bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Canines and Tricksters in Atlanta
Authors: Klestil Matthias
Published: January 2025

This essay examines how Atlanta’s representations of canines and of the character of Darius as a trickster satirically negotiate environmental values, stereotypes, and affects on multiple frequencies. In its Horatian mode, the show evokes environmentally relevant points of critique by ironizing African American environmental stereotypes or histories. At the same time, a Juvenalian mode of satire decries racialized environmental or biopolitical practices that are linked to a longstanding association of Blackness with animality in which canine anti-Black violence plays a significant role. The ecocritical scholarship on the history of African American cultural relationships to dogs is particularly relevant to determining the potential environmental targets of Atlanta’s complex satirical critique. Nicole Seymour’s emphasis on stereotyping and “racialized environmental affect” helps outline the environmental dimensions of Atlanta’s satirical play with tricksters and canines, whether the latter figure as enigmatic symbols, as commodities for breeding, or as targets for shooting practice.
Ironic Minstrelsies of Affect in Atlanta
Authors: Cortes Phillip James Martinez
Published: January 2025

In Atlanta, the figure of the minority embodies the figure of the minstrel ironically. The show reveals that the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century tradition of minstrelsy still governs the social codes and expectations of diverse contemporary contexts, such as the music industry and educational institutions. As a result, minstrelsy promulgates a sacrificial discourse that exchanges empathetic sensitivity for minorities’ lived emotional experiences in favor of unempathetically coercing them into acting as passionately unhinged objects. Atlanta imagines the inclusive possibilities of irony wherein minority characters embody minstrelsy’s emotional minimalism as well as its stereotyped emotional excess to build affectively recuperative and resistant moments that are otherwise excluded by contemporary minstrelsy. Atlanta portrays characters challenging minstrelsy’s predominantly exclusive affects because these characters inclusively embody both minstrelsy’s white minimalism and its stereotyped Black affective excess to forge tentative yet recuperative relationships with their inner selves.
Gunlore and Gun Folks
Authors: HOWARD ROBERT GLENN , ELIASON ERIC A.
Published: January 2025

This chapter provides a background on the concept of “gunlore,” a term coined by Robert Glenn Howard in 2019 to describe the folklore surrounding firearms. It explores how gunlore emerges from various communities, whether through self-protection, hunting, political identity, or artistic modification of firearms. It also emphasizes that gunlore permeates everyday language, as evidenced by numerous firearms-related metaphors in English, such as “bite the bullet” and “shooting fish in a barrel,” which reflect a deep integration of gun culture into common expressions. The chapter highlights how some expressions, like “dry powder” and “flash in the pan,” have historical roots in outdated firearms technologies. By examining the pervasive nature and historical depth of gunlore, the chapter underscores its broad impact on both firearms enthusiasts and the general public.
Moms Who Carry
Authors: MOREL ANNAMARIE O’BRIEN
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the evolving cultural and political landscape surrounding armed women in America, focusing on the dual fascination and controversy they generate. From the iconic sharpshooter Annie Oakley to modern conservative gun-rights figures like Sarah Palin and Kaitlin Bennett, images of women with firearms have shifted dramatically over time. The chapter recounts gun portrayals in the 1960s and 1970s that were often sexualized or politicized, reflecting the rise of radical activism, while the 1980s saw a conservative turn, with the National Rifle Association (NRA) aligning gun ownership with suburban family values. The chapter mentions Bennett's viral Kent State graduation photos that exemplify how social media amplifies and blends femininity with gun advocacy to spark polarized debates. It discusses how women use concealed-carry selfies on platforms like Instagram to reshape the narrative around firearms.
Between the Forest and the Freezer
Authors: FRANDY TIM
Published: January 2025

