Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2024, Theological Studies

This thesis promotes and argues for the necessary contributions of historical theology within dialogue and action on racial justice in the US Catholic Church. For Catholics to actualize the call to “listen,” given by the US bishops in 2018 in their pastoral letter, "Open Wide Our Hearts" (OWOH), historical retrievals of racial injustices must be prioritized. Proper listening must be done at local levels with the experiences of the racialized community centered within the history itself. Otherwise, one risks abstracting the work of racial justice and ignoring real sites of racial injustices. To substantiate this method, this thesis retrieves the local history of St. Francis Xavier Parish and School, a Black Catholic parish and school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their history uncovers two significant instances of racial injustice which are elaborated on: the demolition of their high school due to interstate road construction and the near closure of their elementary school amidst integration. In both cases, the concerns of the parishioners were not listened to by the white authorities, even their bishops who wrote on racial justice issues. The telling of their history requires people even today to listen to their stories and engage with their experiences. Without the contributions of a grounded historical method, theologies on racial justice have been and are still susceptible to causing more harm in racial relations, even in well-intentioned pursuits for justice.

Committee: Joseph Flipper (Advisor); Nicholas Rademacher (Committee Member); Cecilia Moore (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; History; Modern History; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; Religious History; Theology

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

MA, Kent State University, 1992, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

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Committee: Frank Byrne Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: African Americans; Black History; Religious History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, History

This dissertation examines Black Power era student activism in Virginia and North Carolina from 1965 to 1975. Critical masses of Black students ushered in Black Power politics on historically white college campuses across the Upper South as the 1960s drew to a close. The Black students who desegregated the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia in the late 1960s arrived at their respective campuses with an ideological militancy rooted in southern Black communities. This project examines how Black Power student activists sought to challenge white supremacy at each state's flagship university and ultimately altered higher education. This change is evident in the creation of Black Studies programs and other institutions geared toward African American experiences. Moreover, their presence, protests, and political platforms stirred massive shifts in higher education, including more inclusive policies as well as the intense expansion of university administrations. Identifying the symbiotic connection between community ties and individual political consciousness highlights the many ways in which Black power politics, though often presented as an ideological break, firmly reflects the tenants and practices of the larger Black freedom struggle. Those students and their activism model the importance and potential of people power.

Committee: Hasan Jeffries (Advisor); Leslie Alexander (Committee Member); Clay Howard (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, History

The case of Dayton's “Fair-Share” Metropolitan Housing Plan (1969–1981) presents a challenge to several traditional narratives of (sub)urban postwar U.S. history. Planners in Greater Dayton successfully integrated the region's affordable housing stock while encouraging the Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) to inaugurate a new era of fair housing in the wake of the failure of George Romney's Open Communities program. The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission did so with the help of willing business elites and federal administrators, and also by adopting conservative suburban rhetoric to serve the end of metropolitan open housing. This narrative examines why business elites and the suburbs came to support the construction affordable housing outside of the city, and why fair share fair housing was adopted by H.U.D. This thesis challenges the assertion that fair housing inherently conflicts with community development. It also traces the history of metropolitan-wide fair housing to its proper origins: Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton Plan was successful on its own terms, in that it increased the affordability of suburban housing. But racial integration did not follow economic integration, as planners had assumed. This was due in large part to retrenchment in fair housing on the part of the federal government and local business elites. More specifically, the economic hollowing-out of Dayton played a role in the failure of the plan to racially integrate the suburbs—a heretofore unexplored explanation for continued metropolitan segregation in small cities of the Midwest during the decades following the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Committee: Steven Conn (Advisor); Nishani Frazier (Committee Member); Damon Scott (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, History

Jewish involvement in civil rights for African Americans has often been shrouded in myth. Typical tropes declare that Jews built an alliance with African Americans based on a sense of common oppression but that Southern Jews stayed quiet concerning civil rights issues fearing antisemitic repercussion. This dissertation uses archival research and builds on past scholarly work to overturn these tropes and reveal the complex situation of Jews in the South who promoted higher education for African Americans. Jews interested in civil rights between 1910 and 1965 did not formally build an alliance with African Americans, and those who lived in the South were not quiet; however, they operated in different and unorganized ways compared to their coreligionists in the North. Southern college campuses provided a unique site for Jews to take part in the struggle for enabling African Americans to pursue higher education. By its very nature, the college campus fostered a liberal atmosphere but was surrounded by a landscape riddled with antisemitic, antiforeigner, and anti-Communist sentiments. Jews who chose to take part in this struggle in the South simultaneously questioned their own identity as both nonwhite and nonblack and also American (insider) and foreigner (outsider). This constant negotiation hindered their ability to make inroads, thus Jewish contributions in the South were neither obviously nor immediately successful.

