African American Members Research Articles

For the Culture: Examining the Electoral Success of African American Incumbents in the U.S. Congress

In a country where African Americans were once slaves, denied citizenship, elective office, and relegated to second class status a central question that has sparked the interest of scholars examining African American politics has been the benefits of African American political representation. Political Scientists such as Hanes Walton Jr. argues that the rise of African American politicians should significantly improve the lives of African Americans because these politicians will utilize their elected office to provide political representation for African Americans and pursue policies that will dismantle the legacy of racism for African Americans. Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 African Americans politicians have won many seats to the United States Congress, yet few studies have explored the electoral success of these politicians. Studies that do examine the electoral success of African American Members of Congress all too often attribute their success to the creation of majority-minority congressional districts and provides very little attention to how they represent their constituencies. This chapter seeks to fill this void in the academic literature by examining the multiple contours that have attributed to the electoral success of African American congressional incumbents. Analyzing congressional elections from 1970-2012, this chapter demonstrates that while majority-minority congressional district is one the factors that provides African American House Members with an electoral advantage that their electoral success can also be attributed to the fact that they (1) benefit enormously from the incumbency factor, (2) they often face weak challengers in elections and (3) they engage in a number of different symbolic forms of representation that speaks to African American culture. The findings of this chapter suggest that like their white counterparts African American congressional incumbents are strategic actors and utilize many tactics that maximize their reelection chances. This chapter concludes with a set of recommendations for future research that will aid the scholarly community in better unpacking success of African American Members of Congress and African American descriptive representation.

175 Years of Caring: A Celebration

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article From The PresidentFull Access175 Years of Caring: A CelebrationAltha StewartM.D.Altha StewartSearch for more papers by this authorM.D.Published Online:28 Dec 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.1a23In 1844, 13 superintendents of our young country’s institutions for people with mental illness came together for the purpose of improving the lives of the individuals under their care. The founders of what they named the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane were proponents of moral treatment—the idea that society should provide psychosocial care in a humane environment. One of the founders, Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, devised an architectural plan used in the building of many asylums for decades to come that featured natural light and abundant fresh air surrounded by spacious landscapes.One hundred and seventy-five years later, the American Psychiatric Association—the flower of that first meeting in 1844—is marking a milestone in its remarkable history. A high point of the year will be a gala at San Francisco City Hall during APA’s 2019 Annual Meeting.The celebration in San Francisco means a lot to me—and not just because it marks the culmination of my presidential year.Remembering our roots is dear to me because I trained in Philadelphia and spent a career doing the kind of work in public mental health systems originally envisioned by the founders of what became APA. Today, there is a renewed emphasis on the social determinants of health—which I have tried to underscore during my presidency—and an understanding that real recovery depends on understanding the social context in which a person lives. I like to think that Thomas Kirkbride would smile on this development. But owning our history also means owning the fact that sometimes we have fallen short of our ideals. “Not everything that is faced can be changed,” James Baldwin famously wrote. “But nothing can be changed that is not faced.” We need to face the fact that racism mars our country’s history from its colonial beginnings and even the history of our profession. One of APA’s founders, Dr. Francis Stribling, insisted there be a Committee on Asylums for Colored Persons, assuring the segregation of treatment by race. In addition, there is no publicly available evidence that in the 1950s APA supported overturning school segregation in the case Brown v. Board of Education. In response to a request by a prominent African-American member, Dr. Charles Prudhomme, to file an amicus brief in the case, he was told to “withdraw from involvement in the case and remain aloof from such a political issue.” Dr. Prudhomme went on to become APA vice president in the 1970s. In May 1969, a group of black psychiatrists led by Dr. Chester Pierce came to a meeting of the APA Board of Trustees demanding that APA acknowledge racism as a mental health problem and work to desegregate all public and private mental health facilities in the United States. Understanding and facing our past can help us shape the future. We have an exciting opportunity to learn more about our history at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco, where APA and the APA Foundation will be sponsoring a special historical scientific program track. The track will include sessions on the history of psychiatry divided into four separate eras. Here are the four historical eras and their faculty chairs: The advent of organized medicine in caring for people with mental illness (colonial times-1844): John Oldham, M.D.The dawn of the modern era: reforms in care and treatment (1844-1944): Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H.Advancing diagnosis, treatment, and education (1944-present): Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D.Shaping the future of psychiatry: breakthroughs in research and delivery of clinical care (looking ahead): Josh Gordon, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health.Additionally, the history track will include a session on the history of global psychiatry chaired by Dr. Tsuyoshi Akiyama and sessions on the history of psychiatry as related to our minority and underrepresented groups. Those groups are American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian psychiatrists; Asian American psychiatrists; black psychiatrists; Hispanic psychiatrists; IMG psychiatrists; LGBTQ psychiatrists; and women psychiatrists. Look for detailed information in upcoming issues of Psychiatric News.Finally, I would like to suggest that all of us have a stake in the history of our profession and can participate in its preservation. Last year, APA and the APA Foundation opened the Melvin Sabshin, M.D., Library and Archives at APA’s new headquarters in Washington, D.C. I invite you to search your personal archives for historical documents, books, and artifacts that might be worthy of preservation. Information about the library’s acquisition policy can be obtained by emailing [email protected] You can also help support the library through its Adopt-a-Book program.The history of our profession belongs to all of us. I look forward to celebrating it with you! ■ ISSUES NewArchived

