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© Copyright by Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS ____________________________ Andrew Joseph Pegoda APPROVED: ____________________________ Linda Reed, Ph.D. Committee Chair ____________________________ Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D. ____________________________ Richard Mizelle, Ph.D. ____________________________ Barbara Hales, Ph.D. University of Houston-Clear Lake ____________________________ Steven G. Craig, Ph.D. Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Department of Economics ii “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ An Abstract of A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 ABSTRACT Historians have continued to expand the available literature on the Civil Rights Revolution, an unprecedented social movement during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that aimed to codify basic human and civil rights for individuals racialized as Black, by further developing its cast of characters, challenging its geographical and temporal boundaries, and by comparing it to other social movements both inside and outside of the United States. Thus far, they have barely scratched the surface when it comes to either historical memory or filmic texts. This dissertation, then, provides an in-depth examination of both how Hollywood films from the 1990s to the present represent the Civil Rights Revolution and how individuals evaluate these films. Given that movies mirror a society’s hopes and fears and tell more about the time in which they were made than the time portrayed, they prove to be important cultural and social barometers of society at large. Selected films, along with almost 3,500 reviews from Amazon, are the focus of this examination. This dissertation argues that Hollywood manifests and perpetuates the on-going struggle of coming to terms with the past. Films ignore evidence and consistently minimize and delete the activism of Black people, while maximizing the generosity, forethought, and understanding of White people. Additionally, everyday people accept filmic representations of the past as epitomizing undisputed, utopian truths. Studying historical memory reminds academics that there is always a gap, sometimes quite large, between the past, how the past is documented, how trained historians study the past, and how society understands the past. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS What a wonderful journey graduate school has been, especially the three years working on this dissertation. I have learned an incredible amount and have drastically changed for the better. The past eight years at the University of Houston have been academically challenging and rewarding. The past eight years have also been medically challenging, undergoing major surgery in 2009 and another somewhat less major surgery in 2015, starting many new medications, and facing new medical challenges. I have been unable to keep track of all of those who deserve my many thanks yous, but I will try. My apologies if I forgot to mention you here. As my doctoral advisor, Dr. Linda Reed deserves special and numerous thank yous. Since I first met her in 2008, she has always been incredibly generous and supportive with both her knowledge and time. I will be forever grateful. Thank yous also go to Dr. Nancy Beck Young for her on-going support and enthusiasm and for serving on my doctoral committee. I am also grateful for Dr. Richard Mizelle’s service as a reader and for providing suggestions to make this work better. Special thank you also go to Dr. Barbara Hales, who has inspired and shaped my researching and teaching since I first met her in 2007 as an undergraduate student at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in “History of Feminism: European Film and Feminist Critique.” I am the historian I am today largely because of how she teaches her students to study culture and the past. I am most grateful to have her on my doctoral committee. I am also grateful to the Department of History at the University of Houston for the financial support I received in the form of Lectureship positions, the Murray Miller v Dissertation Fellowship, Doctoral Student Tuition Fellowships, and Graduate Student Tuition Fellowships. More importantly, the Department of History has provided an environment that encourages rigorous and creative thinking, one example being that this dissertation on film and historical memory has been welcomed so warmly. In addition to those already named, I am especially thankful for Dr. Steven Deyle, Dr. Frank Holt, Dr. Kelly Hopkins, Dr. James Kirby Martin, and Dr. Matt Tribbe and for all of their time and support. More recently, I am appreciative of a Lectureship position from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Houston. Both the University of Houston’s M.D. Anderson Library and the University of Houston Clear Lake’s Alfred R. Neumann Library deserve special acknowledgment for ordering books from libraries across the nation that I needed for my research and for copying and emailing so many articles and book chapters that benefited both my teaching and research. The Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation and University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center provided very generous funding throughout my graduate education, funding that has enabled me to pay for everything and to graduate with zero debt to my name. Dr. John M. Slopis and the others who manage my complicated set of health challenges also deserve infinite acknowledgement. I am forever grateful. I am especially grateful for the friendship of Dr. Samuel Brower, Dr. Trevor Boffone (who has read and critiqued parts of this dissertation), Dr. Tracy Butler, (almost Dr.) Sandra Davidson, Dr. Brittany Handcock, (almost Dr.) Bruce Martin, (almost Dr.) Sheryl R. Saeed, and many others I met during graduate studies before we all became vi doctors! Other invaluable friends include Dr. Andrés Amado, Dr. Aaron Alon, Professor Christopher Chance, Professor Johanna Hume, Professor Brady Hutchison, Dr. Theresa Jach, Professor Marjorie Nash, Mr. Nick Sacco (one of many great scholars and #twitterstorians who I first met on Twitter), and Dr. Jon Zophy. Thank you for your friendship and support and all of the great conversations. Many thanks to professors, not already named, with whom I studied as a student at Brazosport College, University of Houston-Clear Lake, and the University of Houston. You have taught me more than you will ever know. Thanks also go to the thousands of students I have taught at Alvin Community College, Brazosport College, the University of Houston, and the University of Houston- Clear Lake over the last decade. You have also taught me more than you will ever know. I am also grateful to the thousands of people who have read my publications. As of November 2016, my blog Without Ritual, Autonomous Negotiations, which started in May 2013, includes four hundred articles (all written by me) and has received just under 300,000 hits. Additionally, I am grateful to have numerous publications in Inside Higher Ed, a book chapter in 100 Entertainers Who Changed America: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries, a journal article in Houston History Magazine, numerous articles in Reforming America: A Thematic Encyclopedia and Document Collection of the Progressive Era, Disasters and Tragic Events: An Encyclopedia of Catastrophes in American History, and Encyclopedia of American Environmental History, and book reviews in The Journal of African American History and Pennsylvania History. I am glad for the opportunities I had to guest speak about my research at Alvin Community vii College, Alvin Junior High, Incarnate Word Academy, Lone Star College, Rice University, San Jacinto College, the University of Houston, and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. This dissertation took longer to write, in part, because I took full advantage of these opportunities to further refine my thinking and writing. Finally, I have the best, most supportive family imaginable. My parents, Denise Lamb Pegoda and Professor Gary Pegoda, are beyond incredible. My grandparents, Lieutenant Colonel Huie Lamb, Jr. and Doris Lamb, are through-and-through generous and loving. My other grandparents, Professor Rae Longest and Professor Prentice Longest, are incredibly kind and loving. Family members Brian Lamb (now deceased) and Karen Bates deserve special thanks and recognition, too, for their support and love. My four-legged furry friends, Dr. Trevor Lovejoy Pegoda, Maggie-Mae Pegoda, Emma-Lou Pegoda, and Bella Pegoda, keep life fun and always provide unconditional love and vital secretarial support, as well as plenty of distractions! viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................
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