History

Between 1919 and the establishment of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Kensington's American Federation of Hosiery Workers (AFHW) built a remarkable movement for social justice in Philadelphia, that played an important role in the establishment of the CIO, the New Deal, and labor-based feminism. Most historical accounts have portrayed the years following World War I through the early 1930s as a period of reversals and apathy for both the labor and women's movements. Fractured by factionalism, racial and ethnic conflict, and government repression, it would not be until the Great Depression, and within the "culture of unity" of the CIO and New Deal, that this "doldrums" would be overcome enough to spark a revived labor movement and a "labor" feminism that emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s. The roots of the social movements of the 1930s and beyond are, however, longer and much more complex. In several places, working-class men and women continued to advance throughout the period of perceived "doldrums." In fact, the 1920s and early 1930s were a period of organizing, education, and network building that laid the groundwork for the later movements. This dissertation uses the AFHW and Kensington as a lens to examine these developments. A left-wing-Socialist-led union, the hosiery workers developed a subculture of radicalism that drew on the long working-class traditions of the textile unions of the community of Kensington. Representing an industry whose very product, silk full-fashioned hosiery, epitomized the "flapper," the union developed a movement that celebrated – and subverted – the 1920s "New Woman" and the culture of the Jazz Age youth rebellion. Hosiery workers developed a romantic, rights-based movement that promoted class solidarity across differences of age, ethnicity, race, and gender. Over the course of a campaign to organize the industry and rebuild labor, the AFHW developed a heroic movement that utilized pathbreaking female-centered imagery and propelled women and the union onto the national consciousness. Their activities put them in the forefront of a movement for social democracy and led in direct ways to the CIO, the New Deal, and labor feminism.

Temple University – Theses

History

In the wake of Emancipation, African Americans viewed land and home ownership as an essential element of their "citizenship rights." However, efforts to achieve such ownership in the postbellum era were often stymied by credit discrimination as many blacks were ensnared in a system of debt peonage. Despite such obstacles, African Americans achieved land ownership in surprising numbers in rural and urban areas in the South. At the beginning of the twentieth century, millions of African Americans began leaving the South for the North with continued aspirations of homeownership. As blacks sought to fulfill the American Dream, many financial institutions refused to provide loans to them or provided loans with onerous terms and conditions. In response, a small group of African American leaders, working in conjunction with a number of the major black churches in Philadelphia, built the largest network of race financial institutions in the United States to provide credit to black home buyers. The leaders recognized economic development through homeownership as an integral piece of the larger civil rights movement dedicated to challenging white supremacy. The race financial institutions successfully provided hundreds of mortgage loans to African Americans and were a key reason for the tripling of the black homeownership rate in Philadelphia from 1910 to 1930. During the Great Depression, the federal government revolutionized home financing with a series of programs that greatly expanded homeownership. However, the programs, such as those of the Federal Housing Administration, resulted in blacks being subjected to redlining and denied access to credit. In response, blacks were often forced to turn to alternative sources of high cost credit to finance the purchase of homes. Nevertheless, as a new wave of African American migrants arrived to Philadelphia during post-World War II era, blacks fought to purchase homes and two major race financial institutions continued to provide mortgage loans to African Americans in Philadelphia. The resolve of blacks to overcome credit discrimination to purchase homes through the creation of race financial institutions was a key part of the broader struggle for civil rights in the United States.

