The Development of an Entrepreneurial Mindset at a HBCU During a Pandemic

Over the years, African American leaders and entrepreneurs have been preaching the gospel of preparing students at Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to have an entrepreneurial mindset. The entrepreneurial mindset concept at an HBCU is at an early stage of development. As a result, the concept lacks rigorous theoretical foundations to adapt. The goal of this chapter is to introduce a conceptual change intelligence approach to explain the factors leading to the evolution of the way that an entrepreneurial mindset is developed in an HBCU. The conceptual change intelligence approach draws upon the Input-Process-Output (IPO) Model. In this chapter, the authors postulate that to develop an entrepreneurial mindset (output), the environment (process) in which the student (input) resides must be changed. This chapter is intended to highlight how an HBCU student environment can assist the students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset during COVID-19.

No Future in This Country

No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner is a rhetorical history of the public career of Bishop Turner during a critical point in American history—from 1896-1915—the “nadir of race relations.” It was during this period in history that African Americans lost many of the gains during Reconstruction. During this period, America adopted the “separate but equal doctrine,” lynching of African Americans went unabated, the convict leasing systems were on the rise, and the Jim Crow era had begun. In response to this, many African American leaders produced racial uplift narratives that focused on respectability politics. No Future argues that Turner opposed racial uplift and respectability politics as a panacea for what ailed African Americans. His answer was simple—emigration to Africa. While Turner did not see any bright and glorious future for African Americans during this time, he never gave up hope that African Americans would someday use their own agency to carve out a better future for subsequent generations. No Future argues that Turner does this within the African American Prophetic tradition by focusing in on Turner’s use of prophetic pessimism. In short, while many African American leaders were celebrating how far they had come from slavery, Turner reminded them and the nation that they had not come that far—indeed, in many instances, with conditions continuing to worsen, many felt they were still trapped, if not by slavery itself, then surely the lingering effects of slavery.

Moving From the National Negro Health Week to the National Public Health Week in the United States

There has been relatively little published on National Negro Health Week, and what has been published has often focused on physicians, nurses, or women. This article offers a brief but comprehensive overview of the organization and health emphases of nonmedical African American leaders on issues of health and explains how health concepts made their way to ordinary African Americans. In addition, in this article, I argue that the current National Public Health Week campaign might be best seen as a metamorphosis of National Negro Health Week because they share many similarities in practice and direction. The article’s main message is that the United States has a long history of a “National Health Week”; that these Weeks support the interests of subjugated groups by race, ethnicity, or class; and that these Weeks have worked to empower these groups by providing them with basic health knowledge to improve their health without needing to consult a physician.

Subtle and Overt Behaviors Toward Ethnic Minority Leaders and the Moderating Role of Competence

This study extends research on stereotypes and leadership to consider the subtle and overt behavioral responses to leaders from multiple ethnic backgrounds. Specifically, the study focuses on overt and subtle discrimination toward African American, Asian American, Middle Eastern American, and White male leaders. Results from an experiment measuring authentic reactions to leaders reveal that Asian American leaders were treated more negatively in comparison to White and Middle Eastern American leaders. Furthermore, individuating information about the leader’s competence marginally improved performance expectations of Middle Eastern American leaders compared with White and Asian leaders. However, African American leaders were treated less positively when information about competence was provided compared with when it was not. The findings suggest that the unique stereotypes of each ethnic group can affect the utility of providing individuating information about competence.

The Negro Buildings

Chapter 2 examines the creation of and role played by the Negro Buildings at the Atlanta and Nashville fairs. These African American–run buildings gave southern black professionals and clerics an opportunity to voice their own story of the South’s past, present, and future. The buildings presented an image of a “New Negro” who was well versed in the modern techniques of industry and agriculture. The Negro Building exhibits presented black southerners as a progressive and future-oriented people who challenged much of the evolutionary thinking and racial science of the late nineteenth century. At the same time, the Negro Buildings make clear the ways some African American leaders embraced the language of progress and civilization to accommodate white southern society.

