Black School, White State Mapping the State and Civil Society Origins of Virginia State University
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BLACK SCHOOL, WHITE STATE MAPPING THE STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORIGINS OF VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY _________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education and Human Development University of Virginia _________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _________________________________ By Margaret Jean Peña Harden, B.A., M.A. May 2021 © Copyright by Margaret Jean Peña Harden All Rights Reserved May 2021 ABSTRACT Since their founding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have and continue to face recurrent crises of legitimacy, episodes or periods in which the merits of their very existence are questioned or undermined. These challenges have been well documented and undertheorized. The broader scholarship in higher education on HBCUs has tended to focus on individuals, while few researchers have covered the larger systemic or structural issues. This study uses process tracing to situate the history of Virginia State University (VSU), a public HBCU in Virginia, within an explicitly political framework. It maps the role of the state and civil society in the origin and evolution of the institution, with particular attention to issues of legitimacy and power, and thus racism. This study found that political contest concomitant with an evolving state were salient explanations for VSU’s transformations and challenges over time. Further, I argue that the contest, the evolution of the state, and VSU’s transformation over time were structured by race and by the placement of individuals into racialized categories. Although this study is focused on one higher education institution, it seeks to more broadly illuminate issues of power, the role of the state and the civil society in higher education, and the impact of the US system of higher education on racial and socioeconomic disparities, as well as individual and collective agency and resistance on the part of Black people. Margaret Jean Peña Harden Department of Leadership, Foundations & Policy School of Education and Human Development University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia APPROVAL OF THE DISSERTATION This dissertation, (“Black School, White State”), has been approved by the Graduate Faculty of the School of Education and Human Development in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ___________________________________ Brian Pusser ___________________________________ Derrick P. Alridge ___________________________________ Nancy L. Deutsch ___________________________________ Josipa Roksa ______________________Date DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Sandra L. Peña, for making everything that is hard about life easier with her unconditional love and support, while also always being willing to tell me the Truth (yes, with a capital T) about my writing. It is also dedicated to the numerous Black people in Virginia who committed their lives to education as a public good and brought forward the possibility of a more just future through their work. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My completion of a doctoral program, including this dissertation, would not have occurred without the help and support of numerous people. This work has directly benefited from the intellectual engagement and support of my committee members, Dr. Brian Pusser, Dr. Derrick Alridge, Dr. Nancy Deutsch, and Dr. Josipa Roksa. In addition to chairing my dissertation committee, throughout my PhD program Dr. Pusser has been my advisor and my advocate. In those roles he has consistently paired both constructive feedback with confidence in my abilities and honest acknowledgement of my circumstances (as a mother and a professional with a full-time job, as a person who sometimes experiences crises) with kind prodding and sometimes alternative routes. This dissertation is undoubtedly better because of his feedback, as well as the generous gift of his time and authentic intellectual engagement. I am deeply grateful. It is hard to imagine that I would have been inspired to do this work in the first place without Dr. Alridge, who reintroduced me to W.E.B. Du Bois’ work on Black education and inculcated in me a broader appreciation for the history and historiography of Black education. In addition to contributing early formative feedback on this dissertation, both Dr. Deutsch and Dr. Roksa provided me with admirable examples of what it means to be thoughtful and impactful educators. I am a better researcher because of Dr. Deutsch and a better writer because of Dr. Roksa. Someone once told me, “You can have everything, just not all at once.” Fortunately for me, I don’t always listen very well, and this person was wrong. You can vi vii have everything and you can have it all at once—so long as you have a lot a help along the way. And I have had so much help. I am indebted to my mother, Sandra L. Pena. I really don’t know how other people do any of this without having someone like her in their lives. Not only did Sandy read and copy-edit this entire dissertation (multiple times, through multiple iterations), she also helped me create more time and space for this work through her own labor, caring for my children and my home, and otherwise relieving me of work I would have had to do myself (especially this past year, when everything felt as though it was about to come crashing down). When my husband, Rick Harden, and I were first dating and I was working almost full time and trying to finish my undergraduate degree, our primary “together” activity consisted of my hanging out at his house doing homework. At the time, I promised him it would not “always be this way.” Over twenty years and three degrees later, I might actually make good on that promise. Over the past two years in particular, as my obligations increased at work and I focused more and more on research and writing, Rick has taken on numerous responsibilities around our home that otherwise would have been shared, giving me the time and space to research and think and write. Rachel Spraker has been an invaluable friend throughout the proposal, research, and writing process. How can I even quantify what a gift it has been to have someone in my life who is interested and enthusiastic about the work and willing to commit their own time and intellectual labor to helping me make it better? Rachel’s numerous thoughtful suggestions—from encouraging me to acknowledging the fallibility of language to viii introducing me to the work of Stuart Hall—have made the process easier and the dissertation better. I also have to thank and acknowledge Dr. Jennifer Poole for sharing her own work and journey with me. Having a full-time job and a family is not terribly conducive to making connections in graduate school. Jenny was one of my few connections, and her willingness to be transparent and vulnerable through her own dissertation writing process helped me get started on my own. Finally, I am not sure if I ever would have started this journey without the love, advocacy, and support of Dr. Sharon L. Hostler. When I first started working for her in 2008 and I asked people what she was like, I was told by one colleague that she was like a fishing bobber, floating to the top and bringing the whole line—everyone—along with her. Indeed, this is true. Completing a PhD takes resources. Not only did she encourage me to enroll in the program at UVA, she also consistently advocated for me in numerous ways, no less than in the provision of the necessary concrete resources (like time and money) that make something like this even possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................ 12 1.3 Purpose and Research Questions ............................................................................. 16 1.4 Significance ............................................................................................................. 17 1.5 Conceptual Frame ................................................................................................... 18 1.6 A Note on Usage ..................................................................................................... 30 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................. 33 2.1 Higher Education and the State ............................................................................... 34 2.2 Higher Education Scholarship on Historically Black Colleges and Universities ... 53 2.3 Black Education, Political Unrest, and the Dynamics of Power ............................. 56 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 64 3.1 Process Tracing ....................................................................................................... 64 3.2 Case Selection ......................................................................................................... 68 3.3 Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 72 3.4 Constructing the Narrative ...................................................................................... 79 3.5