...INTRODUCTION A number of African American women are succeeding on the long road to career advancement and leadership positions. Nevertheless, racism and sexism still hinder their efforts for career advancement and leadership positions. Black women are facing an intense combination of discrimination in American institutions. Because we live in a white male-dominated society, it is easy to underestimate African American women’s leadership potential and abilities. African American women are looked at as inferior beings, rather than as equals capable of accomplishing any and everything a man can. The purpose of this research will be to investigate how education influences career advancement and leadership positions of African American...
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...* HOW DO CULTURE AND OTHER FACTORS AFFECT THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF A COMMUNITY? * HOW DO CULTURE AND OTHER FACTORS AFFECT THE LEADERSHIP OF A COMMUNITY? * WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AND ETHNIC ORGANIZATIONS THAT A COMMUNITY BUILDER CAN USE TO LEARN ABOUT THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF A GROUP AND TO IDENTIFY AND ENGAGE ITS LEADERS? * WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMMON CHALLENGES THAT A COMMUNITY BUILDER MIGHT FACE WHEN WORKING IN A DIVERSE COMMUNITY? In order to work effectively in a culturally and ethnically diverse community, a community builder needs to first understand how each racial and ethnic group in that community is organized in order to support its members. It is not uncommon to hear a community leader, a funder, a political representative, or a service provider say, "We were not able to engage that group over there because they are not organized. They have no leaders. We need to organize them first." This statement is not always accurate; most groups have their own network of relationships and hierarchy of leaders that they tap into for mutual support. These networks or leaders may not be housed in a physical location or building that is obvious to people outside of the group. They may not even have a label or a title. There is an unspoken understanding in some groups about when and whom they should turn to among their members for advice, guidance, and blessing. Once a community builder understands the social organization of the group, it will become easier...
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...movement that gave African Americans the push to achieve their first major accomplishments of the decade. The Civil Rights Movements goals were to break down the walls of legal segregation in public places, achieve equality and justice for African Americans, and to help make African Americans become more self-conscious when standing for all their interest. This movement not only benefited men, but it also benefited women. African American women played a large role in the history of the civil rights era. According to Lee Sartain, “Female activists were integral to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and often in the front lines of the civil rights struggle. Commentators on the period, however, have generally ignored the role of these activists mainly, because women were not prominent in media reporting on the early struggles for civil rights (Sartain).”Even as of today most NAACP members and most local branch presidents are women. Vivian Malone Jones defied segregationist Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to enroll in the University of Alabama in 1963 and later worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. The African American women of the Civil Rights Era were often overlooked, because of the race and their gender. Not only was racism an issue, but also sexism. No one took a woman serious during those times; they barely took men serious, because of the color of their skin. The women often just took the backseat roles to the men of...
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...movement that gave African Americans the push to achieve their first major accomplishments of the decade. The Civil Rights Movements goals were to break down the walls of legal segregation in public places, achieve equality and justice for African Americans, and to help make African Americans become more self-conscious when standing for all their interest. This movement not only benefited men, but it also benefited women. African American women played a large role in the history of the civil rights era. According to Lee Sartain, “Female activists were integral to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and often in the front lines of the civil rights struggle. Commentators on the period, however, have generally ignored the role of these activists mainly, because women were not prominent in media reporting on the early struggles for civil rights (Sartain).”Even as of today most NAACP members and most local branch presidents are women. Vivian Malone Jones defied segregationist Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to enroll in the University of Alabama in 1963 and later worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. The African American women of the Civil Rights Era were often overlooked, because of the race and their gender. Not only was racism an issue, but also sexism. No one took a woman serious during those times; they barely took men serious, because of the color of their skin. The women often just took the backseat roles to the men of...
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...leaders that had accomplished such task, I chose Colin L. Powell. Colin L Powell was born April 5 1937 in Harlem, New York. He is a United States statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State (2001-2005), serving under President George W. Bush. He was the first African American appointed to that position. He was the first, and so far the only, African American to serve as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) (“Colin Powell”, 2013). Leader According to Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy (2009), leadership has various definitions that differ in many ways. One states that leadership can be defined as “Directing and coordinating the work of group members” and the other states it as “The process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner (Chapter 1). While these and many other definitions outlined in Chapter 1 could describe and define General. Powell as leader, the definition that best fits is the “The process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals” (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2009, Chapter 1). This strong leadership was evident during his tenure as Secretary of State. Secretary Powell won praise for his efficient...
