Reminiscences of an Active Life

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Roy Lynch ◽  
John Hope Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Active Life ◽  
The People ◽  
Speaker Of The House ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Rich Material

Born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, John Roy Lynch (1847–1939) became an adult during the Reconstruction Era and lived a public-spirited life for over three decades. His political career began in 1869 with his appointment as justice of the peace. Within the year, he was elected to the Mississippi legislature and was later elected Speaker of the House. At age twenty-five, Lynch became the first African American from Mississippi to be elected to the United States Congress. He led the fight to secure passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. In 1884, he was elected temporary chairman of the Eighth Republican National Convention and was the first black American to deliver the keynote address. This, his autobiography, reflects Lynch's thoughtful and nuanced understanding of the past and of his own experience. The book, written when he was ninety, challenges a number of traditional arguments about Reconstruction. In his experience, African Americans in the South competed on an equal basis with whites; the state governments were responsive to the needs of the people; and race was not always a decisive factor in the politics of Reconstruction. The book provides rich material for the study of American politics and race relations during Reconstruction. Lynch's childhood reflections reveal new dimensions to our understanding of black experience during slavery and beyond. An introduction puts Lynch's public and private lives in the context of his times and provides an overview of how Reminiscences of an Active Life came to be written.

scholarly journals The Social Oikos

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Michael Lee Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Core Points

In one of the foundational articles of persona studies, Marshall and Barbour (2015) look to Hannah Arendt for development of a key concept within the larger persona framework: “Arendt saw the need to construct clear and separate public and private identities. What can be discerned from this understanding of the public and the private is a nuanced sense of the significance of persona: the presentation of the self for public comportment and expression” (2015, p. 3). But as far back as the ancient world from which Arendt draws her insights, the affordance of persona was not evenly distributed. As Gines (2014) argues, the realm of the household, oikos, was a space of subjugation of those who were forced to be “private,” tending to the necessities of life, while others were privileged with life in the public at their expense. To demonstrate the core points of this essay, I use textual analysis of a YouTube family vlog, featuring a Black mother in the United States, whose persona rapidly changed after she and her White husband divorced. By critically examining Arendt’s concepts around public, private, and social, a more nuanced understanding of how personas are formed in unjust cultures can help us theorize persona studies in more egalitarian and robust ways.

American Democracy Reconsidered: Part I

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Government ◽  
The State ◽  
City Government ◽  
State Governments ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

In his celebrated study of American democracy written in 1888, Lord Bryce reserved his most condemnatory reflections for city government and in a muchquoted passage asserted: ‘There is no denying that the government of cities is the one conspicuous failure of the United States. The deficiencies of the National government tell but little for evil on the welfare of the people. The faults of the State governments are insignificant compared with the extravagance, corruption and mismanagement which mark the administration of most of the great cities'sangeetha.

If Higher Education Is a Right, and Distance Education Is the Answer, Then Who Will Pay?

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The People ◽  
Cost Efficiencies ◽  
Negative Conclusion ◽  
The U.S

If higher education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making higher education universally available, then who shall pay? This article asks (1) can state governments in the United States afford to fund this initiative and (2) can public higher education institutions in the U.S. fund this effort through capitalizing on cost-efficiencies of online learning? To answer the first question, data on funding of higher education by states are reviewed and a negative conclusion reached. To answer the second question, research on methods for achieving cost-efficiencies through online learning is reviewed and a cautious positive conclusion is reached, assuming states and institutions are willing to invest in the people and processes, and the time, effort, and will, that makes achieving efficiencies possible.

Racialized Representations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Sarzynski
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
The Third World

While race was not used as an organizing tool in the Northeast, it was also not entirely absent. The Ligas drew transnational connections between the Northeast and the US Civil Rights movement and African independence movements, positioning the white ruling majority or European colonists as the enemy of the people. Slavery was a common metaphor used to debate the possibilities of Brazil forming a coalition with the Soviet Union or the United States. The historical legacy of slavery in Northeastern Brazil also factored into debates over competing projects for development in the Northeast. Filmmakers focused on rural afro-descendent populations and stories of quilombos (maroon societies), using realism to portray the Nordestino as African, savage, impoverished and determined to survive. These racialized narratives shaped the cultural and political struggles for change in the Northeast while also redefining what it meant to be Nordestino and a part of the Third World.

scholarly journals IF HIGHER EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IS THE ANSWER, THEN WHO WILL PAY?