Temple University – Theses

History

'They Saw Themselves as Workers' explores the development of black membership in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in the wake of the "Uprising of the 30,000" garment strike of 1933-34, as well as the establishment of independent black labor or labor-related organizations during the mid-late 1930s. The locus for the growth of black ILGWU membership was Harlem, where there were branches of Local 22, one of the largest and the most diverse ILGWU local. Harlem was also where the Negro Labor Committee (NLC) was established by Frank Crosswaith, a leading black socialist and ILGWU organizer. I provide some background, but concentrate on the aftermath of the marked increase in black membership in the ILGWU during the 1933-34 garment uprising and end in 1940, when blacks confirmed their support of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and when the labor-oriented National Negro Congress (NNC) was irrevocably split by struggles over communist influence. By that time, the NLC was also struggling, due to both a lack of support from trade unions and friendly organizations, as well as the fact that the Committee was constrained by the political views and personal grudges of its founder. Yet, during the period examined in "They Saw Themselves as Workers," the ILGWU and its Local 22 thrived. Using primary sources including the records of the ILGWU and various locals, the NLC, and the NNC, I argue that educational programming was largely responsible for the ILGWU's success during the 1930s, not political ideology, as others have argued. In fact, I assert that political ideology was often detrimental to organizations like the NLC and NNC, alienating many blacks during a period when they increasingly shifted their allegiance to the Democratic Party. Conversely, through educational programming that brought unionists of various racial and ethnic backgrounds together and celebrated their differences, the ILGWU assimilated new African American members and strengthened interracial working-class solidarity. That programming included such ostensibly apolitical activities as classes, dances, musical and theatrical performances, sporting events, and trips to resorts and places of cultural interest. Yet, by attracting workers who wanted to expand their minds and enjoy their lives outside of work to combat the misery of the Depression, the ILGWU cemented their devotion to the union and its agenda. Thus, through activities that were not overtly political, the ILGWU drew workers into the labor movement, and ultimately into the New Deal coalition in support of President Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. As the union flourished, part of an increasingly influential labor movement, it offered African American workers a better path to political power than the Negro Labor Committee or the National Negro Congress during the mid-late 1930s.

Temple University – Theses

History

Edward Mallory "Ned" Almond belonged to the generation of US Army officers who came of age during World War I and went on to hold important command positions in World War II and the Korean War. His contemporaries included some of America's greatest captains such as Omar N. Bradley. While Almond is no longer a household name, he played a key role in Army history. Almond was ambitious and gave his all to everything he did. He was a careful student of his profession, a successful commander at battalion and corps level, a dedicated staff officer, something of a scholar, a paternalistic commander turned vehement racist, and a right-wing zealot. He earned his greatest accolades commanding the American troops who landed at Inchon, South Korea, on September 15, 1950, an amphibious flanking movement that temporarily transformed the nature of the Korean War. A soldier of such accomplishments and contradictions has gone too long without a scholarly biography; this dissertation will fill that void. This biography of Lt. Gen. Edward M. Almond makes a significant and original contribution to the existing historiography by examining his life in the context of the times in which he served. Almond earned tremendous respect throughout his career for his work as a commander and military administrator from his superiors, including Gen. George C. Marshall and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, but his current reputation as the US Army's most virulent racist overshadows all of these accomplishments. Almond's attitude was not unique; racism pervaded both the Army and the United States of his day. His views reflected the dominant view of the rural white South where he grew up, and did not differ much from those of his more famous peers. Almond, however, would never accept the changes his contemporaries and the Army eventually acknowledged. Almond's reactionary posture stands in sharp contrast to the rest of his career, in which he distinguished himself as an innovator open to new ideas. This dissertation will attempt to reconcile that other Almond and show that there was more to him than his bigoted command policies. Almond's career paralleled these developments in American society and changes in the US Army. His highly professional attitude yet stubborn resistance to social change typified the senior military leadership of the era. When those racial attitudes began to change, Almond represented an increasingly outdated ideology that held black men were innately incapable of becoming good soldiers. At the end of a long life and successful career, Almond was better known for his repugnant racial attitudes than for his genuine successes. First, Almond performed better as the commander of the 92nd Division than is commonly reported, despite that unit's significant difficulties in combat. This dissertation will also explore how his experiences with the 92nd Division, and the Army's later desegregation decisions, embittered him toward black soldiers. Second, both success and failure marked his command of X Corps in Korea, and his personal…