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...College Abstract In every society there are certain minorities that struggle with certain parts of living in a complex society and being dominated by the superior. While it took many people lives of innocent and people of fame to just get some rights. African Americans struggled from the moment they arrived here as slaves to obtaining simple civil laws they deserved. At one point slavery in america was functional but soon it began violating the norms of society. Even with the fight and the push for rights for African American there is always that gap of equality and some areas the struggle still exist. The stories of African Americans are all in some way related to each other due to the nature in which they were assimilated into. They were treated as property at one point in time and nothing else yet they still tried to keep a “family” atmosphere. African Americans have made their way to freedom, but have been left with a heavy burden of their ancestor’s slavery. Would they ever be seen as anything but slaves brought unwilling from Africa to the United States to be enslaved and be servants to the White Man? Those questions can be answered by looking at the history of African Americans and how they have become great leaders in this country like our President. Today many may say we don't have slavery in some point that statement is true but to some extent it it is not. Just take into consideration Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois two amazing people...
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...SELECTION 4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 4 ASSUMPTIONS 5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 5 HISTORICAL PRECEDENCE 7 METHODOLOGY 12 DEFINITION OF TERMS 14 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 15 LITERATURE REVIEW 16 Works Cited 34 ------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Although they are small in recognition women of color have strived hard to better the higher education system and opportunities afforded to women of colors and minorities as a whole. Yes over the past couple of decades African American women have been afforded a 60 percent increase in the number of faculty and an 80 percent increase in the amount of women administrators. Yes this is a huge percentage of change, but even with these advancement African American women still represent less than seven percent of the total percentage of administrators. The women that do manage to break down the transparent barriers encounter countless problems throughout their career that Caucasian male or females or even African American males could even grasp. The careers of these heroines are often filled with unimaginable amounts of internal/external stressors, bouts of having to cope with being oppressed, seen as tokens or having to deal with racism and/or sexism, but yet they persevered. Through all of this they are still underappreciated, under compensated, and standing directly under the glass ceiling. Throughout this study I will attempt to identify the stressors that these women often endure, identify coping strategies...
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...the consolidation of rural school districts, an expanded state curriculum, the passage of compulsory attendance laws, demands for increased accountability, and efficiency expectations (Kowalski, 2003) During the past several decades, widespread concern for the condition of the education and the economy launched and sustained what arguably is the most intense effort to reform public education in recent history. For more than two decades (1983-2005), national commission and task force reports examined the condition of American public education, heightened expectations for schooling, and called for improving instruction as well as fundamentally altering the manner in which schools are organized, administered, and governed. Recommendations for improvement that stimulated reform initiatives launched by state legislatures, education agencies, and district leadership. During the early 1990s, interest in large-scale systematic reform also heightened interest in the role of superintendents. Although they are viewed essential to launching and sustaining improvement...
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...a young African American woman named Anne’s personal growth with the development of the Civil Rights movement. Anne chose to become the change she wanted to see in the world by taking a leadership role in the controversial Civil Rights movement. Anne, who starts out the novel with the name Essie Mae, grows up in a poor, southern family that is still having trouble adjusting to their new rights. Moody tells her story via an autobiographical perspective, which allows the reader to better relate to certain events in her life. As Anne grows older, she becomes more aware of civil rights issues and segregation. Family is a reoccurring theme in the autobiography as a cause for Anne’s struggle to integrate African Americans into society. Anne’s growing racial consciousness along with the family experiences she encounters represents the progression of the Civil Rights movement. After Anne graduates college, she decides that becoming a Civil Rights activist is her dream. At one point she even states “It no longer seemed important to prove anything. I had found something outside myself that gave meaning to my life” (Moody 288). Her desire to see African Americans overcome segregation outweighs her family’s desire to see her utilize her degree for financial success. Anne prefers to be hungry and poor if it means she can contribute to the Civil Rights movement. This exemplifies her extraordinary leadership which is contrasted to her family as well as many other African Americans in the autobiography...
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...Malcolm X A Controversial Leader Iris Robinson Central Michigan University PSC 785 Dr. Robert Boggs Abstract This paper is going analyze the leadership traits, behavior and power that made Malcolm X the type of leader that he was. Malcolm X was considered a great leader to some people because of what he believed in. Malcolm X was a very controversial leader because of his views on different subject. This paper will show how Malcolm X went from follower to a leader. Malcolm X possess a lot of good trait that people look for in good leader such as motivator, responsible, assertive, self-confidence, firm and task orientate and most of all honesty. Leadership can be defined as a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Leadership is also a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. There are certain trait that a good leader must possessed such as excellent communication skills, be direct, be fair, capable and kind yet firm. Good leader also possess certain personal qualities. A good leader needs to have an exemplary character. A good leader should be enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. A good leader should be confident. A leader also needs to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty. Good leaders...