The Rise and Fall of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in Arkansas by James D. Ross

Reviewed by: The Rise and Fall of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in Arkansas by James D. Ross Kyle Wilkison The Rise and Fall of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in Arkansas. By James D. Ross Jr. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. Pp. x, 166. $55.00, ISBN 978-1-62190-352-9.) As the fiftieth anniversary of Donald H. Grubbs's Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal (Chapel Hill, 1971) draws near, James D. Ross Jr. offers a new take on the sharecropper uprising that—Ross asserts—complements and slightly revises, but does not replace, the work of Grubbs or a later interpretation by Pete Daniel. Ross contends that previous tellings have oversimplified the union's identity and origin story with competing caricatures of either forward-thinking leftists fighting for racial and human equality or forces of reaction fighting to conserve a customary political economy. Neither interpretation captures the complete picture, because each fails to consider "the views of the sharecroppers and the tenant farmers" who actually composed the union (p. 4). Ross's five short thematic chapters cover the lifetime of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU) from 1934 to 1945, with most of the focus on its crucial formative period. Chapter 1 introduces the sorry tale of late-nineteenth-century southern cotton and its deleterious hold on the Arkansas Delta going into the Great Depression. Chapter 2 provides background for the union's radical milieu, with detailed descriptions of 1930s socialist-communist doctrinal disputes and a surprising amount of biography of leaders near (H. L. Mitchell), far (Norman Thomas), and farther (Henry Wallace). Chapter 3 covers the founding moment, acknowledging the role played by both elite actors and ordinary people. The very founding of the union and its maintenance thereafter were fraught with the crippling white supremacy of some of its white leaders and members. Chapter 4 introduces the promised voices of the union's ordinary members through the desperate letters they sent to the union's headquarters in Tyronza, Arkansas, and later Memphis, Tennessee. The letters reveal hungry, destitute people suffering the collapse of the only economic order with which they were familiar. Ross argues that the gut-wrenching excerpts he provides from about three dozen letter writers represent the typical concerns of most members. For Ross, the letters show that the members, far from being ideologues, were pragmatic people trying to find their children's next meal. They wanted work as sharecroppers; they believed the planters owed them a share of the government's crop reduction payments; they wanted to avoid the social slippage they saw as planters evicted tenants and hired day laborers; they frequently mentioned the ultimate goal of owning their own land. Chapter 5 seeks to explain the union's collapse by focusing on its own frailty. Ross acknowledges that externals—violence, official oppression, and mechanization—defeated the union, but he still pointedly dissects the union's internal weaknesses. His thesis is simple. The racial beliefs and practices of white STFU members and leaders doomed the effort. Where others have portrayed the STFU as another bright moment in the southern Left's pantheon of principled defeats, Ross sees the union as an ineffective organization whose ideologically oriented leadership failed to deliver what its members actually wanted: short-term emergency relief, the ability to continue cotton sharecropping under less [End Page 488] brutal conditions, and, ultimately, sufficient incomes to afford landownership. While Ross acknowledges the STFU's abstract challenge to Jim Crow, he also emphasizes that its white leaders and members manifested an everyday practice of white dominance, rejecting African American members' calls for equity and inclusion in decision-making. This, of course, mortally wounded any hope of solidarity. This work will not replace that of Grubbs or Daniel on the STFU. Nevertheless, it is a helpful companion to both as well as to later writings on the topic. As promised, Ross brings the tenant farmers back into the history of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and reminds southern historians to see what is there, not what they wish to see. Kyle Wilkison Collin College Copyright © 2019 Southern Historical Association