History

The United States Centennial was a pivotal event to celebrate the founding of the American nation. People came together to show the unity and progress of the United States, specifically after the division of the Civil War. As the industrial revolution took off in earnest, Americans were keen to show the world that they were united and taking the lead in industrial change. Further, to show that the United States was a force in the world, other nations were invited to participate by displaying their culture at the event. The Women’s Centennial Executive Committee (WCEC) became part of the effort to raise funds early on in the process. A group of thirteen women joined together with Benjamin Franklin’s great-granddaughter selected as their president and they set forth to raise funds and gain publicity for a “Woman’s Section” in the main building. When that prospect was denied them, the women then began to again raise monies, but this time for their own Women’s Pavilion. Determined not to be cut out of the exhibition, the women labored tirelessly to make their ideas reality. To raise funds and to draw attention to women’s contributions to society, the women drew upon the females of the founding generation to gain legitimacy in their efforts as women active in the civic sector. Harkening back to the American Revolution, the WCEC inserted women as active participants in the founding of the nation and they used images of Martha Washington and Sarah Franklin Bache to raise funds and bolster their cause. Women, who had sacrificed as men had for the birth of the nation, were noble members of the republic; in presenting women’s labors and inventions in 1876, the WCEC was making the point that women’s lives and contributions in nineteenth century America were as vital and necessary as they had been in the eighteenth century. The rewriting of the narrative of the American Revolution enabled the WCEC to celebrate women’s accomplishments in the most public manner and to herald their achievement in both domestic production as well as in terms of education and employment. The women of 1876 formed a continuous line backwards to the Revolution, and they showed the world that American women had always been a vital part of the country and that, if afforded their rights, they would continue to do so into the future.

Temple University – Theses

History

Between the 1930s and mid-1980s, North Carolina became one of the most industrialized states in the country, with more factory workers, as a percentage of the total workforce, than any other state. And yet, North Carolina generally retained its rural complexion, with small factories dispersed throughout the countryside, instead of concentrated in large industrial cities. This dissertation asks two essential questions: first, how did this rural-industrial geography come to be, and second, what does the creation of this geography reveal about the state of the American political economy in the post-World War II era? I argue that rural industrialization was a central goal of North Carolina’s postwar political leaders and economic development officials. These industry hunters, as I call them, wanted to raise their state’s per capita income by recruiting manufacturers to develop or relocate operations in North Carolina. At the same time, they worried about developing large industrial cities or mill villages, associating them with class conflict, congestion, and a host of other ill-effects. In the hopes of attracting industry to its countryside, the state invested heavily in its secondary roads and highways, increasing the accessibility of rural communities. In their pursuit of rural industrialization, however, North Carolina also constructed a political economy that anticipated the collapse of the New Deal state. While historians typically see New Deal liberalism as the prevailing form of statecraft in the postwar United States, North Carolina achieved economic growth through a model that state officials termed “accessible isolation.” What accessible isolation meant was that North Carolina would provide industries with enough of a state apparatus to make operating a factory in a rural area possible, while maintaining policies of low taxes, limited regulations, and anti-unionism, to make those sites desirable. Essentially, industry hunters offered industrial prospects access to a supply of cheap rural labor, but isolation from the high wages, labor unions, government regulations, and progressive tax code that defined New Deal liberalism. Accessible isolation was attractive to businesses in postwar America because it offered a “business-friendly” alternative to the New Deal, and factories began sprouting throughout rural North Carolina. But the success of accessible isolation was built on a shaky foundation. Indeed, most of the employers persuaded by its promises were those in low-wage, labor-intensive industries, making North Carolina’s rural communities especially vulnerable to transformations in the global economy by the late twentieth century.

Temple University – Theses

History

The Arctic has long held power over the American imagination as a place of otherworldly beauty, life-threatening elements, and dangerous wildlife. Nearing the end of the nineteenth century, in a time of great anxiety about the direction of American society, the region took on new significance. As a new frontier, the Arctic was a place where explorers could establish a vigorous and aggressive type of American manhood through their exploits. Publications, lectures, newspaper accounts, and other media brought the stories of these explorers to those at home. Through such accounts, the stories of brave explorers counteracted the perceived softening of men and American society in general. Women played a crucial role in this process. They challenged the perceived male-only nature of the Arctic while their depiction in publications and the press contradictorily claimed that they retained their femininity. American perceptions of the Arctic were inextricably intertwined with their perceptions of the Inuit, the indigenous peoples that called the region home. In the late-nineteenth-century, Americans generally admired the Inuit as an exceptional race that embodied characteristics that were accepted in American Society as representing ideal manhood. Over time the image of the Arctic in American society shifted from a terrifying yet conquerable place to an accessible and open place by the 1920s. This "friendly Arctic" - a term coined by anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson - appeared to be a less threatening and intimidating place. Due to new technologies and geographical accomplishments, the Arctic appeared to become more accessible and useable. As the Arctic's depiction in American society gradually shifted towards a more "friendly Arctic," the role of women in the Arctic shifted as well. Women increasingly participated in this new friendly Arctic. While still claiming that their femininity remained, both fictional and non-fictional female explorers participated in a wide array of Arctic activities. The image of the Inuit, too, underwent a transformation. Americans viewed the Inuit with less respect than in prior decades. Open Arctic theories and rising technological advancements contributed to this change. The decline in respect also stemmed from beliefs that the indigenous northerners were set on a course of extinction or assimilation. Ultimately, the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century relationship between Americans and the Arctic laid the foundation for present-day views of the region and the Inuit.