Committee: Robin Judd (Advisor); Steven Conn (Committee Member); Matthew Goldish (Committee Member); Isaac Weiner (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Education History; Ethnic Studies; Higher Education; History; Judaic Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern History; School Administration; Secondary Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, Educational Leadership

Critical Race Theory challenges us to analyze a number of issues such as racial, gender, and class privileges within both formal and informal structures and processes of schooling. In addition, CRT reveals its direct implications for identifying and analyzing traditional notions of the objectivity of law and administrative regulation as it applies to education and schooling. Therefore, CRT in education can be defined as a framework or set of basic perspectives, methods, and pedagogy that seeks to identify, analyze and transform those structural, cultural, and interpersonal aspects of education that maintain the subordination of people of color and hopes to foster ways to engage in critical race analysis and positive change with regard to racial justice in the schools. One of the alleged benefits from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was to ensure that Black children would have equal access to the resources of their White counterparts. For the purposes of this study, CRT will be used in an attempt to take a critical look at the impact of achieving unitary status has had on the Rockford Public Schools This study investigates the impact of unitary status on the Rockford Public Schools, focusing specifically on changes that have taken the federal court's order releasing the school district from its earlier desegregation order. The major questions to be explored in this study include: A. What systemic changes have occurred within the Rockford School District as a result of being granted unitary status? B. What stories/experiences are Rockford residents telling about race, desegregation, and schooling? Although unitary status has been acquired, it is clear that much work remains to be done to heal this disjointed community. Revisiting this subject can be a powerfully important step in not only healing the wounds inflicted from this journey, but also provides valuable reflection of root causes for the internal conflict within the district. Th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Denise Taliaferro-Baszile (Committee Chair); Michael Dantley (Committee Member); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Sheri Leafgren (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Education; Educational Leadership; School Administration

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2013, Leadership and Change

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have a list of outstanding accomplishments that span over a century; however, this segment of higher education continues to be underfunded and remains in a position of justifying its existence in a postracial America. The issues facing HBCUs are significant. Race-based legislation has created a dual system of American higher education that adversely affects these minority serving institutions, impacting the quality of education they dispense and producing potentially negative effects on vulnerable and under-served collegians. Supreme Court Justice Thomas's opinion in the U.S. v. Fordice (1992) case opposed the creation of HBCUs as “enclaves for the black community,” however, he also pointed out that it was unfair for HBCUs who bore the burden of segregation to now shoulder the responsibility for desegregation (United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2010, p. 43). Aided by the Delphi Technique, this study explores the effects of the Fordice verdict on HBCUs. By taking an historical view of policies and legislation that have affected HBCUs, I consider whether the opportunity exists for parity between Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) and HBCUs, both in educational value and resources. I also review leadership theories that could potentially be applied to HBCUs for sustainability. Utilizing a Critical Race Theory lens, I examine the history of legislation and desegregation policies that significantly influenced trends and sustainability of these colleges while providing a better understanding as to why HBCUs are in their current state. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Alicia Jackson PhD (Committee Member); Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Member); Mary Beth Gasman PhD (Other) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; Education; Education History; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; History; Minority and Ethnic Groups

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Education : Educational Foundations

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of Cincinnati Public Schools with desegregation from 1974 to 1994. This analysis of desegregation in the Cincinnati Public Schools examines the historical, political and legal nuances that affected and defined the CPS experience. This case study builds off of the previous dissertations on desegregation in Cincinnati Public Schools by Michael Washington (1985) and Charles Jackson (1989). A critical legal theoretical framework (Crenshaw, 1988) is used to analyze the Cincinnati experience. The study also examines legal precedents, significant historical events such as population shifts, and social and political phenomena as factors, as significant forces that shaped and the local outcomes. Through a combination of research in these areas and the critical legal theoretical framework, it is argued that CPS took a restrictive approach to remedy a history of discriminatory patterns and practices implemented in the district. Consequently, there were no real, systemic changes were in the district. The filing of two successive lawsuits forced the district to implement programming aimed at responding to issues created by a history of discriminatory patterns and practices. This programming took place over a 20-year period from 1974-1994 and included expansion of magnet schools, open enrollment, faculty integration, unbiased discipline policies and improved education in the districts 7 lowest achieving schools. The study concludes that success was minimal. The district was successfully able to expand the system of magnet schools to accommodate the goal 20,000 students. CPS was also able to minimal faculty integration goals. Conversely, programs such as open enrollment and the magnet schools undermined the neighborhood schools. As a result of the significant amount of student departure, neighborhood schools became more racially and socio-economically isolated throughout the period of federal oversight. Due to poor implementat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Mary Ann Pitman (Advisor) Subjects:

