Seaview Beach and Amusement Park

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Seaview Beach and Amusement Park Seaview Beach and Amusement Park: An African-American Gem on Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. Sherry DiBari September 2017 This research was funded with a 2017 Research Grant from the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission. Seaview Beach and Amusement Park In 1947, Life Magazine published a photo essay on Seaview Beach calling it “Virginia’s best-known Negro resort.” The magazine reported that up to 10,000 tourists visited the beach on the weekends. Images showed well-to-do African-American professionals enjoying social life at the beach and adjacent amusement park.1This was contrary to much of the negative media coverage of African Americans at the time and casts a light on a hidden upper-class population in Virginia. The history of Seaview Beach and Amusement Park began in 1944, when three African-American professionals, with the help of Dudley Cooper, the driving force behind the all-white Ocean View Park, began construction on an amusement park designated for “coloreds only.” Twenty-one local African-American businessmen helped to fund the enterprise, which opened on May 30, 1945 on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.2 The park was wildly popular and featured famous musicians and artists such as Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino Jr.3 In the early 1960s, desegregation rules led to open beaches for all races making separate beaches unnecessary. The amusement park, located on Shore Drive, operated until 1964 and was demolished in 1966.4 The space now houses a condominium complex called Seagate Colony Condos. This amusement park was a vital part of Virginia’s upper and middle-class African-American society and its history is important to the area. Hampton Roads African Americans in particular were often stereotyped as economically and educationally disadvantaged. The Seaview Beach and Amusement Park history shows 2 there are other race narratives showing African Americans in a more positive and advanced light. The focus of this research is on the founders and businessmen whose vision enabled a vibrant space for African Americans as well as the use of the park as a space for recreation and social stratification during a period when African Americans were limited in the spaces that they could occupy. Literature Review Amusement parks and leisure activities During the early part of the twentieth century, the popularity of amusement parks ballooned as the American population shifted into urban areas. In The Playful Crowd; Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century, historians Gary Cross and John Walton explained that with good jobs, extra spending money and advanced transportation possibilities, Americans began to experience the era of leisure. 5 In “Going Out, the Rise and Fall of Public Amusements,” author David Nasaw suggested that this “era of amusements” brought about a sense of “civic sociability” and a clear division in how Americans approached work versus leisure time. Leisure opportunities in the early 1900s included theatres, stage shows, sports, dance halls and amusement parks. The majority of these entertainments were for whites only but often had separate days or separate sitting sections for African Americans.6 Segregated amusements also included roller rinks, pools, golf courses and beaches.7 3 Even entertainers were delegated to segregated venues. Walker and Wilson, in Black Eden: the Idlewild Community explained that African-American and Jewish performers had their own entertainment circuits.8 African-American entertainers often played in the same rotating locations in what was called the “Chitlin Circuit.”9 Beaches came of age as popular vacation destinations during the 1920s as well. In almost all locations, particularly in the South, African Americans had to attend separate “black beaches.”10 By the 1960s, interest in amusement parks and other public entertainments waned. Nasaw suggests this was a result of several factors including: suburbanization, television, the decline of cities and the influx of crime. African-American leisure sites In the book, Race, Riots and Rollercoasters, author Virginia Wolcott noted a dearth of scholarship on African-American leisure and recreation. She suggested that historians focus has been on educational and residential segregation.11 Many white amusement parks and recreational sites, such as Coney Island, were well documented in twentieth century history, African-American entertainment sites, particularly for upper-income recreationists, are often absent from historical record. Many African-American resorts, like the Idlewild resort in Michigan, were rarely mentioned in history. An example of one upper-income resort was Highland Beach, which targeted upper-income African-American professionals in Washington, D.C. It was located on the 4 Maryland side of the Chesapeake Bay and sold well-constructed homes and cottages for residents and vacationers who enjoyed fishing, swimming and tennis.12 The growing African-American population In the years after Reconstruction, Virginia gained a large African-American population. In