Resisting “Law and Order” in California: Howard Moore Jr., Angela Davis, and the Politics of Prison Radicalism

Resisting “Law and Order” in California: Howard Moore Jr., Angela Davis, and the Politics of Prison Radicalism

Diversity and inclusion in a surgical society: A longitudinal investigation

Although the presence of women and minorities is increasing in academic surgery, inclusion at the highest levels appears to continue to lag in many aspects of leadership and participation. Participation in medical societies is an opportunity in career development but may also propagate disparities. We investigated the presence of women and minorities within one subspecialty society, the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, to better understand the presence of these groups in the leadership of this society. Publicly available data regarding American Association of Endocrine Surgeons membership and leadership were obtained. North American active members in 2007, 2012, and 2017 were identified. Gender and race/ethnicity were determined via internet query. We analyzed the number and proportion of active members and members in leadership positions who were female, East/South/Middle Eastern Asian American ("Asian"), Hispanic/Latin/South American, or African American in each year throughout this period. The American Association of Endocrine Surgeons was established in 1981. From 2007 to 2017, active membership in the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons increased from 178 to 276. The percentages of female (17.4%-35.1%), Asian (9.0%-17.4%), and Hispanic/Latin/South American (3.9%- 4.7%) members increased during this time. The percentage of African American members did not increase (1.7%-1.8%). In 2017, women and Asians composed disproportionately high percentages of council members (50% and 67%, respectively) and committee chairs (46%, 23%) and were inconsistently represented as officers (40%, 20%). Hispanic/Latin/South American and African American members were disproportionately underrepresented at every level of leadership. Diversity in the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons has improved for all groups of diversity that were explored except African American members. Women and Asians are not consistently well represented throughout the organizational leadership, and Hispanic/Latin/South American and African American members are underrepresented. Opportunity exists to improve the diversity opportunities in this organization.

A Preliminary Analysis of Tyler Perry’s ‘House of Payne’ and ‘Meet the Browns’: Effect on the Black Identity, African Americans’ Frequency of Exposure, Perception of Accuracy and Affective Evaluation

A survey method was applied to a sample of 145 self-identified African American members of four predominantly African American churches to assess the influence of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns television shows on their racial identity and how they perceived and evaluated the shows. Results indicate that (1) particular socioeconomic factors, more specifically education attainment, may negatively influence exposure to House of Payne and Meet the Browns, 2) religiosity may account for viewers’ exposure more to House of Payne than to Meet the Browns, 3) House of Payne may have a more significant influence on viewers” black identity than Meet the Browns, 4) Frequency of exposure, income, and education may predict affective evaluation and perceived accuracy of both House of Payne and Meet the Browns, and 5) House of Payne may be considered a more accurate and positive reflection of the black group experience than Meet the Browns.

Imagining Racial Equality

Abstract Local 65 United Warehouse Workers Union (1933–1987), which became District 65 United Auto Workers, promoted photography with a camera club, and a member-edited newspaper New Voices, featuring photographs taken by members. This left-led, New York City distributive industry union began in 1933 on the Lower East Side, and it became the city’s second largest local. The union utilized photography to normalize the role of African American members within the union and to advance a civil rights and anti-racism agenda. This article includes photographs taken by member-photographers, and photo-reproductions of New Voices. New Voices’ photographs included African Americans in the everyday life of the union, challenged race-based labor segmentation, supported community struggles, and defied racial norms in midcentury America.

Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement by Thomas W. Cutrer

Reviewed by: Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement by Thomas W. Cutrer Alex Macaulay Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement. By Thomas W. Cutrer and T. Michael Parrish. Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2018. Pp. xviii, 140. $24.95, ISBN 978-1-62349-602-9.) This brief, briskly paced work tells the story of Doris Miller, an African American sailor in the U.S. Navy who garnered national attention for his heroic actions manning an antiaircraft gun and saving the lives of several fellow seamen during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Born in 1919 near Waco, Texas, Miller grew up in a place and time marked by deep and dangerous racial tensions. Joining the navy in 1939 to help his family financially and to see the world, he served as a messman, the only position available to African American sailors at the time. Stationed aboard the USS West Virginia, he trained to pass ammunition to the ship's Browning machine guns but not to operate them. Nevertheless, on December 7, 1941, Miller jumped into the seat of an unmanned gun and began firing at Japanese bombers. After spending all his ammunition, Miller helped rescue drowning and injured sailors before abandoning ship himself and swimming to safety. News of the heroic, but unnamed, black sailor spread rapidly. The editor of the Pittsburgh Courier identified Miller publicly and began a concerted effort to have him honored and rewarded for his actions. Several congressmen and black leaders pushed for Miller to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, something navy officials refused to do, eventually awarding him the Navy Cross instead. The fight continued, with the black press promoting Miller as a direct refutation of the Jim Crow mind-set that denied black soldiers and sailors equal access to the armed forces. In the process, Miller emerged as a hero within the black community, rivaling boxer Joe Louis as the most popular African American member of the U.S. military. After completing a war bond tour, Miller returned to duty as a cook on the USS Liscome Bay. On November 24, 1943, he was one of hundreds of casualties when that ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo off the coast of Butaritari Island. In about a hundred pages of text, Thomas W. Cutrer and T. Michael Parrish address several key historical developments, including discrimination within the U.S. Navy, the emergence of the Double V campaign, and, most notably, the influence and activism of the black press. Indeed, African American newspapers, the Pittsburgh Courier in particular, kept Miller's story in the public eye, using it to demand recognition of the wartime contributions made by all [End Page 1049] African American service personnel and to challenge segregation in military and civil society. Their efforts resulted in successes, setbacks, and stagnation, with Miller serving more as a symbolic icon whose deeds appeared in poems and song lyrics and whose name came to adorn buildings, parks, memorials, and schools. In their concluding chapter, the authors quote Miller's father, who saw no signs of racial progress soon after the war ended, and they note that racist naval policies survived into the 1970s. The magnitude of Miller's heroism combined with the limited impact it had on the lives of African Americans, including his immediate family, mark this episode as an inspiring and frustrating tale of the modern civil rights movement. Alex Macaulay Western Carolina University Copyright © 2018 The Southern Historical Association

From Hackensack to the White House: The Triumph and Travail of E. Frederic Morrow

Four decades after arranging a historic meeting in the White House of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and African-American leaders on June 23, 1958 former Eisenhower assistant Rocco Siciliano recounted the back-story of the meeting, highlighting its inherent drama and significance. In the course of sharing his recollections Siciliano paid tribute to an African-American member of the White House staff, E. Frederic Morrow, calling him a “true pioneer in the American black civil rights movement.” Added Siciliano: “[Morrow’s] impact on civil rights progress has yet to be appreciated.” Judging “impact” by one individual on a large-scale movement is tricky business. But, as this article notes, there should be no doubt that in serving President Eisenhower New Jersey native Fred Morrow advanced the civil rights cause. The fact that his five-and-a-half-year tenure as a black man in the White House was not always happy or consistently productive of the kinds of initiatives on behalf of racial equality that he advocated should not obscure his contributions.

Abstract 5289: Assessment of environmental influences, behavioral risk factors and genetic differences among a cohort of 819 African American community members

Abstract Objectives: This study was designed to address genetic, environmental and lifestyle risk factors for cancer in populations of African Ancestry. We have established a non-cancer control registry which involves the collection of epidemiological, lifestyle, culture and cancer prevention behaviors (such as cancer screening and diet, etc). Methods: Data was coded and analyzed using Stata from initial study surveys. Results: At analysis, the cohort consisted of 819 participants. The cohort was 65.9% female, ages 18-89 (23.5% within 50-59 age group), 35.9% college graduates, and 17.4% with income level $20,000-$25,000. Two-thirds of the cohort had BMI greater than 25, indicating overweight or obese. When stratified by country of birth, participants born in the US & Territories were more likely to be current smokers (23.3%) and have higher rates of environmental exposure to smoking than any other region of birth analyzed. Participants from US & Territories had the highest access to health care (85.9%). Pap smears were the only screening test with statistically significant difference between the regions, with US & Territories having the highest rates of screening (p < 0.001). Conclusions & Implications: Overall, the cohort and its data provide researchers with a resource to further investigate health disparities in cancer as well as other chronic diseases and tailor culturally relevant education materials to help decrease the rates of cancer in this vulnerable population. Citation Format: Jacquelyn Bucci, Ming Chin Yeh, Khursheed Navder, Joel Erblich, Elizabeth Blackman, Grace X. Ma, Camille Ragin. Assessment of environmental influences, behavioral risk factors and genetic differences among a cohort of 819 African American community members [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5289. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5289