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

This study is an inquiry into the possibilities and limitations of school consolidations. The study begins by exploring the history of school reorganization from the common school movement to the present. From this history we learn that unchallenged assumptions regarding school consolidations and efficiency and effectiveness gains have thrived. My research draws attention to the scarcity of post-consolidation studies that provide discernable evidence that either school or district consolidations have resulted in enhanced efficiencies or effectiveness. Difference-in-Difference (DiD) Estimation calculations were performed on national and state data looking for evidence that consolidations improved efficiencies or effectiveness. The results are inconclusive. Thrown into the mix of efficiency and effectiveness goals was consolidation for equity, which came into play in the 1960s. The study of consolidation through the lens of equity shows that desegregation and fiscal considerations have remained the foci of the pursuit of equal educational opportunity, for about fifty years. Looking at the Warren City School District's consolidation experience over the past three decades, we see that consolidation based on the premise of educational equity has often resulted in upheaval for minority and economically disadvantaged children, their families, and their communities. The elusive concept of local control of schooling is examined to ascertain whether local control can act as a bulwark against consolidation efforts. We learn that there is no consensus concerning what local control means, at what level it exists, and who actually does the local controlling. Furthermore, we see that the state has extraordinary powers to wrest any local control that a community may enjoy. The study concludes with an exploration of the significance of neighborhood and local schools in struggling communities. Consolidation too often removes schools from the most fragile of communities, resulting (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Natasha Levinson PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Averil McClelland PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Kathryn Wilson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Finance; Education History; Education Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2007, Organizational Behavior

Why is there no controversy concerning inequality in urban education? Segregation and entrenched non-school problems (poverty, neighborhood deterioration, and family dissolution) in urban districts are key drivers of inequality in a society that views public education as the “great equalizer.” The problem is the failure of the predominantly white affluent to sacrifice their privileges, which has subverted the interests of poor black children, resulting in latent conflict. Urban school desegregation was aimed at equalizing education by replacing the “neighborhood school” with the “integrated school.” It failed because it was banned from expanding into the suburbs and was undermined by worsening non-school problems. However, desegregation must be evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of the schools to counteract non-school problems. To this end, a model and several hypotheses, drawing upon the sociology of education and the neo-ecological approach to poverty, are proposed. School desegregation also offers a chance to extend organizational neo-institutionalism. This theory emphasizes manifest conflict in the examination of the politics of organizational legitimacy. However, the prevailing legitimacy of the “neighborhood school” indicates latent conflict. It is hypothesized that neighborhood schools were re-institutionalized in the 1990s due to restricted opportunity for manifest conflict and were legitimated through a discourse cloaking the nature of inequality. Hypotheses were tested on data from the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD), which implemented desegregation between 1979 and 1993, re-segregating between 1994 and 1998. Yearly records for 305,706 students were available. Also, 1,557 articles on schools from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (CPD) between 1993 and 1998 were collected to examine the discourse. CMSD archives were used for econometric analysis. CPD content was used for frame analysis. As hypothesized, desegregation made the schools more effectiv (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eric Neilsen (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2013, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

This study examines the experiences of African-American teachers and their perceptions of their experience throughout their career. African-American teachers have faced many challenges and have overcome many obstacles over the last half of the 21st century in the wake of Brown v. Board, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the stories of African-American teachers, past and present, may give additional perceptions to educational leaders willing to listen to their stories. This study is intended to serve as an informative tool for educational leaders to become aware of how the culture of their school can influence the careers of African-American teachers and to provide school leaders with insight and courage needed to make changes where necessary. The “culture of power” that exists in a school reflects the rules of the culture of those who make policy and rules, whether written or implied. This study examines the experiences of African-American teachers and puts to print their stories as told through their own narratives. Fourteen African-American teachers participated in granting videotaped interviews. Their careers ranged, from currently hired and teaching to retired, with varying years of experience. The ages of the participants ranged from mid-twenties to seventies. The participants resided and worked, or currently work, in a tri-county area of Western Pennsylvania. Their school districts were located in rural, urban, and suburban areas. The goal of this study was designed to encourage readers, particularly educational leaders, to be more cognizant of the cultural differences among their colleagues by presenting a minority perspective via the lenses of African-American teachers.

Committee: Robert Beebe Ed.D. (Advisor); Sylvia Imler PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Mosca PhD (Committee Member); Charles Vergon J.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Educational Leadership; Teaching