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University Microfilms Copyright 1984 by Mitchell, Reavis Lee, Jr. All 8404787 Mitchell, Reavis Lee, Jr. BLACKS IN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS: A STUDY OF SELECTED THEMES IN POST-1900 COLLEGE LEVEL SURVEYS Middle Tennessee State University D.A. 1983 University Microfilms Internet ion elæ o N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1984 by Mitchell, Reavis Lee, Jr. All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V 1. Glossy photographs or pages. 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print_____ 3. Photographs with dark background_____ 4. Illustrations are poor copy______ 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy_ 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page. 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several pages______ 8. Print exceeds margin requirements______ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost in spine______ 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print. 11. Page(s)____________ lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s) 18 seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages numbered _______iq . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages______ 15. Other ________ University Microfilms International Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BLACKS IN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS: A STUDY OF SELECTED THEMES IN POST-190 0 COLLEGE LEVEL SURVEYS Reavis Lee Mitchell, Jr. A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Arts December, 1983 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BLACKS IN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS; A STUDY OF SELECTED THEMES IN POST-1900 COLLEGE LEVEL SURVEYS APPROVED: Graduate Committee; Major Professor Second Reader Third Reader Fourth Reader ' Head of the Department of History Dean of tl£e Graduate School Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT BLACKS IN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS: A STUDY OF SELECTED THEMES IN POST-190 0 COLLEGE LEVEL SURVEYS by Reavis Lee Mitchell, Jr. This research surveys selected college level United States history textbooks published after 1900 to focus on several themes related to the treatment of black Americans in history textbooks. In the period after 1900, historians revealed that black Americans comprised an essential element in American history. The aim of this research is to examine the depiction of black Americans in United States history survey textbooks during three distinct periods of the nation's history. The targeted periods are the Reconstruction era, the vogue of Social Darwinism in America, and the era of the New Deal. This research examines textbooks to discover if the period when the textbook was written was significant to the author's presentation of black Americans. A further consideration of this research was whether, with the passage of time and reaction to significant events, authors change their presentations. The image of black Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reavis Lee Mitchell, Jr. Americans has also been affected by the attitudes of textbook writers toward this minority group. Teachers of the past, present, and future have the responsibility to discover whether textbooks contain statements that are unfair or biased against any racial or ethnic group. This research has also revealed that in all topics related to black Americans, classroom teachers must often direct students to read from supplemental sources to obtain a balanced view of black Americans. Teachers must endeavor to help students recognize that the legal and actual status of black Americans did not always coincide, and realize that, because of this, the historical conclusions presented should be based on various sources in order to obtain a true picture. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S The author wishes to acknowledge his appreciation to all of his former instructors and advisors, especially Dean Robert E. Corlew. Dr. Ernest Hooper who served as his advisor during the initial stages of this research, and Dr. Fred Rolater who accepted responsibility for advising and the reading of the dissertation and without whose help completion would have been impossible. The writer would also like to acknowledge the assistance rendered by his wife, Dr. Patricia Walker Mitchell, in this research and all his professional research, as well as by Ms. Marguerite Small for her diligence, patience, and persistence in the typing and preparation of this dissertation and my other research presentations. R. L. M. Dec. 1983 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION The author would like to dedicate this research to his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Mitchell, Sr., for the dedication and love shown to their entire family. R. L. M. Dec. 1983 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................ i ü INTRODUCTION ........................................ 1 CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF RECONSTRUCTION AND REVIEW OF SURVEY TEXTBOOKS THROUGH 1940 ...................... 8 II. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF RECONSTRUCTION AND REVIEW OF SURVEY TEXTBOOKS THROUGH 19 8 3 ...................... 3 0 III. THE IMPLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS OF SOCIAL DARWINISTIC PRINCIPLES EXHIBITED TOWARD NON-ANGLO-SAXONS IN UNITED STATES HISTORY TEXTBOOKS ........................... 79 IV. BLACKS AND THE NEW D E A L ......................130 V. SUMMARY, TEACHING RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSION ..................................... 152 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................ 171 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION This research surveys selected college level United States history textbooks published after 1900 to focus on several themes related to the treatment of black Americans in textbooks. In the period after 1900, authors of survey level textbooks revealed that black Americans comprise an essential element in American history. As with other topics, often historical schol­ arship has not been sufficiently utilized to make the treatment of blacks in college survey texts as well balanced as it might be. The importance of a study of this nature was pointed out in the 1979 textbook by Frances FitzGerald entitled America Revisited. "Each generation of students reads only one generation of textbooks. That transient history is that student's history forever, their particular version of American history. The aim of the present research is to examine the depiction of blacks in American history textbooks during three particular periods of our nation's history— the Reconstruction era (1865-1877), the period of the vogue of Social Darwinism in America (1880-1914), ^Frances FitzGerald, America Revisited (Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1979), p. 4. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 and the New Deal years (1933-1941). An effort will be made to discern the influence of the era in which the textbook was written and of authors' special interest upon the presentation of interpretation. This research will examine textbooks to discover if the era when a textbook was written was significant to the authors' presentation of blacks. Dr. Lawrence Reddick, in an elaborate study of southern schools' textbooks to determine racial attatitudes toward blacks, concluded that most of the books were traditional. According to Reddick, their pro-southern bias produced an unfavorable picture of blacks. A report of the proceedings of the National Education Association's Subcommittee on Textbooks compiled in 1932 stated that "Texts used in schools, especially histories, revealed little about the history and achievement of the Negro." Both of these studies were concerned with books used in secondary schools. It is hoped that this research will eventually contribute to improvement in college level teaching and result in a more accurate reflection of the role of all participants in American history, whether members of the majority groups, or blacks, native Americans or women. In a 1927 study entitled "The American Race Problem," Edward Ruter remarked on the potential of information for modifying attitudes and behavior. He Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 noted that new information facilitates the development of a questioning attitude and appetite for even more 2 facts. This dissertation deals specifically with the depiction of black Americans in college level United States history textbooks. The question to be considered deals with the presentation of the activities that cause the formation of images of a racial group in a country. This issue is of particular importance in a country with a multiplicity of racial and ethnic groups. Hypothesis
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