Southern Labor and the Lure of Populism

In this chapter Deborah Beckel reconsiders historians' analyses of the Knights of Labor in Gilded Age North Carolina. Based on new research, it reframes interpretations of labor's role in the rise of Populism. Reevaluating race, class, gender, and power relations within and among the Knights of Labor, Farmers' Alliance, and People's Party movements, it shows how black and white men and women, including Ellen Williams, shaped interracial, cross-class, and cross-gender activism. It reexamines the ways that grassroots African-American leaders communicated with state and national leaders, including Marion Butler, Elias Carr, and John Hayes. The chapter rethinks the roles of the Knights of Labor and the Republican Party in North Carolina's fusion coalition. It reassesses the meanings of the Republican-Populist political victories of the 1890s.

Black Memphians and New Frontiers

This essay explores the relationship between black Memphians and John F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency in 1960 and his subsequent administration. Drawing on archival research in Memphis and at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, as well as oral histories, this essay shows that blacks in Memphis played a crucial role in the presidential campaign, so much so that precinct leaders received invitations to the inauguration. (Unlike in most southern areas, African Americans could vote in Memphis.) Two key African American leaders in Memphis, Russell B. Sugarmon Jr. and A. W. Willis Jr., loom particularly large in this story because of their role in the development of the Shelby County Democratic Club and because they kept in touch with the Kennedy administration about civil rights issues in Memphis. Their local activism had national ramifications.

The Lives of Douglass, Du Bois, and Washington: Self-Actualization Among African American Males

Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington are pioneering examples of African American leaders who realized the fullness of their potentialities despite profound obstacles toward growth. It was through their abilities to respond to the shared needs of the African American community that they culturally epitomized the spirit of what Abraham Maslow defined as self-actualization. The researcher utilized text-based data to examine the process of development among the three historic figures as they relate to Maslow’s theory of self-actualization. The researcher analyzed published autobiographical books, essays, and speeches authored by each of the three men while integrating the cultural and historical context of their lived experiences through the humanistic and positive psychological lens of Maslow’s theory of self-actualization. Through a qualitative autobiographical analysis of the three men, the researcher discovered 15 common attributes in their process of self-actualization. Low self-esteem, depression, and learned helplessness are negatively affecting many aspects of the African American community; therefore, community leaders, mental health practitioners, and other advocates for underserved communities of color have an opportunity to provide enhanced training and treatment to help slow the tide of unrealized potential within key sectors of the African American community.

From Hackensack to the White House: The Triumph and Travail of E. Frederic Morrow

Four decades after arranging a historic meeting in the White House of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and African-American leaders on June 23, 1958 former Eisenhower assistant Rocco Siciliano recounted the back-story of the meeting, highlighting its inherent drama and significance. In the course of sharing his recollections Siciliano paid tribute to an African-American member of the White House staff, E. Frederic Morrow, calling him a “true pioneer in the American black civil rights movement.” Added Siciliano: “[Morrow’s] impact on civil rights progress has yet to be appreciated.” Judging “impact” by one individual on a large-scale movement is tricky business. But, as this article notes, there should be no doubt that in serving President Eisenhower New Jersey native Fred Morrow advanced the civil rights cause. The fact that his five-and-a-half-year tenure as a black man in the White House was not always happy or consistently productive of the kinds of initiatives on behalf of racial equality that he advocated should not obscure his contributions.

Do Black Lives Really Matter—To Social Work? Introduction to the Special Edition

This article presents and summarizes the special issue entitled: Practice, Research, and Scholarship on African American. The authors examine the professions’ contradictory actions in partnering with African American scholars, communities, and people to achieve its social justice and civil rights mission. It reintroduces the reader of this collection to June Gary Hopps who originally rung the clarion call to action about the profession’s waffling nature regarding African Americans. The authors overview the collection, which depicts the professions’ lack of focus on issues of race, African American well-being, and oppression experiences. This issue unravels the role played by social work in its meager attention to the plight of African American leaders and faculty, their achievements, and challenges. It also conveys the realities of too few research studies on key issues impacting African Americans. This article concludes with a nudge to the reader to weigh the evidence contained in this serial.