Race Relations in Virginia, 1870-1902, author Charles Wynes noted that in 1870, African Americans outnumbered the white population “in 40 of Virginia’s 99 counties.”13 This trend continued over the next few decades. By 1930, the percentage of African Americans in Virginia was higher than in any other state composing 34 percent of the population.14 From 1910 to 1920, Norfolk’s African-American population increased by 73 percent, from just over 25,000 to over 43,000. African-American population in other Hampton Roads cities increased as well, including Portsmouth, with a 100 percent increase and Newport News with a 93.9 percent increase.15 In The Peaceful Resolution of Norfolk’s Integration Crisis of 1958-1959, Nancy Parker Ford wrote that in 1958, in the height of the desegregation battle, Norfolk’s population of 300,000 contained 80,000 African Americans, at almost 27 percent of the population. She suggested despite the desegregation battles, Norfolk’s military influence had led to a more cosmopolitan and accepting environment than other southern cities.16 Although many African Americans were economically depressed during this time, the sheer numbers in Hampton Roads created an influential economic and political demographic. In the book, The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1902-1965, author Andrew 5 Buni wrote that in the decades from 1930 to 1950, Virginia business owners began to market to African-American consumers. Patronage and support of African-American owned businesses increased during this time as well.17 Norfolk’s African-American newspaper, the New Journal and Guide was the largest circulating African-American newspaper in the state and wielded considerable political influence.18 Norma Cromwell Fields in the thesis, Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia during the 1930s, wrote the newspaper had a circulation of 78,000 and suggested it was “the most important black newspaper in the South.”19 African-American business In Desegregating the Dollar, historian Robert Weems Jr. credits the Great Migration, specifically 1915 to 1918, to a large urban African-American population, which then led to a “viable African-American consumer market.” He wrote that as cities boomed and became prosperous, so did many African Americans. In turn, African Americans supported businesses within the community.20 Weems explained that the 1920s were “a time of considerable interest in black business development” leading to organizations such as the National Negro Business League and the Colored Merchants Association.21 In Hampton Roads in 1930, about 80 percent of African-American men and over 50 percent of African-American women were gainfully employed. While the majority were semi-skilled and unskilled laborers, many had transitioned to professional fields.22 The Norfolk City Directory during the early 1930s listed “18 [African- American] attorneys, 25 doctors and eight dentists.”23 Author Norma Cromwell Fields suggested a 6 distinct “caste” system had developed among Norfolk’s “black society” further dividing those with education and income from their less-educated peers.24 African Americans had established their own banks in response to the lack of assistance from white banks: first the Knights of Gideon Bank in Norfolk in 1905, followed by Brown’s Savings Bank and then a few years later, the Metropolitan Banking and Trust Company. These banks helped African-American businessmen establish and obtain credit for business ventures. Black banks were prolific in Virginia. In the early 1900s, there were twenty-seven, double the amount than in than any other state.25 Labor shortages in World War II enabled many African Americans to transition to skilled labor positions, elevating their economic status further. By the late 1940s, African-American consumers were in high demand.26 In the 1960s, African-American owned businesses began to decline. Walker and Wilson in the book, Black Eden, the Idlewild Community, suggested that desegregation led to the decline of black-owned businesses as African Americans, after the Public Accommodation Act, were free to shop at white stores.27 Black Laws While African Americans were making some progress, legal economic barriers were still in place. Virginia had “economic codes” on the books for many years which entitled employers to pay African Americans less than whites.28 In Patterns of Negro Segregation, Charles Johnson wrote that segregation policies could be “traced back to the period of the Black Codes,” which were “legal” codes that allowed cities to discriminate. These laws affected life in the spheres of education, 7 religion, marriage, living quarters and labor. Most of the laws were aimed at keeping the two races separated, both in public and in private areas.29 Beaches African Americans were limited in the spaces that they could occupy. White amusement parks and beaches were clearly off limits. Hampton Roads most popular amusement park, Ocean View, had been whites only for years. Owner Dudley Cooper recalled in a 1978 interview “Ocean View was segregated. We inherited it that way and it was the custom and tradition of the whole country.”30 Seaview Beach wasn’t the only African-American beach resort area in Hampton Roads.