This chapter investigates the cultural and symbolic significance of firearms by comparing the AR-15 and Ruger Mini 14 to illustrate how visual perceptions of guns influence public discourse and legislation. It argues that the visual culture surrounding guns deeply shapes how people express identity and values through firearms; drawing on personal experiences growing up in Wisconsin's hunting community to highlight the diversity of hunting practices and the distinct ways hunters communicate through attire, behavior, and traditions. The chapter emphasizes a more relational approach rooted in respect for nature, reflecting both cultural heritage and ecological mindfulness. It presents hunting as a reflection of identity and a practice of humility, shaped by the traditions of Finnish and Sámi ancestry.
God’s Warriors
Authors: ZAHAY MEGAN L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter analyzes the religious symbolism and antigovernment sentiment that converged during the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and explores its roots in the broader cultural significance of guns in the United States. It looks at the infamous prayer by Jake Angeli, the “QAnon Shaman,” whose rhetoric and attire reflected a fusion of apocalyptic Christianity and militaristic imagery. It also delves into the historical context of Christian extremist groups like the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) and their use of guns as a material manifestation of their religious identity. The chapter demonstrates how gunlore serves as a means for extremist groups to express their identity as God's warriors in an apocalyptic struggle against the federal government. It situates the CSA within the intersection of gun culture, militia ideology, and religious extremism.
Dangerous Tools of Expression
Authors: HOWARD ROBERT GLENN
Published: January 2025

This chapter highlights a humorous internet meme that unexpectedly evolved into a serious discussion about gun culture, revealing the deep connections between online folklore and gunlore. The meme depicted a bumblebee in the crosshairs of a pistol, sparking a series of lighthearted comments before the conversation shifted to a debate over handgun design. It notes how the shift in conversation reflects the entrenched debates within gun communities, where comparisons between different firearms often give rise to widely recognized proverbs and expressions. The chapter explores the symbolic meanings attached to guns, reviewing how folklore about firearms intertwines with both individual and institutional narratives. It argues that gunlore serves as a powerful form of expression that perpetuates the commercial interests of arms manufacturers.
Visionary and Incomplete
Authors: Eichelberger Julia
Published: January 2025

This chapter uses biographical and historical information, informed by standpoint theory, to analyze six texts: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and “That Evening Sun”; Wright’s “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” and “Long Black Song”; Welty’s “Livvie” and “Moon Lake.” Comparative analysis highlights striking contrasts as well as similarities in the lives and creative works of the three Mississippi modernists. Writing from distinct subject positions, these writers imagined distinct cultural landscapes that are both visionary and incomplete, accurately assessing some of their characters’ experiences and overlooking or misunderstanding others. If any writer’s characters had been portrayed by the other writers, their circumstances and possible responses would have been different. By reading these texts alongside each other, paying attention to what each writer has omitted or misunderstood, readers can assemble a composite vision that yields a fuller, more truthful portrait of twentieth-century Mississippi.
Witnessing Jim Crow
Authors: Donaldson Susan V.
Published: January 2025

Amid current debates among US politicians, pundits, and educators over critical race theory (CRT), Susan V. Donaldson finds harbingers of its systemic approach to racism and white supremacy, its call “for a national reckoning with the country’s long history of racial hierarchies and inequities,” and its clear-eyed acknowledgment of “the daunting impediments to that reckoning” in the work of our trio of featured authors. This essay draws on the work of Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic, and others to introduce the reader to the history and theory behind this important and controversial intellectual movement. Donaldson then turns to Wright’s 1942 novel The Man Who Lived Underground (unpublished in Wright’s lifetime), to Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses (also 1942), and to Welty’s New Yorker stories, “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” (1963) and “The Demonstrators” (1966), to show how these Mississippi authors, “all compelled throughout their careers to confront the politics of visibility and invisibility defining the color line,” lay bare, “in ways that critical race theorists would have instantly recognized and confirmed, the entrenchment and yet slow dissolution of an antiquated racial hierarchy both bolstered and diminished by white blindness and denial.”
Literary Dispatches from the Postal South
Authors: McMahand Donnie
Published: January 2025

The authors discussed in this chapter explore the effects of mail delivery during the south’s post-Reconstruction period. Prompted by federal intervention, the proliferation of post offices, mailboxes, and postal workers enhanced communication and commerce throughout a rural, isolated South, exposing it further to the wider world. These changes and the literature they inspired fostered a loosely bound network of letter-writing laborers, educators, entrepreneurs, authors, and other individuals, each a participant of what we term the Postal South. Modeling these Postal South realities, the people and places imagined by Steve Yarbrough, Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, and Lewis Nordan fashion a detailed diagram of memory, history, and imagination. Evoking the disruptiveness of modern mail delivery on southerners’ lives and perspectives, these writers mark the ability of the postal service to uncover deep racial and economic divides—alternately to reduce and extend the rifts between federal controls and local customs.
“Burning in His Own Heart”
Authors: Joy Bernard T.
Published: January 2025