Temple University – Theses

History

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of the content, author demographics, publishing history, and media representation of the most prominent Vietnam veteran memoirs published between 1967 and 2005. These personal narratives are important because they have affected the collective memory of the Vietnam War for decades. The primary focus of this study is an analysis of how veterans' memoirs depict seven important topics: the demographics of American soldiers, combat, the Vietnamese people, race relations among U.S. troops, male-female relationships, veterans' postwar lives, and war-related political issues. The central theme that runs through these analyses is that these seven topics are depicted in ways that show veteran narratives represent constructed memories of the past, not infallible records of historical events. One reoccurring indication of this is that while memoirists' portrayals are sometimes supported by other sources and reflect historical reality, other times they clash with facts and misrepresent what actually happened. Another concern of this dissertation is the relationship of veteran memoirs to broader trends in public remembrance of the Vietnam War, and how and why some books, but not others, were able to achieve recognition and influence. These issues are explored by charting the publishing history of veteran narratives over a thirty-eight year period, and by analyzing media coverage of these books. This research indicates that mainstream editors and reviewers selected memoirs that portrayed the war in a negative manner, but rejected those that espoused either unambiguous anti- or pro-war views. By giving some types of narratives preference over others, the media and the publishing industry helped shape the public's collective understanding of the war.

Temple University – Theses

History

My dissertation, "Covering Suburbia: Newspapers, Suburbanization, and Social Change in the Postwar Philadelphia Region, 1945-1982," uses the Philadelphia metropolitan area as a representative case study of the ways in which suburban daily newspapers influenced suburbanites' attitudes and actions during the post-World War II era. It argues that the demographic and economic changes that swept through the United States during the second half of the twentieth century made it nearly impossible for urban daily newspapers to maintain their hegemony over local news and made possible the rise of numerous profitable and competitive suburban dailies. More importantly, the dissertation argues that, serving as suburbanites' preferred source for local news during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, enabled the suburban newspapers to directly influence the social, cultural, and physical development of the suburbs. Their emergence also altered the manner in which urban newspapers covered the news and played an instrumental role in the demise of several of the nation's most prominent evening papers during the 1970s and early 1980s, including Philadelphia's Evening Bulletin. This dissertation contributes to the growing body of innovative scholarly studies examining the development of America's suburbs during the post-World War II era; works which have placed suburbanites at the center of national debates regarding public housing, integration, and urban sprawl, but, to this point, have ignored the central role that suburban newspapers played in influencing how people who had only recently moved to the rapidly growing suburbs understood and reacted to these issues through their coverage of local events. In its totality, my dissertation provides a counter to the prevailing scholarly emphasis on the mass media's power and argues that local suburban newspapers played a primary role in shaping suburbanites' ideals, attitudes, and actions during the postwar era.