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The People ◽  
Cost Efficiencies ◽  
Negative Conclusion ◽  
The U.S

If higher education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making higher education universally available, then who shall pay? This article asks (1) can state governments in the United States afford to fund this initiative and (2) can public higher education institutions in the U.S. fund this effort through capitalizing on cost-efficiencies of online learning? To answer the first question, data on funding of higher education by states are reviewed and a negative conclusion reached. To answer the second question, research on methods for achieving cost-efficiencies through online learning is reviewed and a cautious positive conclusion is reached, assuming states and institutions are willing to invest in the people and processes, and the time, effort, and will that make achieving efficiencies possible.

scholarly journals Presidential Address: Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association: The Future of Representative Government

1908 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. N. Judson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The People ◽  
The Future ◽  
Representative System ◽  
American Political Science

In the United States we have seen a revival of the ancient discussion concerning the line of demarcation between national and State authority under our complex federal system, but there is an underlying question which cannot have escaped the thoughtful observer involved in the growing popular distrust of the representative system whereon both federal and State governments are based. This tendency is being manifested in very material modifications in representative government, as understood by the founders of our government, and I therefore ask your attention to the consideration of The Future of Representative Government.This form of government, wherein the sovereign power of law-making is wholly delegated to deputies elected by the people, is of comparatively modern origin, and in the modern sense of the term it was unknown to the ancients. While its origin is obscure, we know that it was in England that representative government found its development in the form in which it was so greatly impressed upon the framers of our Constitution. Sir Henry Maine in his Popular Government says that it was virtually England's discovery of government by representation which caused parliamentary institutions to be preserved in England from the destruction which overtook them everywhere else, and to devolve as an inheritance upon the United States.

The Politics of Empowerment. By Robert Weissberg. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. 272p. $50.00.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
The 1960S

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s produced strong pressure on all levels of government to give “power to the people.” This urgent demand came not only from radical activists in the streets but also from the halls of academia, where scholars churned out a massive volume of studies encompassing detailed recommendations for filling the power vacuum between authoritative public and private decision makers and disadvantaged citizens whose lack of sufficient economic and political resources condemned them to the bottom rungs of the American social order. Although most of these studies were considered positive and progressive, they were not without their detractors. The most searing critique of “bottom up” schemes for empowering the disadvantaged has come from the pen of Robert Weissberg in his book, The Politics of Empowerment.

Not diverse enough? Displacement, diversity discourse, and commercial gentrification in Santa Ana, California, a majority-Mexican city

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110209
Author(s):  
Carolina Sarmiento
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Santa Ana ◽  
Spatial Strategies ◽  
Commercial Area ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Racial Lines ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Diversity Discourse

This research investigates how diversity discourse unfolds as part of commercial gentrification when public and private growth actors call for increased diversity in a city that is majority Latinx in the United States. My argument is twofold: first, commercial gentrification is itself a racialised project to manage diversity; second, the discourse around diversity foments spatial strategies used by both state and private actors that dislocate immigrant communities and economies. This in-depth case study using Santa Ana, California, provides a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between diversity and commercial gentrification in a majority Mexican immigrant city. The research finds that, as diversity discourse promotes liberal colourblind practices within a majority Latinx city, it also contributes to distributing resources along racial lines. Diversity discourse presented a liberal and inclusive form of gentrification while also providing a justification for the displacement of immigrant-serving businesses by positioning them as exclusionary or backward. The dislocation or erasure of immigrant-serving businesses occurred through spatial strategies backed by the state to make new property available in the downtown commercial area. Removal was not only physical but also occurred through assimilation, wherein businesses ‘adapted’ to survive. Planning and development actors in this case failed to recognise the value of cultural and economic community networks while also diverting attention and resources away from immigrant-serving businesses. The case provides unique insight into the multiplicity of economic and political interests in a Latinx-majority place.

scholarly journals IF HIGHER EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IS THE ANSWER, THEN WHO WILL PAY?

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The People ◽  
Cost Efficiencies ◽  
Negative Conclusion ◽  
The U.S

If higher education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making higher education universally available, then who shall pay? This article asks (1) can state governments in the United States afford to fund this initiative and (2) can public higher education institutions in the U.S. fund this effort through capitalizing on cost-efficiencies of online learning? To answer the first question, data on funding of higher education by states are reviewed and a negative conclusion reached. To answer the second question, research on methods for achieving cost-efficiencies through online learning is reviewed and a cautious positive conclusion is reached, assuming states and institutions are willing to invest in the people and processes, and the time, effort, and will that make achieving efficiencies possible.

Reflections

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-180
Author(s):  
Abel Núñez ◽  
Rachel Gittinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
Youth Advocacy ◽  
Political Exclusion

The authors outline how, as undocumented immigrants face danger throughout their journeys and challenges settling in U.S. communities, local civil society actors at each stage must ensure that their human and civil rights are respected. Policies that only address the migratory flow into the United States will not resolve issues of violence, poverty, and political exclusion in the countries of origin that force people to flee. Despite their lack of legal status in the United States, immigrant youth have a crucial role to play in ensuring a secure future—for others like them but also for U.S. civil society more broadly. The authors illustrate the ways that migrant youth have been taking the lead on articulating their visions for a better world, and discuss how—informed by youth advocacy—local communities and state governments can build effective networks, implement protective policies, and provide needed services.

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