Recommended publications
  • African Americans at the College of William and Mary from 1950 to 1970
    African Americans at the College of William and Mary from 1950 to 1970 By: Jacqueline Filzen 1 Introduction This paper investigates the admission policies and the experiences of the first African American students at the College of William and Mary between 1950 and 1970—the height of the civil rights era. During these tense times in American history African American emerged as leaders of social change by enrolling in institutions of higher learning such as William and Mary. In addition to exploring the experience of the first African Americans, this paper also explores the attitudes of students, faculty, and William and Mary’s administration to integration. African Americans graduated from American colleges as early as the 1820s. The first African Americans to receive a college degree included John Rosswumm, Edward Jones, and Lucius Twilight.1 These men went on to becoming successful newspaper editors, businessmen, and local politicians. Other African Americans joined their ranks and received college degrees between 1820 and 1900. “W.E.B. Dubois reported that 390 blacks had earned diplomas from white colleges and universities between 1865 and 1900”.2 Like “many of the nation’s most prestigious, predominantly white universities in the South—which did not admit any blacks until the 1950s or 1960s”3 the College of William and Mary did not admit an African American student until 1951. Its decision to admit an African American student was not due to the school’s support for integration. Rather this decision was taken to avoid any legal repercussions if the College had done otherwise. Furthermore the College only admitted its first African American student after much deliberation and consultation with the Board of Visitors and the Attorney General.
    [Show full text]
  • Narratives of Interiority: Black Lives in the U.S. Capital, 1919 - 1942
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 Narratives of Interiority: Black Lives in the U.S. Capital, 1919 - 1942 Paula C. Austin Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/843 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] NARRATIVES OF INTERIORITY: BLACK LIVES IN THE U.S. CAPITAL, 1919 – 1942 by PAULA C. AUSTIN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ©2015 Paula C. Austin All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________ ____________________________ Date Herman L. Bennett, Chair of Examining Committee ________________ _____________________________ Date Helena Rosenblatt, Executive Office Gunja SenGupta Clarence Taylor Robert Reid Pharr Michele Mitchell Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract NARRATIVES OF INTERIORITY: BLACK LIVES IN THE U.S. CAPITAL, 1919 – 1942 by PAULA C. AUSTIN Advisor: Professor Herman L. Bennett This dissertation constructs a social and intellectual history of poor and working class African Americans in the interwar period in Washington, D.C. Although the advent of social history shifted scholarly emphasis onto the “ninety-nine percent,” many scholars have framed black history as the story of either the educated, uplifted and accomplished elite, or of a culturally depressed monolithic urban mass in need of the alleviation of structural obstacles to advancement.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evelyn T. Butts Story Kenneth Cooper Alexa
    Developing and Sustaining Political Citizenship for Poor and Marginalized People: The Evelyn T. Butts Story Kenneth Cooper Alexander ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0001-5601-9497 A Dissertation Submitted to the PhD in Leadership and Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2019 This dissertation has been approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in Leadership and Change, Graduate School of Leadership and Change, Antioch University. Dissertation Committee • Dr. Philomena Essed, Committee Chair • Dr. Elizabeth L. Holloway, Committee Member • Dr. Tommy L. Bogger, Committee Member Copyright 2019 Kenneth Cooper Alexander All rights reserved Acknowledgements When I embarked on my doctoral work at Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change in 2015, I knew I would eventually share the fruits of my studies with my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, which has given so much to me. I did not know at the time, though, how much the history of Norfolk would help me choose my dissertation topic, sharpen my insights about what my forebears endured, and strengthen my resolve to pass these lessons forward to future generations. Delving into the life and activism of voting-rights champion Evelyn T. Butts was challenging, stimulating, and rewarding; yet my journey was never a lonely one. Throughout my quest, I was blessed with the support, patience, and enduring love of my wife, Donna, and our two sons, Kenneth II and David, young men who will soon begin their own pursuits in higher education. Their embrace of my studies constantly reminded me of how important family and community have been throughout my life.
    [Show full text]
  • ED350369.Pdf
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 350 369 UD 028 888 TITLE Introducing African American Role Models into Mathematics and Science Lesson Plans: Grades K-6. INSTITUTION American Univ., Washington, DC. Mid-Atlantic Equity Center. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 92 NOTE 313p. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher)(052) Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Biographies; *Black Achievement; Black History; Black Students; *Classroom Techniques; Cultural Awareness; Curriculum Development; Elementary Education; Instructional Materials; Intermediate Grades; Lesson Plans; *Mathematics Instruction; Minority Groups; *Role Models; *Science Instruction; Student Attitudes; Teaching Guides IDENfIFIERS *African Americans ABSTRACT This guide presents lesson plans, with handouts, biographical sketches, and teaching guides, which show ways of integrating African American role models into mathematics and science lessons in kindergarten through grade 6. The guide is divided into mathematics and science sections, which each are subdivided into groupings: kindergarten through grade 2, grades 3 and 4, and grades 5 and 6. Many of the lessons can be adjusted for other grade levels. Each lesson has the following nine components:(1) concept statement; (2) instructional objectives;(3) male and female African American role models;(4) affective factors;(5) materials;(6) vocabulary; (7) teaching procedures;(8) follow-up activities; and (9) resources. The lesson plans are designed to supplement teacher-designed and textbook lessons, encourage teachers to integrate black history in their classrooms, assist students in developing an appreciation for the cultural heritage of others, elevate black students' self-esteem by presenting positive role models, and address affective factors that contribute to the achievement of blacks and other minority students in mathematics and science.