Temple University – Theses

History

This dissertation explores the nearly fifty-year history of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC), the nation's first federally funded community development corporation (CDC). The BSRC's creation stemmed from the bottom-up initiatives of African American women in the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council (CBCC), a federation of more than one hundred community groups aided by city planners at Pratt Institute. Their seminal efforts at rehabilitating Bedford-Stuyvesant marked a transition in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement's confrontation of discriminatory practices, municipal neglect, and the pathologies of poverty and urban decay. These efforts attracted the attention and commitment of Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Jacob K. Javits, who recruited business and philanthropic leaders to the cause and secured the initial funding to launch Restoration in December 1966. Together these partners in renewal forged a public-private partnership at a time when black and white Americans were moving farther apart. Together they articulated a new definition of community in which the combination of mutual responsibility and the strength of the American business system provided the means to turn poor neighborhoods into engines of renewal. They created an intermediary level of American governance that was more responsive to the needs of local people and placed new resources at the disposal of community leaders. The BSRC was the innovative product of a "creative federalism" that coordinated the power of the federal government, philanthropies, labor unions, universities, and the private enterprise system. This comprehensive organizational history investigates the full spectrum of the BSRC's comprehensive physical, economic, social, and cultural redevelopment agenda. Building on the concept that the 'process is the product' Restoration's successes and failures demonstrate how capacity was built in one of the nation's most challenged communities. After a decade of impressive accomplishments, Restoration was forced to retreat and reevaluate its mission as successive conservative presidential administrations withdrew the federal support that once largely sustained the corporation. The 1980s served as a crucible in which Restoration reinvented itself in order to survive. The new structure underscored the importance of communal ties, profitable sustainability, and nimble leadership that could move from "the streets to the suites." As it emerged from the challenges of the 1980s, Restoration was no longer the movement's North Star, but rather another point of light in a competitive constellation of more than 4,500 CDCs. In 2014, Restoration continues to balance the weight of its historic mission to provide comprehensive community development in a neighborhood that is undergoing rapid change. While poverty remains a fact of life for many of the area's minority residents, gentrification brings new challenges and opportunities to create a collaborative community that steps beyond the boundaries…

History

"American Monsters: Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000," analyzes an episode of national hysteria that dominated the media throughout most of the 1980s. Its origins, however, go back much farther and its consequences for the media would extend into subsequent decades. Rooted in the decade's increasingly influential conservative political ideology, the satanic panic involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping pedophiles were operating America's white middle-class suburban daycare centers. Communities around the country became embroiled in criminal trials against center owners, the most publicized of which was the McMartin Preschool trial in Manhattan Beach, California. The longest and most expensive trial in the nation's history, the McMartin case is an important focal point of this project. In the 1990s, judges overturned the life sentences of defendants in most major cases, and several prominent journalists and lawyers condemned the phenomenon as a witch-hunt. They accurately understood it to be a powerful delusion, or what contemporary cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard termed a "hyperreality," in which audiences confuse the media universe for real life. Presented mainly through tabloid television, or "infotainment," and integral to its development, influence, and success, the panic was a manifestation of the hyperreal. This dissertation explores how the panic both reflected and shaped a cultural climate dominated by the overlapping worldviews of politically active conservatives. In 1980, neoconservatives, libertarians, economic conservatives, and evangelical Christians, who had begun their cultural ascent over the course of the previous decade, were brought together temporarily under the aegis of President Ronald Reagan. With collective strength they implemented their joint agenda, which partly included expanding their influence on the nation's media sources. Coinciding with a backlash against feminism and the gay rights movement, media outlets often represented working women and homosexuals as dangerous to conservative idealized notions of white suburban family life. Such views were incorporated into the panic, which tabloid media reinforced through coverage of alleged sexual abuse of children at day care centers. Infotainment expanded dramatically in the 1980s, selling conservative-defined threats as news. As the satanic panic unfolded through infotainment sub-genres like talk shows and local news programs (first introduced in the late 1940s), its appeal guaranteed the continued presence of the tabloid genre, and reinforced conservative views on gender, race, class, and religion. Although the panic subsided in the early 1990s as journalists and lawyers discredited evidence and judicial decisions turned against accusers, the legacy of the panic continued to influence American culture and politics into the twenty-first century.