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...black-incorporated town, it became a place where African Americans lived without white influence, had their own laws, and had the power to enforce those laws. Eatonville is the source of majority of Hurston’s writing, in which her expression of her love for folklore and political views derived. When writing this novel, Hurston draws from her experiences and childhood memories of Eatonville. Without Zora Neale Hurston and her writings, the town of Eatonville would probably not exist or be as well-known as it is today. Through Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston provided political observations about African Americans. In this novel, readers can identify political authority within the African American community. Upon the establishment of Eatonville, Hurston expresses sympathy need for African American leadership. Although the need for African American leadership was important, there was a huge risk of African Americans repeating the very means of their oppression. African Americans way to political leadership is by gaining power same as whites. For example, Joe Starks gained the power of leadership by being a business man, politician, postmaster, and mayor, all positions which were commonly occupied by white people. Joe Starks' confidence and seemingly natural political ability also granted him access to power. Their Eyes Were Watching God both perpetuates and deflates the myths and stereotypes that are damaging to the African American image. Racial stereotypes in the novel continuously...
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...Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience Uncommon Faithfulness is a collection of essays of the experience of African American Catholics. The book was written by fourteen black Catholic theologians, ecclesial leaders and scholars at a conference held at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. Uncommon Faithfulness was edited by M. Shawn Copeland who serves as the Adjunct Professor of Theology at the Institute for black Catholic studies at Xavier University in New Orleans Louisiana. Catholics of African descent maintained their faith and inspiration to sustain resistance against oppression of slavery and to create life giving opportunities. This was nearly 450 years of Uncommon Faithfulness. The phrase “Uncommon Faithfulness” describes the black Catholic experience in the United States. There are a total of fourteen essays. The first five essays deals with the history of black Catholics in the United States; including essays about African American women in religious communities and black Catholics during the civil rights movement in the United States. The next five essays deals with theological and ethnical aspects of the black Christian experience. There are many challenges that reflect the black Catholic community that allowed African ancestors to endure the denial of their humanity. Despite oppression conditions they were able to exercise their full humanity and were able to create new institutions and cultural traditions by thinking past custom beliefs...
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...BGLO Membership and Class Participation 94 The Effects of Sorority and Fraternity Membership on Class Participation and African American Student Engagement in Predominantly White Classroom Environments Shaun R. Harper The relationship between Black Greek-letter organization membership and African American student engagement in almost exclusively White college classrooms was explored in this study. Data were collected through interviews with 131 members from seven undergraduate chapters at a large, predominantly White university in the Midwest. This study resulted in an explanatory model that shows how underrepresentation, voluntary race representation, and collective responsibility positively affect active participation, while Forced Representation has a negative effect. Findings also reveal that faculty teaching styles both positively and negatively affect engagement among African American sorority and fraternity members in their classes. The implications of these findings are discussed at the end of the article. The title of Kimbrough‘s (2005) article, ―Should Black Fraternities and Sororities Abolish Undergraduate Chapters?‖ captures the essence of an ongoing debate among students, various stakeholders on college and university campuses across the country, and leaders of the nine national Black Greekletter organizations (BGLOs). Instead of offering a balanced description of risks and educational benefits associated with membership, Kimbrough...
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...The dream of racial equality has taken great steps towards becoming a reality in the past 50 years. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the election of the first black President are counteracted by events such as the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and the fact only nine African-American senators have ever been elected to the Senate. In this way although on the surface racial equality appears to be achieved, the reality is that with economic discrimination increasing during the recession, and instances of white flight increasing, racial equality has not yet fully been achieved in the USA. There were many formal attempts to establish civil rights in the USA from 1950s onwards. Before this the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments created to guarantee the rights African-Americans had been ignored by many states, especially in the deep South, meaning that for most blacks racial equality was a distant dream. However, the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the creation of affirmative action policies under JFK began to change things. For the first time government policy began to make up for years of historical discrimination against the African-American population. Affirmative action ensured that members of all previous disadvantaged minorities were given a head start, specifically in areas like education and deployment. With all federally funded projects from the 60s onwards applying policies of affirmative action disadvantaged groups finally...
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...Investigate the History of Slavery and Discuss the ways in which this history Impacts Contemporary Society. HUMN: 303N Week 8 Final Essay The history of slavery has majorly impacted contemporary society as well as the ways in which we live. Ever since slavery was abolished in the United States, equality has been spread amongst African Americans throughout the world. This was achieved by the African Americans themselves, with their strong effort in fighting for what they felt was right. Following their strong attempts, “A terrible price had to be paid, in a tragic, calamitous civil war, before the new democracy could be rid of that most undemocratic institution” (G. Loury, 2015). A huge part of this time period was the Civil Rights movement. This movement was led by strong leaders that helped secure equal opportunities and privileges for African Americans. Although slavery was not officially outlawed until the 13th century amendment was passed, at end of the war slaves were set free. In M. Stevens (2015), “Fasts about the Slave Trade and Slavery, The Gider Lehrman Institute of American History,” slave trade and slavery itself has been thoroughly described. Steven starts off by stating that the United States had the highest natural increase in slave population. He then goes into slave trade, and explains what a slave would go through on a normal work day. This ties into the fact of the actual cost of slaves, and how vastly it changed through the years. The...
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