    [Show full text]
  • Black & White in America: Political Cartoons on Race in the 1920S
    BECOMING MODERN: AMERICA IN THE 1920S PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION * IN POLITICAL CARTOONS THE T WENTIES Eighteen political cartoons examining the racial issues confronting black and white Americans in the 1920s— the “race problem”—appear on the following pages. RACE They were published in general circulation (white- owned) and African American newspapers from 1919 to 1928. [Virulent racist depictions from the period are not included in this collection.] To analyze a political cartoon, consider its: CONTENT. First, basically describe what is drawn in the cartoon (without referring to the labels). What is depicted? What is happening? CONTEXT. Consider the timing. What is happening in national events at the time of the cartoon? Check the date: what occurred in the days and weeks before the cartoon appeared? LABELS. Read each label; look for labels that are not apparent at first, and for other written content in the cartoon. SYMBOLS. Name the symbols in the cartoons. What do they mean? How do they convey the cartoon’s “The U.S. Constitution Will Soon Be Bobtailed” meaning? The Afro-American, Jan. 18, 1924 TITLE. Study the title. Is it a statement, question, exclamation? Does it employ a well-known phrase, e.g., slang, song lyric, movie title, radio show, political or product slogan? How does it encapsulate and enhance the cartoonist’s point? TONE. Identify the tone of the cartoon. Is it satirical, comic, tragic, ironic, condemning, quizzical, imploring? What adjective describes the feeling of the cartoon? How do the visual elements in the drawing align with its tone? POINT. Put it all together.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lemon Project: a Journey of Reconciliation Report of the First Eight Years
    THE LEMON PROJECT | A Journey of Reconciliation I. SUMMARY REPORT The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation Report of the First Eight Years SUBMITTED TO Katherine A. Rowe, President Michael R. Halleran, Provost February 2019 THE LEMON PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE Jody Allen, Stephanie Blackmon, David Brown, Kelley Deetz, Leah Glenn, Chon Glover, ex officio, Artisia Green, Susan A. Kern, Arthur Knight, Terry Meyers, Neil Norman, Sarah Thomas, Alexandra Yeumeni 1 THE LEMON PROJECT | A Journey of Reconciliation I. SUMMARY REPORT Executive Summary In 2009, the William & Mary (W&M) Board of Visitors (BOV) passed a resolution acknowledging the institution’s role as a slaveholder and proponent of Jim Crow and established the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. What follows is a report covering the work of the Project’s first eight years. It includes a recap of the programs and events sponsored by the Lemon Project, course development, and community engagement efforts. It also begins to come to grips with the complexities of the history of the African American experience at the College. Research and Scholarship structure and staffing. Section III, the final section, consists largely of the findings of archival research and includes an Over the past eight years, faculty, staff, students, and overview of African Americans at William & Mary. community volunteers have conducted research that has provided insight into the experiences of African Americans at William & Mary. This information has been shared at Conclusion conferences, symposia, during community presentations, in As the Lemon Project wraps up its first eight years, much scholarly articles, and in the classroom.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Teachers and Their Community in the Immediate Post- Brown Years Candace Cunningham University of South Carolina
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2016 Ahead of Their ime:T Black Teachers and Their Community in the Immediate Post- Brown Years Candace Cunningham University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Cunningham, C.(2016). Ahead of Their Time: Black Teachers and Their Community in the Immediate Post- Brown Years. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3836 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ahead of Their Time: Black Teachers and Their Community in the Immediate Post- Brown Years by Candace Cunningham Bachelor of Arts Tennessee State University, 2008 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Bobby Donaldson, Director of Thesis Patricia Sullivan, Reader Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Candace Cunningham, 2016 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION To all the teachers in my life, especially my mother, grandparents, grandaunts, aunts, and uncles. Thank you for so selflessly loving our community’s children. iii ABSTRACT This thesis explores a 1956 case study in which over twenty African American teachers at one school were either dismissed or did not have their contracts renewed due to their refusal to confirm or deny their membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
