ways students engaged in analysis and critical thinking, and the ways in which they reflected on their experiences through their written discourse. Data analysis showed that students often made meaningful connections between history, human rights, and current events through written discourse, but that there were specific concepts with which they struggled such as the human rights concept of correlative duties. Additionally, students engaged in collaborative discourse that gave them the opportunity to practice human rights discourse. Students' most personal connections were made in activities and discussions in which they engaged in critical thinking and analysis. The connections made by students included comparisons between events of the Civil Rights Movement and current issues such as police brutality and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Students also demonstrated the ability to effectively reflect on their personal and classroom experiences. These findings illustrated the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susanna Hapgood (Committee Chair); Mark Templin (Committee Member); Dale Snauwaert (Committee Member); Colleen Fitzpatrick (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Curriculum Development; Education; Instructional Design; Literacy; Peace Studies; Secondary Education; Teaching

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2021, History

Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Nina Simone were musicians in the early-mid twentieth century who were innovators for using art as activism. They used their art and platforms to raise awareness and comment on the state of the nation in regards to civil rights. Billie Holiday paved the way with her iconic song "Strange Fruit," calling out racial injustice in the form of lynchings. Lena Horne was a performer who made room for Black actors in Hollywood for roles outside of stereotypes, like servants or "mammies." Nina Simone was a classical pianist who used her strong voice and honest lyrics to narrate the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Their lives demonstrate intersectionality and how Black women used their strength, determination, and art to be part of a movement.

Committee: Chester Pach Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; American History; Black History; Gender; History; Modern History; Music

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Leadership and Change

This case study explored and developed the religious racial socialization (RRS) approach of a Black Baptist pastor in Orange County, California. The aim was to assess how the pastor's direct messages about race influenced and transformed members' racial and social views and actions and examined the message alignment between what the pastor said and what church members and the leadership team heard. This study took a multimethod exploratory approach, examining multiple sources of data gathered from a Likert scale members' survey, leadership team interviews, and archival materials. To support triangulation of the data, a word query and emergent thematic analysis was conducted on all qualitative data and a descriptive analysis based on closed-ended questions from the member survey. Results indicated that members perceived the pastor as a Coach when talking about racial and social justice matters and an Inclusive Leader because of his encouragement to love everyone. Additionally, archival findings revealed the church culture as Righteous because of the pastor and members' desire for morality and justice. Moreover, findings suggest that a Pastor who coaches and educates on racial matters, and advocates for justice in and outside of the church, is progressive and effective in transforming how members respond to racism and social injustice. The study provides examples on how to approach and manage racial discussions in the church, how to create an inclusive environment where diverse groups feel safe to talk about race, and how to prepare for and manage cultural change. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carol Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); Margaret Moodian Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Religious Education

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, History

The Civil Rights Era of the 1960s has helped America transcend and grow above its racist past, at least that is what we have been led to believe. However, the past decade has made it all too clear that there is still a deep racial divide within America. Tragic events such as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown's death, and the details that surrounded them, were heavily polarized topics that made clear America's racial divide. Those events also spawned a new movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, which draws heavily from its predecessors of the past. Due to the current memory of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter and its supporters, have and continue to fight an uphill battle against the national media, which has attempted to denounce the new movement and portray it as contrary to American values, much like they have portrayed groups associated with the Black Power Movement. This study explores how people perceived the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement and examines whether that has any relationship with how other movements such as the Black Lives Matter Movement are perceived. Although there is a vast amount of literature covering the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movements, individually and collectively, there is not a lot of work that examines them both as part of the continuous Black Freedom Movement. Due to popular memory of the Civil Rights Movement, new developing movements have been grossly distorted to ensure the failure and public denial of subsequent movements meant to validate the continuance and longevity of the Black Freedom Movement. This thesis will argue that Black Lives Matter is proof that the Black Freedom Movement is continuous, and is ongoing today. Catastrophic events such as Trayvon Martin's and Michael Brown's death acted as a rallying point for many Blacks to become involved in the new movement, much like Emmitt Till's death acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

Committee: Tyler Moore (Advisor); Thomas Edge (Committee Member) Subjects: Black History; Black Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2019, Leadership and Change

