African American Heritage Research Articles

Ethnicity can predict GLRA1 genotypes in hyperekplexia

ObjectivesHyperekplexia is predominantly caused by mutations in the α-1 subunit of the inhibitory glycine receptor (GLRA1). Three quarters of cases show autosomal-recessive inheritance.MethodsWe carefully ascertained reports of ethnicity from our...

Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination by Salamishah Tillet (review)

Reviewed by: Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination by Salamishah Tillet Patricia Stuelke Tillet, Salamishah . 2012 . Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination. Durham, NC : Duke University Press . $84.95 hc. $23.95 sc. 248 pp. In a second-season flashback, viewers of Shonda Rhimes’s delicious soap opera Scandal finally become privy to African-American political fixer Olivia Pope’s reasons for (temporarily) abandoning her job and her affair with married white president Fitzgerald Grant, despite having helped steal the election for him. “I’m feeling a little Sally Hemings–Thomas Jefferson about all this,” she tells Fitz in a stolen hallway conversation. How does this rare historical invocation fit into Scandal’s optimistically postracial yet manifestly corrupt world? Salamishah Tillet’s penetrating study of the uses of slavery in African-American post–civil rights culture offers a means of approaching this question, suggesting that we might understand Rhimes’s show and other texts like it as complicated articulations of African Americans’ ambivalent dreams for American democracy in the post–civil rights era. Tillet’s elegantly constructed book analyzes representations of slavery in the post–civil rights period by African-American authors, artists, and intellectuals as responses to the experience of “civil estrangement”: the paradox in which African Americans possess equality under the law but remain barred from American economic prosperity and the nation’s official myths, monuments, and histories. African-American post–civil rights representations of slavery respond to this paradox by advancing what Tillet terms “a democratic aesthetic,” a “mode of poetics and politics” (12) that critiques myths of American equality while simultaneously writing African Americans back into those narratives and revising them for a radically democratic future. In defining this aesthetic, Tillet explains that these representations neither idolize the past nor revere the state but rather advance a “critical patriotism,” one that incorporates elements of postmodern skepticism and Post-Soul aesthetics in order to advance a utopian dream of democracy while “remaining skeptical of its materialization” (12). In her book’s first two chapters, Tillet investigates the deployment of this “democratic aesthetic” by interrogating post–civil rights revisions of antebellum icons. The first chapter traces how novelist Barbara Chase-Riboud, playwright Robert McCauley, and historian Annette Gordon-Reed reimagine Sally Hemings not as a victim or an empty symbol, but rather as a “radical black female subject” (23). These authors’ restagings of the interracial intimacy between Hemings and Jefferson, Tillet argues, revise sanitized myths of slavery and register post–civil rights civic disenfranchisement while casting Hemings as an agent of history and an ideal model for post–civil rights citizenship. In the second chapter, Tillet [End Page 146] considers post–civil rights renditions of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom and Topsy, tracing how works by Ishmael Reed, Robert Alexander, Bill T. Jones, and Kara Walker use satire to puncture the hegemony of Stowe’s sentimentality while reimagining more complex Uncle Toms and Topsys. Both of these chapters would make for excellent reading in undergraduate literature or composition classrooms, as Tillet organizes them in clearly framed sections that would offer undergraduates useful models for comparative analytical essays. The second chapter, however, is ultimately more compelling than the first, due to Tillet’s careful exploration of how the texts she discusses “are remembering slavery at different points in time” (85). She is beautifully attentive, for example, to how Reed’s 1976 Tom registers a cynical critique of the Black Power movement, while Alexander’s later reappropriation of Tom registers the frustration of the civic estrangement that arose after Rodney King’s beating. In contrast, such attention to shifting historical context is noticeably absent from Tillet’s first chapter. Further consideration of her authors’ revisions of Sally Hemings in relation to the different historical moments of their production (ranging from 1979 to 2008), particularly the evolving context of US feminisms, might have helped Tillet more fully account for the texts’ variegated presentations of the Hemings-Jefferson relationship. The second half of Tillet’s book takes up more collective forms of remembering and representing slavery, considering post–civil rights African-American heritage tourism and African-American...

