Browsing by Subject "Civil Rights"
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Item The foundations of Red Power : The National Indian Youth Council 1968-1973(2013-12) Jenkins, James Fitzhugh; Bsumek, Erika MarieThe period from 1969 until 1973 represented the height of “Red Power” for American Indians. Pan-tribal activists participated in hundreds of demonstrations and dozens of militant takeovers demanding tribal sovereignty. The National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) was at the forefront of this period of direct action even though it continued to receive funding for educational programs and advocated reform through legal means. Operating under an entirely new leadership, the NIYC of the early 1970s resembled the Youth Council of the mid-1960s by continuing to balance indirect action and legal reform with direct action and militant language. But by the end of 1973, the Youth Council ceased supporting direct action as a legitimate tactic for pressuring social change. By 1973 it became clear that pan-tribal protests could quickly upset the gains that American Indians were making in federal reform. Wealthy benefactors funded the NIYC throughout the period, but they never overtly pushed the Youth Council into a more moderate direction. Instead, outside funding increased the NIYC’s operational space and allowed it to gain a modicum of power within the federal agency responsible for Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The NIYC found itself able to pressure the BIA into negotiating on a range of issues, and the NIYC developed allies that shared its goals and ideology within the agency. However, the NIYC’s continued ability to negotiate with the federal government was vulnerable to controversy, and the highly confrontational episodes led by the American Indian Movement (AIM) tended to upset the pace of reform within the federal government. AIM’s 1972 takeover of the BIA national headquarters and AIM’s 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee created setbacks for the NIYC even as the events garnered national attention and support. Moreover, the political climate became receptive to supporting the self-determination of tribal governments, and pan-tribal organizations like the NIYC had to shift their focus in the context of newly empowered tribes. Foundation support allowed the NIYC to help open the way for tribes to negotiate with the U.S. state directly, and this very success made pan-tribal demonstrations increasingly obsolete by the mid-1970s.Item The Great American Riddle: Ulysses S. Grant and Civil RightsCastillo, Christopher R; Blackwell, Deborah L; Menaldo, Mark AThe prevailing scholarship on Ulysses S. Grant and Reconstruction was established by authors who wrote on the subjects in the aftermath of Reconstruction. Scholars of the “Lost Cause,” include the likes of John Burgess and William Dunning and many pupils. The arguments set forth by these writers and scholars created the notions that Grant was a butcher general during the Civil War who sent thousands of Union soldiers to needlessly die during his military campaigns, and that he was one of the nation’s worst presidents. Furthermore, they have argued that Grant was intellectually incompentent, corrupt, and unable to handle the political aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction. These arguments have created a social construction of the past that has dominated American thinking on Grant, and have been carried on by modern scholars in the field. Because Grant rarely shared his views, publicly or privately, he did not leave behind the large volumes of historical evidence one expects from esteemed generals and former presidents. Since he was silent on most issues, extensive analysis of what is available is required. Most historical scholars have not been able, or willing, to remove themselves from established writings on Grant and have failed to fully analyze the historical sources left by the general, leading to sweeping generalizations about his views an character. This thesis seeks to challenge the established historiography on Grant by arguing the he was more than capable of comprehending the political and military aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Grant demonstrated this, as he progrssed from fighting for the Union first, to accepting and protecting emancipation and black civil rights. Moreover, as both Commanding General of the United States Army and President, Grant was willing to expand his use of the U.S. Army as the proper means of upholding cvil equality for free blacks and protecting the Union from further violence. It is necessary to understand the complex, yet evolutionary nature of Grant, as doing so will lead to a more nuanced understanding of how his policies aided in transforming American society.Item Unity, Justice and Protection: The Colored Trainmen of America's Struggle to End Jim Crow in the American Railroad Industry [and Elsewhere](2012-10-19) James, ErvinThe Colored Trainmen of America (CTA) actively challenged Jim Crow policies on the job and in the public sphere between the 1930s and 1950s. In response to lingering questions concerning the relationship between early black labor activism and civil rights protest, this study goes beyond both local lure and cursory research. This study examines the Colored Trainmen's major contributions to the advancement of African Americans. It also provides context for some of the organization's shortcomings in both realms. On the job the African American railroad workers belonging to the CTA fought valiantly to receive the same opportunities for professional growth and development as whites working in the operating trades of the railroad industry. In the public sphere, these men collectively protested second-class services and accommodations both on and off the clock. Neither their agenda, the scope of their activities, nor their influence was limited to the railroad lines the members of the CTA operated within the Gulf Coast region. The CTA belonged to a progressive coalition comprised of four other powerful independent African American labor unions committed to unyielding labor activism and the toppling of Jim Crow. Together, they all worked to effectuate meaningful social change in partnership with national civil rights attorney Charles H. Houston. Houston's experience and direction, coupled with the CTA's dedicated membership and willingness to challenge authority, created considerable momentum in movements aimed at toppling racial inequality in the workplace and elsewhere. Like most of their predecessors, the CTA's struggle for advancement fits within a continuum of successive challenges to economic exploitation and racial inequality. No single person or organization can take full credit for ending segregation or achieving equality. Many who remain nameless and faceless contributed and sacrificed. This study not only chronicles the contribution of a relatively unsung African American labor organization that waged war against Jim Crow on two different fronts, it also pays homage to a few more individuals who made a difference in the lives of an entire race of people during the course of a bitterly contested, never-ending struggle for racial equality in the United States of America during the twentieth century.