Engaging Diverse Men: An Intersectional Analysis of Men’s Pathways to Antiviolence Activism

Despite the demonstrated utility of intersectionality, research on men allied with women’s rights movements has largely focused on white, heterosexual, middle-class, young men. This study illustrates the importance of attending to men’s intersecting identities by evaluating the applicability of existing knowledge about men’s engagement pathways to the predominantly African American members of a Muslim men’s anti–domestic violence group and a gay/queer men’s gender justice group. Findings from a year-long qualitative study highlight how these men’s experiences differ from those in the literature. While the Muslim men’s experiences add dimension to the existing knowledge—especially regarding age and parenthood, online interactions, and formal learning opportunities—the gay/queer men’s experiences are not accurately represented within it. Their pathways begin earlier, do not rely on women’s input, do not create a shift in gendered worldview, and lack a pathway narrative because they connect to gender justice through their own intersecting identities and experiences. This suggests that a marginalized identity is not in itself sufficient to alter engagement pathways; the particular type of marginalization matters.

CLOSING THE GAP: WHY MINIMUM WAGE LAWS DISPROPORTIONATELY HARM AFRICAN-AMERICANS

Why are black unemployment rates higher than those of whites?1 Common explanations include racism, lack of representation in government, or the market as an oppressive institution. All of these explanations fail: minimum wage laws are the real culprit. States Sowell (2015) in this regard:Low-income minorities are often hardest hit by the unemployment that follows in the wake of minimum wage laws. The last year when the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate was 1930, the last year before there was a federal minimum wage law. ... 'Incidentally, the black-white gap in unemployment rates for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds was virtually nonexistent back in 1948. But the black teenage unemployment rate has been more than double that for white teenagers for every year since 1971. This is just one of many policies that allow liberals to go around feeling good about themselves, while leaving havoc in their wake. 'Section 1 considers three possible causes of the unemployment disparity, and ultimately rejects all of them. Section 2 provides a brief general history of minimum wage laws. Section 3 covers theoretical considerations of labor economics. Section 4 criticizes the prevailing wisdom that minimum wage laws, even if ineffective, are the result of well-meaning social advocates. Instead the history of these laws is one of deliberate collusion on the part of unions, particularly in an effort to disparage minorities and immigrant workers. Section 5 offers possible solutions to the gap in marginal productivity. Section 6 concludes.1. Three Possible Causes of the Unemployment DisparityThe most common explanation given for the high black unemployment is discrimination. The hypothesis is that employers fail to hire blacks because they harbor feelings of ill-will towards minorities. This seemingly plausible hypothesis fails to square with empirical data. Given that both legal and social standing for African-Americans improved steadily throughout the second half of the 20th century, the discrimination hypothesis would predict that the ratio of black to white unemployment would steadily fall concomitantly with the diminution of racist attitudes. The repeal of Jim Crow Laws, the Separate but Equal Clause, and the enactment of the various Civil Rights Acts all suggest that employment conditions for blacks would improve during this period.The death knell for this hypothesis is that the data does not conform to it. In 1975 the black unemployment rate was 14.8 percent, while the white unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. The black to white unemployment ratio was thus less than two (Reynolds, 1995: 43). Yet in each year from 1980 to 1993 this ratio was greater than two (Pew, 2013). If discrimination were the significant factor contributing to black unemployment, then one would expect the data to show the very opposite tendency. The fact that black unemployment increased relative to white unemployment during this period shows that discrimination is at best a very weak factor in explaining black unemployment. More accurately, the one cannot possibly be the cause of the other.Another possible explanation for high rates of black unemployment is the relative absence of members of this community in Congress. This branch of government writes the laws, after all, and therefore sets the rules of the game. Blacks are underrepresented in Congress, so perhaps their employment interests are denigrated. This hypothesis fails for the same reason as the one about discrimination - the data fails to support it. While it is true that blacks are still underrepresented in Congress, this disproportion fell during the same period that the black to white unemployment ratio rose. Subsequently, the number of African American Members steadily increased. In the 98th Congress (1983-1985), the number surpassed 20 for the first time and in the 103rd Congress (1993-1995) reached 40 (Manning). The underrepresentation hypothesis would predict that black to white unemployment would fall as a consequence of black gains in Congress, but the data do not bear this out. …