The De(con)struction of Black/White Binaries: Critiques of Passing in Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth” and Other Stories of the Color Line

The De(con)struction of Black/White BinariesCritiques of Passing in Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth” and Other Stories of the Color Line Tanfer Emin Tunc (bio) When asked to elaborate on the “Negro Problem,” or the co-existence of racial inequality and democracy in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, African American historian W. E. B. Du Bois conveyed that the “’Negro problem’ of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” Kelly Miller, his contemporary and fellow National Association for the Advancement of Colored People activist, proposed a radical solution to this American dilemma: the “Negro must get along, get white, or get out” (qtd. in Brown 275). Thus the official word that African Americans received from the NAACP, arguably the most influential civil rights organization of the early-twentieth century, was that the color line, or the divide along racial lines (usually black and white), would dominate the lives of African Americans for the next hundred years. Moreover, only three solutions existed: “get along” (accommodate); “get white” (assimilate); or “get out” (leave the United States), which many individuals, including artists such as Josephine Baker, eventually did. Miller’s second solution to the Negro problem—”get white”—caused the greatest controversy within the black intellectual community for obvious reasons. Many activists, including Marcus Garvey and his supporters, believed that the future of African Americans lay not in their ability to disappear into the white race, but in their blackness—that is, their ability to resist “miscegenation” and the dominant racial hegemony of the United States. The battle that emerged along the color line during the turn of the twentieth century was chronicled in American literature, specifically through the works of writer Charles Waddell Chesnutt who devoted his entire career to the “Negro problem” (See Wright and Glass). Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1858, but raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Euro-American in appearance but of African American heritage, Chesnutt straddled multiple worlds: North, South, black, and white. Early on in his life, he developed a double consciousness which shaped his career as a fiction writer, essayist, pedagogue, political commentator, lawyer, and legal stenographer at a time when African Americans could not even serve on juries or testify on their own behalf. This double consciousness also influenced his personal life, which he spent in the interstices of the black and white worlds (Ferguson, Introduction 2–3). Chesnutt maintained that because of the intractable racism of American society, the solution to the “Negro problem” lay not in one of Miller’s three solutions, but in the hands of middle class, educated, progressive “color line” blacks such as himself—individuals who transcended categorization by straddling the racial and cultural divide, especially between urban whites and rural blacks (Ferguson, Introduction 5; Ferguson, “Chesnutt’s Genuine Blacks” 113). Moreover, “Chesnutt’s recognition of, and [End Page 676] emphasis on, these interstices, the in-between-ness of race, disturb[ed] turn-of-the-century race science; they exposed the color line as flexible and mutable, a barrier with real social consequences, but nevertheless a biological fiction” (Toth 77). In essays such as “What Is a White Man?” and “The Future American,” Chesnutt describes race as “a modern invention of white people to perpetuate the color line.” He believed that racial fusion or “amalgamation” would eventually (when racist legal restrictions on interracial marriage were revoked) bring an end to race as a category of identity by creating a mestizo, all-inclusive, “future American ethnic type” who defied boundaries: “there would be no inferior race to domineer over; there would be no superior race to oppress those who differed from them in racial externals” (qtd. in McElrath, Leitz, and Crisler 125, 232). Because, as he argued, whiteness was a cultural fiction (“black and Indian blood” already flowed in the veins of many Southern whites), Chesnutt’s utopic vision of American race relations, and plan for the elimination of prejudice and “racial discord,” hinged not on peoples of color assimilating into the dominant white race, which he believed was already “impure,” but in the flexibility and adaptability of hybridity (McElrath, Leitz, and Crisler 125, 232; Fleischmann...

Civil Rights Tourism in Mississippi: Openings, Closures, Redemption and Remuneration

Unlike Georgia and Alabama which have had large civil rights museums for many years, Mississippi is just beginning to acknowledge and memorialize this part of its history. Since 2005, visitors to Neshoba County, infamous for the murder of civil rights workers Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney, have been able to obtain copies of the African-American Heritage Driving Tour which directs tourists to nine points of interest associated with the 1964 killings. In examining this development, my aim is to highlight the diverse political, economic and psychological motives underlying civil rights tourism and the formation of the Philadelphia Coalition which came together to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murders. In specific, this paper argues that civil rights tourism rests on four convergent trends: 1) the interest of the business community in re-imaging Mississippi, 2) the formation of a fragile alliance between white conservatives and moderate African-American leaders, 3) the search for redemption among white Christians, and 4) a growing concern over who will write Mississippi’s recent history.