Temple University – Theses

Media & Communication

Race riots have struck America’s cities large and small for more than a century, and the media have retold these brutal events for American audiences. The 1960s, in particular, endured years of violent rioting due to social and economic inequalities between whites and blacks, and many of these riots have received ample coverage from the media and academic scholars. However, a lesser-known riot that destroyed homes, devastated businesses, and took the lives of two individuals was the 1969 York, Pennsylvania race riots. Similar to more well-known riots, such as the 1965 Watts riot and the 1967 Detroit riot, the racial violence in York was the result of decades of inequalities and frustrations between blacks and whites. What sets this riot apart is that two murders that occurred over those twelve deadly days in 1969 would go unsolved for more than thirty years. The killing of a twenty-seven-year-old black woman, Lillie Belle Allen, and a twenty-two-year-old white rookie police officer, Henry C. Schaad, were not resolved until their killers were brought to justice in 2002 and 2003, respectively. This dissertation explores the development of journalistic approaches to covering race relations in the United States. The methods employed to cover the 1969 York race riots and subsequent murder trials differ greatly from those more recent racial protests today. First, an examination of coverage from 1968 and 1969 reveals how the newspaper and television news media dictated public opinion of these violent events and established the foundation for a historical narrative. Then, the study fast-forwards thirty years to when the local York media commemorated the thirty-year anniversary of the riots in 1999. Although the local media briefly revisited the story of the 1969 York riots after they transpired, this local story came back unexpectedly in full force in 1999. However, the local audience was not ready to remember those events. These commemorations not only broke the silence of many York citizens, but also magnified the inequalities and social issues facing York in the present while also instigating the reopening of the Allen and Schaad murder cases in 2000. In addition, the mayor of York, Charles Robertson, was arrested in 2001 for the murder of Allen, bringing the newsworthiness of this story to another level. Mayor Robertson’s involvement in the story suppressed the larger social issues that led to the riots and, instead, over-simplified the story as one, racist villain who instigated the violence. By examining the local, regional, and national media coverage of these events, I argue that the narratives used personified, dramatic style to express competing accounts of what caused the York race riots and the personas of the characters involved, as well as the larger issues or race relations and race reconciliation. By emphasizing the role of the news media as storytellers, this dissertation determines that the journalists created new, dramatic, and sometimes misleading, narratives that retold the story…

History

Battle of the Corner: Urban Policing and Rioting in the United States, 1943-1971 provides a national history of police reform and police-citizen conflicts in marginalized urban neighborhoods in the three decades after World War II. Examining more than a dozen cities, the dissertation shows how big-city police brass and downtown-friendly municipal elites in the late 1940s and 1950s attempted to professionalize urban law enforcement and regulate rank-and-file discretion through Police-Community Relations programs and novel stop-and-frisk preventive patrol schemes. These efforts ultimately failed to produce diligent yet impartial street policing. Beginning in the late 1950s, and increasing in severity and frequency until the early 1960s, young black and Latino working-class urban residents surrounded, taunted, and attacked police officers making routine arrests. These crowd rescues garnered national attention and prepared the ground for the urban rebellions of 1964 to 1968, many of which began with a controversial police incident on a crowded street corner. While telling a national story, Battle of the Corner provides deeper local context for postwar changes to street policing through detailed case studies highlighting the various stakeholders in reform efforts. In the 1950s and 1960s, African-American activists, block clubs, residents, and politicians pressured police for effective but fair and accountable tactical policing to check rising criminal violence and street disorder in neighborhoods increasingly blighted by urban renewal. Rank-and-file police unions fought civilian review boards and used new collective bargaining rights to stage job actions to obtain higher wages. They also obtained “bill of rights” contract provisions to shield members from misconduct investigations. Police management took advantage of newly-available federal and local resources after the riots to reorganize their departments into top-down bureaucratic organizations capable of conducting stop-and-frisk on a more systematic scale. By the early 1970s, a rising generation of urban black politicians confronted skyrocketing rates of criminal violence, armed militants intent on waging war on the police, and a politically-empowered rank-and-file angry and combative over the more intense threats and pressures they faced on the job. Battle of the Corner breaks ground in telling a national story of policing that juxtaposes elite decision-making and street confrontations and that analyzes a wide range of actors who held a stake in securing order and justice in urban neighborhoods. In chronicling how urban police departments emerged from the profound institutional crisis of the 1960s with greater power, resources, and authority, Battle of the Corner provides a history and a frame for understanding policing controversies today.

Temple University – Theses