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An Analysis of Schooling, Culture, and Education from 1940-1970 in Three Black Women’S Autobiographies

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An Analysis of Schooling, Culture, and Education from 1940-1970 in Three Black Women’S Autobiographies Sisters in the Movement: An Analysis of Schooling, Culture, and Education from 1940-1970 in Three Black Women’s Autobiographies Dissertation Presented in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Durene Imani Wheeler, M.A. The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Antoinette Errante, Co-Advisor _____________________ Professor Mary Ann Danowitz Sagaria, Co-Advisor Co-Advisor The College of Education Professor Valerie Lee Professor Melvin Adelman _____________________ Co-Advisor The College of Education ABSTRACT The guiding purpose of this study was to explore and investigate the social, cultural, and educational worlds of Anne Moody, Daisy Bates, and Angela Davis from 1940-1970. The autobiographies served as cultural artifacts and historical narratives of specific times, events, and aspects in the authors’ lives. In choosing to conduct the study using a qualitative paradigm, I was not only able to examine how these three African- American women navigated and negotiated the worlds of race, class, and gender during the period of 1940-1970, but was also able to offer descriptive details of the multiple meanings of their lived experiences during the Educational Reform, Civil Rights, and Black Nationalists/Power movements that took place during the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Utilizing the fields of educational anthropology, the politics of education, educational history, policy studies, the history of African American education and the qualitative research methods for education. This study examined the autobiographical works of Anne Moody, Daisy Bates, and Angela Davis as sites: (1) to explore the dynamics and impact of racial and school segregation and efforts toward racial and school desegregation, (2) to describe and understand the Higher Education experiences of the writers, and (3) to examine the cultural and social lives of the three authors. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Giving honor to the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit for whom none of this would not be possible if God was not in it and had not ordained it. My faith has carried me through this process as well as several individuals that provided their guidance, belief, and encouragement in my ability and my person. To my advisors and committee members, Mary Ann Sagaria, Valerie Lee, Antoinette Errante, and Melvin Adelman, you all supported me, aided in putting my mind at ease in the midst of many trials and tribulations, and provided insight and direction to complete this overwhelming and lonely task. I am most grateful to have known you as scholars, but more importantly as the nurturing and positive life force you have been in my life these past five years. To my husband and best friend, Nicholas M. Young, your love, support, encouragement, cheerleading, and patience has been a true blessing. I have put you through so much in completing this degree in the past year and a half. Thank you for putting up with my frustrations, my ups and downs, and most of all for loving me regardless. Our life, love, and new baby are rewards from God that I never imagined possible. iii To my sister Natalie Jean Wheeler, mother Mary L. Wheeler, my sister-in-law Alicia Thomas, my mother-in-law Gloria Young, and other family members your love, belief in me, and continuous pep talks and prayers served as my life preserver when I had lost hope. Thank you for all you that have done and continue to do in your love for me. To my sister friends: Yvette L. Harris, Deborah M. Johnson, Natalie J. Ellis, Antoinese S. Allen, and Lenora Barnes-Wright along with my brother friends: Chip Allen, Marvin Harris, and Roger Shaw, your friendship has always been one of my greatest assets. The love, backing, and endorsement of my ability to make it through this challenge will never be forgotten. Each of you gave me hope and words to uplift my spirit and my heart. I love you and thank God for our friendship. Finally, to the wonderful women in the College of Education’s Educational Policy and Leadership department, Deborah Zabloudil, Helen Higgins, Karmella Spears, Carol Norris, Dianne Efsic, and Nadine Denton, I must thank you for your words of encouragement, acts of kindness, and going above and beyond your jobs to help me through this process from day one in the program. Each of you is very dear to me because you provided motherly love in the absence of my own mother and sisterly advise in times of indecision. I am grateful to call you my friends and surrogate mothers. Thanks for all your love, hugs, and cutting through the bureaucracy. iv VITA December 31, 1966 . Born, Cleveland, Ohio 1996 . M.A. Higher Education and Student Affairs, The Ohio State University 1996-1999 . Assistant Dean of Students, Denison University 1999-2000 . Graduate Research Associate, Partnership for Excellence, The Ohio State University 2000-2001 . Graduate Teaching Associate, Academic Learning Center, The Ohio State University 2003-present . Assistant Professor, School of Education, Russell Sage College PUBLICATIONS 1. D. Wheeler, co-author, T. King et al, “Andrea’s Third Shift: The Invisible Work of African American Women in Higher Education, pp. 403-415”. In This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Gloria Anzaldua and AnaLouise Keating, Eds. New York: Routledge 2002. 