Adoration of the Wise Men

As told in the Book of Matthew of the Christian bible, more than2000years agoastrologers fromtheMiddle East observed a bright star in the sky and interpreted its appearance tomean that a great leaderof the Jewshadbeen born. A fellowship ofwisemen followed the star to Jerusalem, where theywere questioned byHerod, King of Judea. Perceiving a threat to his sovereignty, Herod instructed the wise men to sendhimword as soonas they found thebaby. They located thebabyJesus inthetownofBethlehemandpresentedhimwith priceless gifts, but chose not to send word to Herod and went homebyanother route.WhenHerod learned that thewisemen had betrayed him, he ordered the killing of all the babies in Bethlehem, but Jesus andhis family escaped toEgypt, beyond the king’s reach. This foundation story, with its elements of prophesy, intrigue, andthestrugglebetweengoodandevil,has resonated for centurieswith artists such as Leonardo daVinci, Albrecht Durer, Diego Velazquez, and the American painter Romare Bearden (1911-1988),whoseAdoration of theWiseMen is one of 24 paintings in his series, “The Passion of Christ.” In thecenterof thispaintingMary themotherof Jesus cradlesher infant inherarms.Toeither sideare thewisemen,bending low tooffer theirgifts.Bearden’skaleidoscopiccomposition is reminiscentof stainedglasswindowsand thedeconstructedgeometry of the French painter Georges Braque. Beardenwas born inCharlotte,NorthCarolina, in 1911.His familymoved toNewYork in 1914andsettled inHarlem.HeattendedLincolnUniversityinChesterCounty,Pennsylvania,transferred toBostonUniversity (where he pitched for the university’sbaseballteam),andgraduatedfromNewYorkUniversitywith adegree ineducation.WhileatNYU,Beardentookcourses inart andwasacartoonist andart editor for ahumormagazineabout campus life.AftergraduationBeardenworkedfor theNewYork CityDepartmentofSocialServicesandpainted inhissparetime. During the 1930s,he createdcovers andcartoons forTheCrisis, published by theNational Association for theAdvancement of ColoredPeople,andCollier'smagazine. In1935,Beardenbecame aweeklyeditorialcartoonistfortheBaltimoreAfro-Americanand the following year he studiedwith the German painter George Grosz at the Art Students League. During this period Bearden paintedDepression-era subjects suchaspoverty-stricken farmers, factoryworkers, and folkmusicians, inaplain,blockystyle reminiscent of the laborers inMexicanmurals. In1942heenlistedintheUSArmy.Forseveralmonthsin1942 and1943,his regimentwasassigned toguard theNewYorkCity subway system against sabotage andwas stationed in Harlem, not far from his studio. Bearden continued to pay the modest rent on the studio during his time in service, so he was able to paint in his off-duty hours. He was visited there by Caresse Crosby, who had recently opened a gallery inWashington, DC. Crosbyoffered to exhibit Bearden’s newseries, “ThePassionof Christ,” a narrative of key events in the life of Jesus. Bearden agreed, and the exhibition opened in June 1945. The 11 watercolors and13oils in this serieswerenothing like theempathetic realismofBearden’s pre-war paintings.His newstyle dissected and pinned the human figure so it could be viewed frommultipleanglessimultaneously,andhissubjectswerehistoricaland religious figures rather thanworking-classAmericans.Themultiple perspectives of Adoration of theWise Men can best be appreciated inthefacesofMaryandher learnedvisitors,whichare seen in profile as well as face-on. Bearden’s viewers were reminded of Braque’s paintings, cathedralwidows, and thework of theFrenchpainterGeorgeRouault,whosecompositionswere also fragmentedand illuminated in themannerof stainedglass (JAMA cover, November 19, 2008). Like Rouault, Bearden had adopted a style in keeping with his subject matter, inviting his viewers to lookcloselyandthinkabout thepictures in theirnarrative context. By choosing subjects with strong traditions, Beardenwasable tocommunicatewithhisaudienceonbothvisualandcontextual levels.“ThePassionofChrist”exhibitionwas wellattended,mostofthepaintingssoldquickly,andhewaspropelled into the ranks ofmajor American painters. ForBearden, “ThePassionofChrist” representedachange in philosophy as well as a change in style. Before the war he was under pressure to carry the mantle of “American Negro artist.” Some critics considered it his responsibility to make paintings about African American heritage. Others found his themes of oppression and poverty to be stereotypical and demeaning. Bearden found a way out of this trap by addressing universal rather than culture-specific themes. Later in his careerhewould return tohis roots, but fornowhedidwhatblack ministers,politicians, andartistshavedone throughoutAmerican history—find common ground through traditional stories of leadership and sacrifice, penance and rebirth, suffering and redemption. Thepublicwas ready for a return to values in art. AfterWorldWarItherewaswidespreaddisillusionmentwith traditionalmorality, but afterWorldWar II the Judeo-Christian imageryofartistssuchasBeardenandRouaultmadeanemotional connection with survivors of the recent world conflagration. Thosewhohadwitnessed,evenatadistance,thecrueltyofWorld War II rediscoveredthenarrativeofagoodmanwhowassingled outandtorturedbutnever losthis faith. Itwas the familiarityof theWesternworldwiththeChriststorythatBeardenfoundmost compelling.Beardenwouldlatersaythattheabidingthemeofhis artwas the“prevalenceof ritual,” referring to thepowerofcommon(orat leastanalogous)cultural traditions toconnectpeople tooneanotherandmakesomekindofsenseofhistoricalevents.