Byline, Richard Wright: Articles from the Daily Worker and New Masses by Richard Wright

Reviewed by: Byline, Richard Wright: Articles from the Daily Worker and New Masses by Richard Wright Brennah Hutchison (bio) Wright, Richard. Byline, Richard Wright: Articles from the Daily Worker and New Masses. Ed. Earle V. Bryant. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2015. Earle V. Bryant's Byline, Richard Wright: Articles from the Daily Worker and New Masses historically contextualizes Wright's journey as a journalist with several publications during the years he was associated with the US Communist Party. Bryant's critical book chronicles the celebrated writer's activism not through his well-known literary works, but through his lesser-known periodical pieces that were featured in publications such as the Daily Worker (1921–1958), New Masses (1926–1948), and New Challenge (1937).1 Byline presents a detailed roadmap of Wright's editorial passage through an America that is suffering due to the Great Depression. The critical text examines the historic events that Wright humanized in an attempt to shed light on issues like: the African American livelihood in an impoverished Harlem, where many residents could not even afford the inflated price of milk; America as a global citizen in an ever-changing sociopolitical milieu; how Joe Louis came to represent democracy in his infamous match against Nazi Max Schmeling; [End Page 117] the unlikely faces of African American members within the Communist Party, like Mother Ross who was born a slave; and the importance of art as propaganda through the life and folk lyrics of Huddi Ledbetter. Bryant illustrates that Wright's journalistic work showcased the author's ability as an active observer/writer and his talent for encapsulating an era of political instability on local and international levels. Bryant aims to demonstrate that Wright immortalized the everyday [wo]man, along with the celebrated, in order to create a realistic snapshot of the late-1930s in America. Bryant is successful in representing this; Wright's articles that he includes exemplifies the author's sense of responsibility, not only to the US Communist Party, but also to his fellow residents in Harlem and America in general. Much like Bigger Thomas in Wright's legendary Native Son (1940), within his periodical pieces Wright typifies the need to focus on all facets of human nature in order to produce a more fulfilling picture. Byline is organized into five sections. For the most part, each section focuses on major/ minor and international/local historical events that affected the United States, and the African American community specifically. "Section One: The Shame Spot of New York" highlights Wright's never-ending work when it came to disclosing the inhabitable conditions of Harlem. Bryant makes a point of exhibiting Wright's social actions through a stoical pathos with his Daily Worker article "Negro, with 3-Week-Old Baby, Begs Food on Streets": While Wright's account of Harlem's battered and bruised souls is heart-rending, his intent is not to evoke tears. 'If you are the type to weep,' he writes at the conclusion of 'Negro . . . Begs Food,' then 'you can have a good cry over this and then feel good, 'purged,' you know. But tears can't stop starvation.' Wright's primary purpose is to effect action, reform. (18) In addition, pieces like "A.L.P. Assemblyman Urges State Control of Price of Milk" were also featured in the Daily Worker. Readers have no choice but to confront the devastating lifestyle of Mr. and Mrs. Adolphus Green and their children of Harlem: What does this 1-cent per quart increase in the price of milk mean to a Negro family in Harlem? Mount the steps at 14 E. 120th St. and knock . . . you want to know how the rise in the price of milk will affect their living? . . . The children, including the mother and father, are undernourished. In telling the ages of her children, Mrs. Green declared timidly: 'I'm always ashamed to tell people how old my children are, they are so small. They simply don't get enough to eat.' (33–34) Bryant establishes that Wright has the skill to drag the reader along with him in his journalistic endeavors in an impoverished Harlem situated in the Great Depression. "Section Two: The...

Physical Health Screenings Among African-American Church and Community Members.

This study sought to identify characteristics, including religiosity, related to having received health screenings among persons who attend African-American churches or receive church-based community outreach services. A sample of 602 was recruited during two phases as part of a larger project. Blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose screenings were the most frequently reported screenings ever and in the last 12months. Although religiosity was significantly related to several of the health screenings in bivariate analysis, it is not a predictor of health screenings in multivariate analyses. Innovative strategies are needed to promote screenings such as church-based health fairs.