This study tells the deep, rich story of Evelyn T. Butts, a grassroots civil rights champion in Norfolk, Virginia, whose bridge leadership style can teach and inspire new generations about political, community, and social change. Butts used neighbor-to-neighbor skills to keep her community connected with the national civil rights movement, which had heavily relied on grassroots leaders—especially women—for much of its success in overthrowing America's Jim Crow system of segregation and suppression. She is best-known for her 1963 lawsuit that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1966 decision to ban poll taxes for state and local elections, a democratizing event hailed as a progressive victory over the entrenchment of property and wealth as prerequisites for suffrage. Virginia required an annual $1.50 poll, while other Southern states had similar levies. Butts' legacy from her 1954–1970 grassroots heyday is also built on what she did before and after her court victory to help blacks and poor whites attain political citizenship—the right to fully participate in political decision-making. Butts, who stood amid the continuum of black resistance leaders questing for freedom, civil rights, equality, justice, and dignity, exercised effective leadership on diverse concerns, including segregated schools, employment discrimination, and substandard housing. Self-determination for marginalized people lay at the heart of her crusades, especially for voter education, registration, and turnout. This first, full-length scholarly examination of Butts' leadership is a qualitative study and narrative inquiry that includes the context of her times. This interdisciplinary study draws on literature in history, political science, sociology, civil rights, voting rights, critical race theory, and leadership theories, and is built on narrative analysis and constructivist/interpretivist techniques. Butts, who died in 1993, did not leave many personal writings, so research findings emerged fro (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Member); Tommy Bogger PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Cultural Anthropology; Law; Legal Studies; Political Science; Public Administration; Public Policy; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2019, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines the advocacy and journalistic work of civil rights activist and newspaper publisher Daisy Bates. It explores her ability to negotiate her black womanhood, while navigating the discriminatory practices in the South in the 1940s and 1950s. Bates and her husband founded the Arkansas State Press in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1941, which echoed the sentiments of the civil rights movement at the time. As this thesis demonstrates, Bates's journalistic advocacy mirrored the practices of northern black publications, while defying the traditions of southern race relations. Her journalistic style, characterized by militant sarcasm and provocation of both whites and blacks, came to cement her as a trailblazing black journalist in a region heavily shaped by blacks' oppression. More than being a black woman in times of white male preeminence, Bates defied the double burden of racism and sexism as she wrote stories that attacked white supremacy and accounted for racial injustice in the South. Through an assessment of her journalistic work, this thesis applies a historical research method to restore Bates's place in black press history and situate her within black feminist thought, as a radical frontrunner for women of color in the South in the twentieth century.

Committee: Michael Sweeney (Committee Chair); Aimee Edmondson (Committee Member); Marilyn Greenwald (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Black History; Gender Studies; History; Journalism; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Womens Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Journalism (Communication)

Boxer Cassius Clay exploded unto public consciousness during a time of turbulent change in U.S. politics, race relations, and journalism. This thesis examines a particular subset of news coverage of Clay from his first title fight through his conversion to Islam and adoption of the name Muhammad Ali, on through his refusal to be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and finally to his triumphant return to boxing. The author chose to examine the work of two New York Times reporters, Arthur Daley and Robert Lipsyte, as a case study of traditional vs. “new” journalism in their coverage of one of the most colorful and controversial figures of the 1960s and 1970s. Daley, an old-school journalist, saw Clay/Ali primarily as a clown, iconoclast, and threat, while Lipsyte, much younger and an outsider to mainstream journalism in significant ways, saw him primarily as an avatar of positive change. The author examined the stories and columns by these two writers using critical discourse analysis and the Hierarchical Influences Model of media content developed by Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen J. Reese.

Committee: Michael Sweeney (Committee Chair); Eddith Dashiell (Committee Member); Hans-Joerg Stiehler (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Black History; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation challenges the widespread myth that black Americans make up the most homophobic communities in the United States. After outlining the myth and illustrating that many Americans of all backgrounds had subscribed to this belief by the early 1990s, the project challenges the narrative of black homophobia by highlighting black urban neighborhoods in the first half of the twentieth century that permitted and even occasionally celebrated open displays of queerness. By the 1960s, however, the black communities that had hosted overt queerness were no longer recognizable, as the public balls, private parties, and other spaces where same-sex contacts took place were driven underground. This shift resulted from the rise of the black Civil Rights Movement, whose middle-class leadership – often comprised of ministers from the black church – rigorously promoted the respectability of the race. This politics of respectability included the demand by religious and activist leaders that all members of the black community meet the outward expectations of an upstanding, heteronormative citizen. This shift is grounded in the deep history of mainline black Christian denominations as sites of resistance against slavery and white supremacy, institutions that presumed individual respectability was prerequisite for the struggle for full citizenship. Over time, this led to publicly preaching homophobic sermons even while tolerating private queerness in the pews and choirs. This dynamic of Sexual Plausible Deniability, where queerness was tolerated as long as it went unnamed, gave rise to the so-called Down Low phenomenon—referring to black men who have sex with other men without adopting a gay identity—that gained public notoriety during the worst years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The final chapter explores the oral histories of black queer men who describe their experiences after the Civil Rights Movement, illuminating that queer expressions in black spaces continued to exist b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Katherine Jellison (Committee Chair); Steve Estes (Committee Member); Brian Schoen (Committee Member); Kevin Mattson (Committee Member); Barry Tadlock (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; History