Reversing the Narrative of Hillbilly History: A Case Study Using Archaeology at Van Winkle’s Mill in the Arkansas Ozarks

One of the most powerful and pervasive narratives at work in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains is that of the “hillbilly.” This narrative emphasizes ruralness, whiteness, and an antimodern attitude that both frames how the world sees the Ozarks and how Arkansans see themselves. Since 1997, archaeological investigations have been ongoing at Van Winkle’s Mill, the site of a late-19th-century sawmill community in the Arkansas Ozarks. This multidisciplinary research endeavor has provided important information about the African diaspora in the Ozarks and also aided in the understanding of the industrialization and modernization of the region. Most importantly, it provided a platform for public history that may shed light on the processes of remembering and forgetting at work in Ozark history that have led to the proliferation of myths about the Ozark past and the erasure of a rich African American heritage in the region.

Historical Markers and African American Heritage in Savannah

Essays about historical markers and African American Heritage in Savannah, Georgia. Editorial Introduction Old Negro Burial Grounds (Candace McNeal, Austin Rahn, Liam Murphy, and Kelsey Monagham) Prince Hall Masonic Lodge (Francis Tannie Arnsdorff, Sherrie Bell, Paul Chapman, Leslie Cobb, and Thomas Drane) The Melody Theatre: The largest and Finest Black Theatre (Katherine Soule, Anna Reiter and Molly Vega) About the authors All the authors are varying majors at Armstrong and students of Dr. Michael Benjamin’s Introduction to Public History class.

Deep Rivers: Selected Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds

This essay examines the songs of two African-American women, Florence Price (1888–1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913–72), who embarked upon their compositional studies and careers only a couple of generations after the emancipation. Both discovered in the poetry of Langston Hughes (1902–67) the means for reconciling the musical traditions of their African-American heritage with those of their European training. Through detailed analysis of the textual and musical symbolism in Price's Song to a Dark Virgin and Bonds's The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Three Dream Portraits, the author demonstrates the influence of spirituals ("plantation songs"), blues, and jazz and reveals how these African-American idioms are integrated with the melodic and harmonic idioms from the early twentieth-century European tradition.

The C. H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa

Over the past decade, the C. H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa, located on the grounds of a prehistoric earthwork complex in Memphis, Tennessee, initiated an outreach program to the surrounding African-American community. The archaeological site was first investigated and the Museum founded as a byproduct of the 1930s Jim Crow era segregation policies. Since its inception, the archaeological site and Museum functioned as a place of academic privilege that ignored the surrounding community. Key to the Museum's outreach program is a transparency and commitment to community engagement. Highlights of the Museum's outreach engagement to date include the installation of an African-American Cultural Heritage exhibit, hosting community events, establishment of a community garden, and the collaborative efforts with community partners to carry out service projects. Based in a participatory model, the Museum moved to take its place as a social asset and stakeholder in the Southwest Memphis community.