Leveling the playing field: the story of the Syracuse 8

Leveling the Playing Field tells the story of the African American members of the 1969u70 Syracuse University football team who petitioned for racial equality on their team. The petition had four demands: access to the same academic tutoring made available to their white teammates; better medical care for all team members; starting assignments based on merit rather than race; and a discernible effort to racially integrate the coaching staff, which had been all white since 1898. The playersAE charges of racial disparity were fiercely contested by many of the white players on the team, and the debate spilled into the newspapers and drew protests from around the country. Mistakenly called the oSyracuse 8o by media reports in the 1970s, the nine players who signed the petition did not receive a response allowing or even acknowledging their demands. They boycotted the spring 1970 practice and Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, a deeply beloved figure on campus and a Hall of Fame football coach nearing retirement banned seven of the players from the team. As tensions escalated white players staged a day-long walkout in support of the coaching staff, and an enhanced police presence was required at home games. Extensive interviews with each player offer a first-hand account of their decision to stand their ground while knowing it would jeopardize their professional football career. They discuss with candor the ways in which the boycott profoundly changed the course of their lives. In Leveling the Playing Field, Marc chronicles this contentious moment in Syracuse UniversityAEs history and tells the story through the eyes of the players who demanded change for themselves and for those who would follow them.

Shall We Overcome? Self-Efficacy, Teacher Licensure Exams, and African American Preservice Teachers

ABSTRACTThis article reports findings from a 3-year qualitative study exploring the experiences of African American preservice teachers as they prepared for the Praxis “basic skills” teacher-licensure exam, a gatekeeper to many teacher-education programs. Using the construct of self-efficacy, results illustrate how students assess their Praxis capabilities from (a) previous mastery or failure experiences with other standardized tests and classes from college to elementary school and (b) vicarious experiences from African American students, friends, and family members. The article provides recommendations to prepare students for preprofessional examinations such as Praxis that often limit the numbers of African American teachers eligible for certification.

A Performative Memoric Investigation of YoungGiftedandFat

In 2013, Sharrell D. Luckett formed the Performance Studies & Arts Research Collective, which encourages members to explore their identities through the arts. Around this time, Audrey Edwards and Megan J. Stewart—both African American females and Collective members—became interested in autoethnography, and Luckett invited them to study closely with her. In this performative essay, Luckett, Edwards, and Stewart implicitly highlight various power negotiations enacted as professor/student, actress/stage manager, actress/assistant director, and mentor/mentee, while all working on their own autoethnographies, and while working collectively on Luckett's autoethnographic performance: YoungGiftedandFat.

Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah

African American members of the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah religious movement claim to be legal heirs to the land annexed by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Washitaw frame and advance this claim via legal discourse based upon counterfactual religious readings of the law, which they take to be universal, authoritative, and efficacious. The latter view, shared by various related communities, draws further validation from even negative encounters with the legal establishment. This article examines the Washitaw movement’s legal interpretations, particularly in the movement’s foundational text, Return of the Ancient Ones, and the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Henry Turner’s Heirs.

Gender Differences in the Experiences of African American College Students: The Effects of Co-ethnic Support and Campus Diversity

Abstract This study applies an intersectional framework to provide information about the ways in which race, gender, and on-campus social support influence the experiences of African American college students. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, I examine how co-ethnic social support from the college community and the college racial composition influence the experiences of African American students attending selective colleges. The results suggest that African American women and men are differentially influenced by co-ethnic support and college racial composition. African American women are more likely than are African American men to receive personal support from African American members of the campus community, take classes with African American professors, and participate in an African American student group. I also find that co-ethnic support is positively related to the academic and social experiences of African American women during college, and I find that the college satisfaction of African American women is positively related to campus diversity.

Where are minority physics faculty members?

There is a significant clustering of African-American physics faculty members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Almost half (47%) of African-American physics faculty members are employed by physics departments at HBCUs. Physics departments at 30 HBCUs award degrees in physics; this accounts for about 4% (30 out of 746) of the physics-degree-granting departments in U.S. colleges and universities. Half of all African-American physics faculty members work at just 23 departments, meaning that most physics students will never see a black faculty member.