    [Show full text]
  • Black Legal History in Oklahoma
    ALSO INSIDE: OBA & Diversity Awards • New Members Admitted • JNC Elections Legislative Update • New Member Benefit • Solo & Small Firm Conference Volume 92 — No. 5 — May 2021 Black Legal History in Oklahoma contents May 2021 • Vol. 92 • No. 5 THEME: BLACK LEGAL HISTORY IN OKLAHOMA Editor: Melissa DeLacerda Cover Art: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher by Mitsuno Reedy from the Oklahoma State Capitol Art Collection, used with permission, courtesy of the Oklahoma Arts Council FEATURES PLUS 6 Blazing the Trail: Oklahoma Pioneer African 36 OBA Awards: Leading is a Choice, American Attorneys Let Us Honor It BY JOHN G. BROWNING BY KARA I. SMITH 12 ‘As Soon As’ Three Simple Words That Crumbled 39 New Member Benefit: OBA Newsstand Graduate School Segregation: ADA LOis SipUEL V. 40 Celebrate Diversity With an Award BOARD OF REGENTS Nomination BY CHERYL BROWN WATTLEY 42 New Lawyers Take Oath in Admissions 18 GUINN V. U.S.: States’ Rights and the 15th Amendment Ceremony BY ANTHONY HENDRicks 44 Legislative Monitoring Committee Report: 24 The Tulsa Race Massacre: Echoes of 1921 Felt a Session Winding Down Century Later BY MILES PRINGLE BY JOHN G. BROWNING 45 Solo & Small Firm Conference 30 Oklahoma’s Embrace of the White Racial Identity BY DANNE L. JOHNSON AND PAMELA JUAREZ 46 Judicial Nominating Commission Elections DEPARTMENTS 4 From the President 50 From the Executive Director 52 Law Practice Tips 58 Ethics & Professional Responsibility 60 Board of Governors Actions 64 Oklahoma Bar Foundation News 68 Young Lawyers Division 73 For Your Information 74 Bench and Bar Briefs 80 In Memoriam 82 Editorial Calendar 88 The Back Page PAGES 36 and 40 – PAGE 42 – OBA & Diversity Awards New Lawyers Take Oath FROM THE PRESIDENT Words, Life of Frederick Douglass Are Inspiring By Mike Mordy HE THEME OF THIS BAR JOURNAL, “BLACK who was known as a “slave breaker,” and I TLegal History,” reminded me of Frederick Douglass, have read he beat Douglass so regularly that who was not an attorney but had all the attributes his wounds did not heal between beatings.
    [Show full text]
  • Literacy Instruction in Jim Crow America
    “Raising Hell” 35 “Raising Hell”: Literacy Instruction in Jim Crow America Sue Mendelsohn e have fallen into the morass again,” wrote W. E. B. DuBois in a July 1942 newspaper column, “As the Crow Flies,” published in the New York “[W] Amsterdam Star-News. DuBois lamented the slide in “Negro students’” writing and speaking skills (“As the Crow Flies” 6). Throughout the column’s run from 1936 to 1944, first in thePittsburgh Courier and later in the Star-News, DuBois made it his mission “to criticize and to warn” Americans that deficiencies in its segregated system of higher education undermined the fight for equal rights (DuBois, “As the Crow Flies” 3). His lament in the July 1942 piece came as the United States entered its eighth month of fighting in World War II. As DuBois’s article hit the newsstand, American soldiers battled Japanese forces at Midway, while more than three million German troops marched toward Moscow. The fighting threw into stark relief the racial injustice that pervaded American life: a million African American soldiers risked their lives to protect freedoms that they themselves did not enjoy. English teachers across the country echoed DuBois’s concern that Ameri- can students’ slipping literacy skills would have dire global consequences. In NCTE journals, teachers voiced the conviction that the Third Reich swept into power using a superior propaganda machine; the war would be won or lost on American teachers’ ability to prepare students to reclaim the power of mass media for democracy. NCTE issued a stream of books and pamphlets with titles like Educating for Peace (1940), Teaching English in Wartime (1942), and “Thinking Together: Promoting Democracy through Classroom Discussion” (1944) (Jacobs and DeBoer; Cross; Salt and La Brant).
    [Show full text]
  • Protestant Fundamentalism in the Black Community, 1915-1940
    PROTESTANT FUNDAMENTALISM IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY, 1915-1940 A Dissertation by DANIEL ROBERT BARE Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Felipe Hinojosa Co-Chair of Committee, Walter Kamphoefner Committee Members, Albert Broussard April Hatfield Robert Mackin Head of Department, David Vaught May 2018 Major Subject: History Copyright 2018 by Daniel Robert Bare ABSTRACT This dissertation illuminates and elucidates the ways that Protestant fundamentalism was manifested and applied in the African American community during the modernist-fundamentalist controversy, from 1915-1940. In contrast to the prevailing literature, which tends to view the fundamentalist movement as essentially white and entirely distinct from the context of black Protestantism, I argue that during this period many members of the African American community consciously and intentionally articulated a fundamentalist theological perspective. Yet even as certain black Protestants conveyed a theological commitment to fundamentalism that aligned closely with that expressed by their white counterparts, their particular racial context motivated them to live out these religious convictions in ways that often distinguished them from white fundamentalists. This analysis emerges from a historical-theological approach that first examines doctrinal specifics being espoused – taking theological claims and theological actors seriously on their own terms – and second situates these theological claims within their relevant historical context. This work offers several contributions to the scholarship of both fundamentalism and African American religious history. First, it identifies fundamentalist voices within black churches, thus challenging the prevailing perception that Protestant fundamentalism was an exclusively white religious project.
    [Show full text]
  • Driven Sourcing: How Journalists Use Digital Search Tools to Decide What's News
    Data-Driven Sourcing: How Journalists Use Digital Search Tools to Decide What's News Katherine Fink Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Katherine Fink All rights reserved ABSTRACT Data-Driven Sourcing: How Journalists Use Digital Search Tools to Decide What's News Katherine Fink This dissertation examines the efforts of journalists to expand their pool of potential sources beyond a group of people often called "the usual suspects." This group consists of public officials, business leaders, experts, spokespeople, and other people who are in the news often. Using interviews, participant observation, a survey, and online ethnography, this research investigates how a growing skepticism of the usual suspects and increasingly powerful technology have led to innovations in the source search process. Some journalists have seen potential in digital search tools, including databases and social media, for finding sources that had once been too difficult or time-consuming to find. Journalists themselves have created two source-finding initiatives: a database called the Public Insight Network, and Storyful, which calls itself the "world's first social news agency." Storyful journalists specialize in finding and verifying social media content from the scenes of breaking news events. Journalists have also used other tools created by public relations professionals and technologists. How did the availability of these tools change the reporting process? It varied by tool, and by journalist. Although the tools were designed to do similar things, journalists used them in different ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE Juliet E.K. Walker, PhD Professor, Department of History Founder/Director Center of Black Business, History, Entrepreneurship, Technology IC2 Institute Research Fellow Fellow of George W. Littlefield Professorship in American History Faculty Affiliate Center African and African American Studies Faculty Affiliate Department of African and African Diaspora Studies The University of Texas at Austin 128 Inner Campus Drive Austin, TX 78712-1739 [email protected] EDUCATION University of Chicago, Ph.D. American History, 1976 University of Chicago, A.M. American History, 1970 Academic Awards: University of Chicago History Department Fellowship, 1970 Ford Foundation Fellowship, 1970-73 Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, 1966-67 Roosevelt University, B.A. American History 1963 UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS Roosevelt University, Department of History, Lecturer, 1972-73 University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Black Studies, Instructor, 1973-76 University of Illinois at Urbana, Department of History, 1976-2001 Assistant Professor, 1976-1982 Associate Professor, 1982-1990 Professor, 1990-2001 University of Texas at Austin, Visiting Professor, Spring 1979 Harvard University, DuBois Institute, Post-doctoral study, 1982-1983 Harvard University Radcliffe Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, 1985. Harvard University, W.E.B. DuBois Institute, Research Associate, 1986-87 Princeton University, Davis Center for Historical Studies, Fellow, Fall, 1994 University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Senior Fulbright Professor, Department of History, 1995-1996 The University of Texas at Austin, Professor, Department of History Fall, 2001- The United States Air Force Academy, Distinguished Visiting Professor of History 2012-13 1 PUBLICATIONS The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship to 1865, vol 1 (paper/cloth, rev.
    [Show full text]