African American Women’s Perceptions of Depression and Suicide Risk and Protection

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that examined the perceptions of depression and suicide risk and protection among 40 African American women. Seven focus groups were conducted. The thematic findings of the focus group discussions included perceptions of depression as a sense of “spiritual forsakenness” and a healthy alternative to suicide. Living in spirit as well as in community with others was viewed as protection against suicide. Having a strong sense of African American heritage, history, and identity was perceived as protection against suicide and depression. Womanist implications for social work research, practice, and education are discussed.

Permeable Textual Discussion in Tracked Language Arts Classrooms

Permeable textual discussion occurs when the unofficial texts and discursive practices and personal histories that are already recognized and valued in students’ cultures are scaffolds to academically sanctioned literacies. Ideally, permeable textual discussions are safe havens where students’ identities (racial, gender, world views) are intentionally interwoven with classroom texts, and classroom communities are formed that responsively address matters of student identity. Yet the social contexts and instructional practices of academic tracking may shape how students reveal their identities during textual talk. This project examines the conditions of permeability during textual talk in tracked classrooms taught by the same teachers using the same texts. Using ethnographic methods and discourse analysis, the author examines how two tracked urban middle school language arts students of African American heritage revealed and hid their identities during textual talk and the instructional moves that precipitated textual talk.

Collaborative Preparation of K-12 Teachers and Graduate Students in Nanoscience Research and Education.

ABSTRACTA 2010 Report to the President from the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology calls for “research and development to create “well-designed and validated examples of comprehensive, integrated instructional materials” for K-12 education. The Center for Functional Nanoscale Materials (CFNM) at Clark Atlanta University (CAU) and the Center for Science Education at Emory University have partnered in a program that provides a collaborative experience between CAU graduate students and Atlanta area high school and middle school teachers. The partnership expands Emory’s PRISM (Problems and Research to Integrate Science and Mathematics) program, a NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program. We believe that personal and experiential collaboration between these stakeholders in materials education provides even more substantial and tangible benefits.PRISM aims to stimulate reflection, by providing teachers and graduate students (PRISM Fellows) with an opportunity to lead in producing knowledge about pedagogical practice in STEM areas. By direct linkage with pedagogic theory, teaching practice can be subjected to continuous improvement, and it is anticipated that participants will catalyze change in both the educational and research communities.CFNM/PRISM Program ensures that both categories of Fellows participate in professional development activities designed to propagate active learning pedagogies and reflective practice during an annual Summer Institute. Teachers are immersed in a content-rich nano- and materials science research environment, while the graduate fellows have the opportunity during the subsequent academic year to assist with instruction in local schools. Thirteen graduate students and seventeen teachers have participated in the CFNM/PRISM Program over the course of five years. Teams were formed that comprised a teacher, a CAU faculty researcher and a graduate student. Each team tackled a nanoscience research problem during a summer project, developed problem-based learning (PBL) and investigative case-based learning strategies that integrate grade-appropriate science and math content, and implemented the cases in middle school and high school classrooms.The program has been preliminarily evaluated using online written attitudinal surveys and interviews with participants. Most striking among our observations is that teachers report an enhancement of their science process skills, including an increased ability to design and implement experiments for their students. Correspondingly, graduate students report a better understanding of the importance and practice of mentoring, as well as improved ability to articulate complex scientific concepts to lay audiences. Finally, since the student body at CAU and in these Atlanta area school systems is predominantly of African American heritage, the project also contributes to diversification of the Nation’s scientific enterprise.