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Nine South Carolina Highway Patrol officers killed three African American students on February 8, 1968 in the Orangeburg Massacre while twenty-eight other students sustained injuries. Historians and the public have largely forgotten about this massacre that was the culmination of a week-long peaceful sit-in protest to desegregate the local All Star Bowling Lanes. The Orangeburg Massacre contributed to the local transformation and radicalization of the national civil rights movement. This thesis examines the historical roots of the radical student civil rights movement at South Carolina State College and Claflin College, how perceptions of reality intertwined with identity performance, and how the process of reconciliation in a southern town was linked to collective memory and identity. Radical black women educators became role models for the students, and the victories that these women achieved created space for the students to become even more radical. The local black community and the students enrolled at the historically black colleges did not fit the stereotypes associated with African Americans that whites held during that time. The collective memory of this massacre and the civil rights movement has continued to exacerbate race relations in South Carolina.

Committee: Kenneth Bindas (Advisor); Leslie Heaphy (Committee Member); Zachary Williams (Committee Member); Patrick Coy (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Black History; Gender; History

Bachelor of Arts, Ashland University, 0, English

Ava DuVernay, director of Selma (2014), altered Paul Webb's original screenplay in several ways. While critics of the film usually discuss DuVernay's depictions of President Lyndon B. Johnson, critics have not yet focused on the changes, both subtle and significant, to all of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historical speeches that had to be rewritten because the film did not receive the rights. This forced DuVernay to create speeches in the spirit of King's in regard to his appeal to the audience's sense of justice and ideals of freedom, and to establish a rhetorical call-to-action for the contemporary audience. To compare the differences in orations between history and film, I conducted the rhetorical analyses using the Neo-Aristotelian, or Traditional, approach. The editor of Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action, Jim Kuypers, defines this approach as “focused on the three modes of proof identified by Aristotle, (logos, ethos, and pathos), which broadly speaking defined rational argument, appeals to credibility, and rhetoric that produced an emotional response.” While other speeches and writings of King, such as “I Have a Dream” or “Letter from Birmingham,” are usually studied extensively, the speeches this capstone examines have not had as much attention. I perform rhetorical analyses on King's historical “Our God Is Marching On!” speech, the film's version of “Our God Is Marching On!,” the film's original song “Glory” based on King's references and allusions in his speeches, King's historical “Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance” speech, and the visual rhetoric of the “Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance” speech All of these works both by King and DuVernay not only revolve around the proficient use of logos, ethos, and pathos, but also around archetypal metaphors of war, rising light, and darkness. In this capstone, I found that even though both versions were rhetorically similar due to the use of archetypal metaphors, which appeal to the audiences' ideals of freedom, s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Maura Grady PhD (Advisor); Linda Joyce Brown PhD (Committee Member); Christopher Swanson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Film Studies; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, English

“From the Classroom to the Movement: Schoolgirl Narratives and Cultural Citizenship in American Literature” examines the relationship between girlhood narratives and discourses of cultural citizenship in American literature and human rights rhetoric. This dissertation analyzes the use of girls as symbols of national values in political rhetoric, as well as the relationship between girls as consumers of culture, and the ways in which girls conceive of their own citizenship and their place in American public life through specific political activities such as labor reform and the Civil Rights Movement. These relationships are demonstrated through life-writing such as autobiography and diaries, novels, educational materials, and other documents, which are analyzed using critical theory on gender, citizenship, and sentimentality. The first two chapters consider how girls position themselves as citizens and as members of specific communities in memoirs from immigrants at the turn of the twentieth-century and African American girls involved in the Civil Rights Movement. These chapters take up issues of gender and citizenship, as well as girls' control over narratives about their own lives, and how they respond to popular discourses of citizenship contemporary to their writing. The later chapters focus on these issues in transnational contexts, and consider the connections between citizenship, human rights, and cultural ideas about gender and childhood, as well as histories of oppression, empire, and neoliberal and capitalist means of circulating resources and “awareness.” The third chapter analyzes the construction of girlhood and citizenship on the border between the United States and Mexico, as well as issues around the dramatization of traumatic violence, through examining media accounts, novels, poetry, and testimonios about the feminicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The final chapter critiques the construction of girlhood and discourses of compassion used in campaigns s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anita Mannur (Committee Chair); Andrew Hebard (Committee Member); Edwards Erin (Committee Member); Kulbaga Theresa (Committee Member); Albarran Elena (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Gender Studies

Master of Liberal Studies, University of Toledo, 2016, Liberal Studies

The overall configuration of the antiwar movement will be explained through a local study of Cleveland, Ohio as this was an important center for the movement's genesis and of antiwar activity. The historical beginnings of the war will be covered while outlining how, why, when and where the movement against it developed. Northeast Ohio had strong cultural and active liberal campuses at the time, which organized the first formal antiwar conference protest meetings in 1966. The organizational conferences in Cleveland led to the first massive antiwar protest demonstration in New York City and San Francisco on April 15, 1967, and from that day changed the direction of the United States war policy in Vietnam.