2. Book Review Beverly Lindsay and Manuel J. Justiz, Eds. The Quest for Equity in Higher Education: Toward New Paradigms in an Evolving Affirmative Action Era. In Journal of African American Men, v(6) n(4), pp.86-88. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education Cultural and Social Foundations in Education formerly Cultural Studies in Education Minor Field: African American Studies v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………… iii Vita ……………………………………………………………………………… v Preface …………………………………………………………………………… viii CHAPTERS: 1. Origins of the Study: Toward an Interdisciplinary Approach ………… 1 Origin and Nature of the Study . 2 Statement of the Problem . 5 Significance of the Study . 7 Introduction to the Works Chosen . 10 Theoretical Framework . 13 Methodology/Research Design . 17 Limitations of the Study . 24 Review of Literature . 25 2. Equitable Access: The Role/Purpose of Schooling for Southern Blacks from 1940-1960 in Elementary and Secondary Schools …………………. 32 Historical and Political Context of Schooling for Southern Blacks . 34 Separate and Unequal 1940-1954: Primary Schooling . 40 School Facilities . 40 Teachers and Curriculum . 44 Political and Legal Context Leading to the Brown Decision . 49 Dismantling Segregation . 50 Borrowed Equity 1955-1962: Implementation of the Desegregation . .55 The Integration of Central High School . 56 vi 3. Schoolhouse Rock: Higher Education Challenges and Triumphs 1960-1970 ………………………………………………… 66 Post-Secondary Opportunities for African American Women 1950-1970 . 67 Influences for Pursuing Higher Education . 69 Family Influences for Anne Moody . 73 Family Influences for Angela Davis . 77 Challenges and Triumphs within Institutions of Higher learning . 81 Davis’ Higher Education . 82 Moody’s Higher Education . 86 4. Sign of the Times: Cultural Education of a Transformer ………………… 94 The Concept of Culture . 95 A Glimpse of a Life . 97 Social Location/Environment . 97 The Black Family Unit . 107 Religion and Politics . 109 Codes of behavior . 114 Creation of a Transformer . 125 5. Epilogue ………………………………………………………………….. 135 ENDNOTES …………………………………………………………………… 146 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………… 149 vii PREFACE Within my family there was one consistent and resounding message from my mother, “obtaining an education is your key to independence, opportunity, and freedom”1. My mother made the educational achievement and attainment of her children a top priority alongside our spiritual development, sense of family connectedness, and community responsibility. I attribute much of my achievement and determination to the continue guidance of my mother and the support of family members and church. At an early age, my mother would read to us all sorts of stories from fairy tales to autobiographies. In her mind, my mother was attempting to accomplish three very important tasks: (1) to provide us with a view of the world beyond our everyday environment; (2) to open our minds to the endless opportunities our futures could hold; and, (3) to introduce additional role models of individuals who have succeeded. By exposing her children to these new worlds through texts and drilling educational achievement into our heads, she hoped to foster a sense of exploration and direction to overcome our prescribed status of being Black2 and female. I have learned many lessons in the halls of social institutions referred to as schools, colleges, and universities. Additionally, I have acquired essential knowledge viii attending “class sessions” within my family, neighborhood, church, as well as, by my own love of reading historical, fictional, and autobiographical literature. My family and community schooling along with my formal educational training has afforded me an opportunity to possess a bi-cultural identity. A bi-cultural identity is familiar to many people of color3; experiencing a dual education throughout one’s life is not uncommon (Wolcott, 1994; Gibson, 1982: Ogbu: 1987; and Fordam, 1999). There are some people of color who are socialized to exist in two worlds. The world of the dominate culture which typically has been defined as White Americans and the “Other” or “Outsider” world, which speaks to the ethnic and/or cultural background differences of an individual. In an effort “to become”, one must navigate the terrain of both worlds with excellence and expertise. It is through continual cultural and educational processes that one masters their cultural hybridity (Bhabba, 1994). Education has served as an essential component in the development of my identity, culture, and knowledge of the world in which I operate. Education has provided a means of enlightenment to the history of my people; to worlds I have yet to physically explore; and to issues of power and knowledge I never knew existed.
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