Periodic Limb Movements during Sleep in Children with Narcolepsy

In adults with narcolepsy, periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS) occur more frequently than in control population, and presence of increased PLMS is associated with greater sleep disruption and shorter mean sleep latency. This study was performed to determine whether PLMS are common in children with narcolepsy, and whether the presence of PLMS is associated with greater sleep disruption. Demographic and polysomnographic information were collected from consecutive patients diagnosed with narcolepsy identified retrospectively by diagnosis-based search. Descriptive data were compiled, and sleep characteristics of children with and without PLMS were compared. Sleep disorders center in a children's hospital. 44 patients, 6-19 years old (mean 13 years, SD 3.57), were identified. Twenty-eight were African American. None. Four patients had a PLMS index (PLMI) ≥ 5/h (considered abnormal in literature). Sixteen (36%) had "any PLMS" (PLMI > 0/h). The mean PLMI was 1.3/h (SD 2.5). Sleep was significantly more disrupted, and the mean sleep latency was shorter in patients with "any PLMS" as compared to those with no PLMS. There was no correlation between the PLMI and other diagnostic criteria for narcolepsy. "Any PLMS" were present equally in children of African American and Caucasian heritage, 35.7% vs. 37.5%. As in adults, children with PLMS and narcolepsy have more sleep disruption and shorter mean sleep latencies than those with narcolepsy but without PLMS. Our findings also suggest that the use of adult criteria for diagnosis of "significant" PLMS in children may not be sufficiently sensitive.

Bone mineral density loss in relation to the final menstrual period in a multiethnic cohort: Results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)

The objective of this study was to describe the time of onset and offset of bone mineral density (BMD) loss relative to the date of the final menstrual period (FMP); the rate and amount of BMD decline during the 5 years before and the 5 years after the FMP; and the independent associations between age at FMP, body mass index (BMI), and race/ethnicity with rates of BMD loss during this time interval. The sample included 242 African American, 384 white, 117 Chinese, and 119 Japanese women, pre- or early perimenopausal at baseline, who had experienced their FMP and for whom an FMP date could be determined. Loess-smoothed curves showed that BMD loss began 1 year before the FMP and decelerated (but did not cease) 2 years after the FMP, at both the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) sites. Piecewise, linear, mixed-effects regression models demonstrated that during the 10-year observation period, at each bone site, the rates and cumulative amounts of bone loss were greatest from 1 year before through 2 years after the FMP, termed the transmenopause. Postmenopausal loss rates, those occurring between 2 and 5 years after the FMP, were less than those observed during transmenopause. Cumulative, 10-year LS BMD loss was 10.6%; 7.38% was lost during the transmenopause. Cumulative FN loss was 9.1%; 5.8% was lost during the transmenopause. Greater BMI and African American heritage were related to slower loss rates, whereas the opposite was true of Japanese and Chinese ancestry.

Genetic ancestry, skin reflectance and pigmentation genotypes in association with serum vitamin D metabolite balance

Lower serum vitamin D (25(OH)D) among individuals with African ancestry is attributed primarily to skin pigmentation. However, the influence of genetic polymorphisms controlling for skin melanin content has not been investigated. Therefore, we investigated differences in non-summer serum vitamin D metabolites according to self-reported race, genetic ancestry, skin reflectance and key pigmentation genes (SLC45A2 and SLC24A5). Healthy individuals reporting at least half African American or half European American heritage were frequency matched to one another on age (+/- 2 years) and sex. 176 autosomal ancestry informative markers were used to estimate genetic ancestry. Melanin index was measured by reflectance spectrometry. Serum vitamin D metabolites (25(OH)D3, 25(OH)D 2 and 24,25(OH)2D3) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) tandem mass spectrometry. Percent 24,25(OH)2D3 was calculated as a percent of the parent metabolite (25(OH)D3). Stepwise and backward selection regression models were used to identify leading covariates. Fifty African Americans and 50 European Americans participated in the study. Compared with SLC24A5 111Thr homozygotes, individuals with the SLC24A5 111Thr/Ala and 111Ala/Ala genotypes had respectively lower levels of 25(OH)D3 (23.0 and 23.8 nmol/L lower, p-dominant=0.007), and percent 24,25(OH)2D3 (4.1 and 5.2 percent lower, p-dominant=0.003), controlling for tanning bed use, vitamin D/fish oil supplement intake, race/ethnicity, and genetic ancestry. Results were similar with melanin index adjustment, and were not confounded by glucocorticoid, oral contraceptive, or statin use. The SLC24A5 111Ala allele was associated with lower serum vitamin 25(OH)D3 and lower percent 24,25(OH)2D3, independently from melanin index and West African genetic ancestry.