Committee: Todd Michney Ph.D. (Advisor); Jerry Van Hoy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kim Nielsen Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to give recognition to and lift up the voices of African American women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. African American women were active leaders at all levels of the Civil Rights Movement, though the larger society, the civil rights establishment, and sometimes even the women themselves failed to acknowledge their significant leadership contributions. The recent and growing body of popular and nonacademic work on African American women leaders, which includes some leaders' writings about their own experiences, often employs the terms “advocate” or “activist” rather than “leader.” In the academic literature, particularly on leadership and change, there is little attention devoted to African American women and their leadership legacy. Using a methodology of narrative inquiry, this study begins to remedy this gap in the leadership literature by incorporating history, sociology, and biography to describe the key characteristics of African American women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. In acting to dismantle entrenched and often brutal segregation, they had no roadmaps, but persisted with authenticity, purpose, and courage. Few had position power; they led primarily as servant leaders. They widely engaged in adaptive leadership, which was often transformational. This study's interviews with nine women leaders who represent a range of leadership experiences and contributions reveal leadership lessons from which we can learn and which lay the groundwork for future research. This Dissertation is available in open access Ohiolink ETD Center (http://etd.ohiolink.edu) and AURA (http://aura.antioch.edu).

Committee: Alan E. Guskin PhD (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre PhD (Committee Member); Elaine Gale PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Jordan PhD (Other) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Biographies; Black History; Black Studies; Gender Studies; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Long Civil Rights Movement scholars have begun to reconstruct a more accurate representation of the literary left, filling in the gap in scholarship that previously existed between the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. With the aid of the backdrop set up by the “Long Movement” scholars, this study aims to add to the understanding of those authors who lives and works have yet to be fully explored because of the ramifications of the McCarthy era. This discussion focuses on Chester Himes, for his work is as influential as both Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison's, yet Himes has only recently begun to receive the critical acclaim he deserves. Most recent scholarship seems to identify Himes's strongest novels to be If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) and Lonely Crusade (1947) because of the clear political connections that can be made to Himes's life as an activist. Less has been said about his Harlem Detective Series, and the studies that have been conducted present very little connection to his continued political involvement. I will locate his first—A Rage in Harlem (1957)—and his final—Blind Man With a Pistol (1969)—novels of the series within the historical framework that Dowd Hall has set up for us in an attempt to add to the literature on this important, yet discounted author. The same political activism that is seen in Himes's early works is mirrored within these two novels as seen through his absurd depictions of violence in Harlem.

Committee: Julie Burrell PhD (Committee Chair); Rachel Carnell PhD (Committee Member); James Marino PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Literature

MSARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The Lincoln Memorial Monument is one of the most successful monuments in Washington D.C. Abraham Lincoln's achievements in his presidency left imprints on every American's life. His memory lives on through the generations. The monument was originally considered a Union Civil War and Presidential memorial, but has evolved into something more. This thesis will analyze the evolution on this monument. This memorial has adapted to a shifting nature of its meaning to different generations throughout the history of the United States. This nature is attributed to its location, the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil War, and the personal character of Abraham Lincoln. A major aspect of success comes from the location and iconography of the site. The statue alone inspires a spiritual connection to the struggles of Lincoln. The memorial was placed on the direct axis of the National Mall. This is considered a location of great honor and is easily accessible to visitors. The site and design also allows a massive amount of people to gather and participate in events on the grounds of the monument. A visit to the Lincoln Memorial is a remarkable journey though American history and the extraordinary memorials and monuments of the National Mall. Another crucial aspect to the success of this monument in Washington D.C. is the struggle for civil rights. The Civil Rights Movement was able to use the monument as a stage for protest. The movement could then use the Lincoln Memorial and the character of Lincoln as part of its iconography. This fundamentally changed the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial Monument. This allowed a major shift in the meaning of the movement, allowing the monument to grow within another generation of Americans. The personal life and views of Lincoln led to many of his successes and accomplishments throughout his political career. His experiences in life impacted many of his policies and the laws that he stood for in the United States. Lincoln's character (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patrick Snadon Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Nnamdi Elleh Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture