VOICES OF MY ELDERS: FORGOTTEN PLACE, INVISIBLE PEOPLE A PHENOMENOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE EXPERIENCES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS LIVING IN THE RURAL SOUTHERN BLACK BELT DURING THE JIM CROW ERA DiAnna Washington Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education Indiana University October 2019 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Doctorate of Philosophy Doctoral Committee _____________________________ James Scheurich, Ph.D., Chair _____________________________ Suzanne Eckes, J.D., Ph.D. _____________________________ Monica Medina, Ph.D. _____________________________ Chalmer Thompson, Ph.D. August 13, 2019 ii © 2019 DiAnna Washington iii DEDICATION To my brother Timothy Washington - October, 1969 – April 2014. Forever in my heart. I love and miss you dearly. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, let me express sincere gratitude to my elders who agreed to participate in this research study. I am honored that you all allowed me to come into your homes and lives to share your life stories. Secondly, I would like to thank my committee members. Thank you Dr. Jim Scheurich for your endless encouragement and support. Thank you Dr. Eckes, Dr. Medina, and Dr. Thompson for serving on my dissertation committee. In addition, thank you to the University Graduate School for offering me a President’s Diversity Dissertation Fellowship. My gratitude extends out to the professional colleagues and friends who traveled this journey with me. I would also like to express devout gratitude to my family. Hey siblings, Bridgett, Burna, Grace, Gertha, Enoch, Emmett, Denise, and DeWayne, thank you for your support and for believing in me. I did it! Love you all very much. The gratitude that I have for my parents, Enoch D and Pearlie M Washington, cannot adequately be explained in words on a page. Your unconditional love and support, coupled with your endless and unconditional faith has been my guide in life. During this emotional journey, you carried me when I had lost the strength to continue my journey. Thank you for believing in me and for encouraging me to just keep moving. I love you mom and dad with every fiber of my being. WE DID IT! v DiAnna Washington VOICES OF MY ELDERS: FORGOTTEN PLACE, INVISIBLE PEOPLE A PHENOMENOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE EXPERIENCES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS LIVING IN THE RURAL SOUTHERN BLACK BELT DURING THE JIM CROW ERA The systemic racism imposed on the lives and education aspiration of six of my elders who stayed in the racist South during the ferociously deleterious era of Jim Crow is the focus of this phenomenological critical race study. These stories centered the voices of my elders as powerful weapons to expose white supremacy and the psychophysiological trauma imposed upon my elders. These stories were about the lives, lived experiences, and educational trials and triumphs of six of my Brown and Black hue American elders whose ancestry was born out of slavery and delivered into the vicious Jim Crow era. My work was grounded in Phenomenological Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory validates my elders’ narratives and their narratives fortify the tenets of CRT. For you see, racism was an everyday phenomenon my elders experienced as residents of rural Southern America. My elders came to understand “what” they were, Black, by understanding “who” they were not, White. Furthermore, this qualitative phenomenological critical race study was guided by three inquiries, what experiences have you had with Jim Crow; how or in what ways did your experiences with Jim Crow affect your education; and how or in what ways did your experience with Jim Crow affect your life? These inquiries produced four intersecting themes, 1) the survival of racism as part of everyday life, 2) economic exploitation of Black labor, 3) denial of equitable vi education, and 4) the sociopolitical construction of racial identity, and three significant findings, racist place, sociopolitical oppression, and inequitable education. Jim Scheurich, Ph.D., Chair vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xii LIST OF IMAGES .......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO STUDY ............................................................1 Supreme Court Rulings ........................................................................................................4 Jim Crow in Action ..............................................................................................................7 The Black Belt ...................................................................................................................11 Research Inquiry ................................................................................................................13 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................17 Forgotten Place ..................................................................................................................19 Rural Explored and Defined ..................................................................................19 The Black Belt .......................................................................................................25 Invisible People ..................................................................................................................29 Race in America .....................................................................................................29 Imposed Positionality of Black People ..................................................................33 Repressed Education ..........................................................................................................40 Creation of Black Schools .................................................................................................50 Arkansas Public Education ................................................................................................54 Arkansas Legal Cases ............................................................................................56 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................61 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................63 Purpose of the Study ..........................................................................................................63 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................64 Phenomenology Research ..................................................................................................69 Research Setting.................................................................................................................74 Monroe County, Arkansas .....................................................................................74 Monroe County, Arkansas Population Data ..........................................................75 Monroe County, Arkansas Poverty and Education ................................................77 Brinkley, Arkansas .................................................................................................77 Brinkley, Arkansas Population Demographics ......................................................80 Brinkley Arkansas Economy .................................................................................80 Pilot Study ..........................................................................................................................82 Data Collection ..................................................................................................................84 Individual Interviews .............................................................................................84 Research Process ................................................................................................................85 Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................87 Researcher’s Positionality ..................................................................................................88 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................91 CHAPTER FOUR: THE VOICE OF MY ELDERS .........................................................92 Critical Research Not Colonialized Research ....................................................................92 Wake Up! ...........................................................................................................................96 These Are the People in My Neighborhood ......................................................................97 Mrs. Ruby Pighee...................................................................................................97 viii Ms. Trudy Vance ...................................................................................................98