Activists, Allies, and Racists

Teachers often resist discussions about racism in the classroom, yet it is a topic that is frequently addressed in multicultural literature. This study examines teachers in a graduate reading program ( N = 58) who used picture books reflecting African American heritage with elementary school children in a summer reading practicum. Prior to teaching children, a subset of these teachers participated in a course that addressed issues of racism, allowing for an investigation of a course effect on teachers’ comfort level with the literature and their addressing of themes that surfaced in the books. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze questionnaires, planning forms, lesson evaluation forms, and transcripts of teachers using the books to test the hypothesis of a course effect and to identify the range of variation in teachers’ ways of using the literature. The teachers in both “course” and “comparison” groups tended to focus on the perspectives, feelings, and traits of the story protagonists when creating discussion questions and after-reading projects for students. Course teachers focused on the activism of Black protagonists significantly more often than comparison teachers did, although participants of both groups did not tend to represent racism as a system of White advantage. These findings suggests that literacy education programs can have an impact on teachers’ ways of using multicultural literature, but to teach in critical and transformative ways, they will need programs that strengthen their understandings of constructs such as structural racism and help them facilitate thoughtful inquiries of this concept when using multicultural literature with children.

PO.04 Ethnic variation in GLRA1 genotype in hyperekplexia

IntroductionMutations in the alpha one subunit of the glycine receptor (GLRA1) cause the majority of genetic (hereditary) hyperekplexia. Three-quarters of cases show autosomal recessive inheritance and some ethic variation has...

Lift every voice and sing: Constructing community through culturally relevant pedagogy in the University of Illinois Black Chorus

For Gloria Ladson-Billings, culturally relevant pedagogy is characterized by three criteria: academic success, cultural competence and critical consciousness. Those engaged in culturally relevant pedagogy are connected by how they see themselves as teachers and how they see their students, how they view knowledge and how they structure social relations in their classroom. These threads are all evident in the University of Illinois' Black Chorus practice. This article shows how conductor Dr Ollie Watts Davis' culturally relevant practices with the choir generate and sustain a unique community with strong social bonds that in turn create and reinforce musical excellence, inspiring the singers to do better, live better and sing better while embracing their African American cultural heritage and identity.

Encyclopedia of African American music

African Americans' historical roots are encapsulated in the lyrics, melodies, and rhythms of their music. In the 18th and 19th centuries, African slaves, longing for emancipation, expressed their hopes and dreams through spirituals. Inspired by African civilization and culture, as well as religion, art, literature, and social issues, this influential, joyous, tragic, uplifting, challenging, and enduring music evolved into many diverse genres, including jazz, blues, rock and roll, soul, swing, and hip hop. Providing a lyrical history of our nation, this groundbreaking encyclopedia, the first of its kind, showcases all facets of African American music including folk, religious, concert and popular styles. Over 500 in-depth entries by more than 100 scholars on a vast range of topics such as genres, styles, individuals, groups, and collectives as well as historical topics such as music of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and numerous others. Offering balanced representation of key individuals, groups, and ensembles associated with diverse religious beliefs, political affiliations, and other perspectives not usually approached, this indispensable reference illuminates the profound role that African American music has played in American cultural history. Editors Price, Kernodle, and Maxile provide balanced representation of various individuals, groups and ensembles associated with diverse religious beliefs, political affiliations, and perspectives. Also highlighted are the major record labels, institutions of higher learning, and various cultural venues that have had a tremendous impact on the development and preservation of African American music. Among the featured: Motown Records, Black Swan Records, Fisk University, Gospel Music Workshop of America, The Cotton Club, Center for Black Music Research, and more. With a broad scope, substantial entries, current coverage, and special attention to historical, political, and social contexts, this encyclopedia is designed specifically for high school and undergraduate students. Academic and public libraries will treasure this resource as an incomparable guide to our nation's African American heritage.

Rooted in the earth: reclaiming the African American environmental heritage

Rooted in the earth: reclaiming the African American environmental heritage