Faulkner’s creation of Joe Christmas in Light in August (1932) inaugurates his mature approach to race just as Native Son (1940) forms part of the inauguration of Wright’s. This chapter explores tropes of blindness and invisibility as they are presented in these novels through Joe’s invisibility and Bigger’s visibility as non-white men. The chapter further argues that the visual aspects of Joe's and Bigger’s racial recognition within their majority white communities results in Joe’s desire for social death (a state in which a fantasy of deracinated individuality is imaginable) while Bigger equates social death with physical death and his own individual aliveness with social, political aliveness. It is for this reason that, while Joe seeks to transcend social arrangements, Bigger contends with them both in an attempt to appropriate a social self and to avert the existential threat its loss implies to him.
Criminality, Sexuality, and Violence in Faulkner and Wright
Authors: Lowe John Wharton
Published: January 2025

This essay suggests Richard Wright, who admired Faulkner’s works, created a novel, The Long Dream, that was likely influenced by his expressed admiration for Faulkner’s achievement in Sanctuary. While utilizing different plot lines, both novels embrace a nexus of transgression, violence, criminality, and misogyny. Corruption is seen by both writers to be rife in all levels of society, including the police, the government, and the judiciary. Both texts locate key scenes in brothels, where the central characters Temple Drake (Faulkner) and Fishbelly Tucker (Wright) become both victimized and corrupted. The theoretical approaches of Bataille, Girard, and preceding Faulkner critics are employed to delineate Wright and Faulkner’s presentation of crime, perversion, the corruptions of capitalism, and the ironies underlying “respectable” society. Concurrently, both writers rely on the conventions of gangster fiction and film, pulp novels, and sensationalist cultural productions to pierce the “frozen” hearts of their readers.
Where’s Nancy?
Authors: Smith Mike
Published: January 2025

The introduction is an overview of some of the issues regarding the historiography of jazz, and why much of the writing on the era fails to tell the story of jazz as a music widely enjoyed by Black Americans in the 1960s, particularly popular jazz created by the likes of Nancy Wilson, Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Turrentine, Herbie Hancock, and others.
33s and 45s
Authors: Smith Mike
Published: January 2025

A number of jazz record labels were responsible for recording these new sounds. Most of them started in the late-50s and early-60s. This is a look at how the different labels, like Blue Note, Prestige, and Verve, cultivated musical identities and created specific aesthetic characteristics with graphic designs that would have influence beyond jazz.
How Did We Forget, Why Did We Forget?
Authors: Smith Mike
Published: January 2025

The story of jazz in the 60s has been told by people outside of the Black community. While not a deliberate misrepresentation, the effect has been to create a one-sided narrative that aligns with protests and struggles but negates a large body of work that was important as social music to many people. This chapter is a reminder of the importance of telling the whole story, one that informs everyone that Black people are more than their struggles.
George Pérez
Authors: Hamilton Patrick L.
Published: January 2025

This book begins a reassessment of the comics work of George Pérez, one of the most popular and enduring creators in the industry. Pérez began his career at Marvel, starting on lesser titles like The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and Creatures on the Loose and then moving to mainstays like Fantastic Four and Avengers. In the 1980s, Pérez moved to DC where he helped turn The New Teen Titans into a best-seller and co-created Crisis on Infinite Earths, which consolidated and relaunched DC’s sprawling universe. As writer and artist, Pérez next relaunched DC’s Wonder Woman, a run that inspired much of the 2017 film. Though he struggled with deadlines and health issues in the 1990s, Pérez would re-introduce his work to a new generation of comics fans with a return to Marvel’s Avengers in 1998 as well as various creator-owned comics, the last of these being Sirens from Boom! Studios in 2014. Throughout his career, Pérez established a dynamic and detailed style of comic art that was unique and influential. However, despite being one of the most popular and enduring artists, as well as being arguably the most prominent Latinx creator during the so-called “Bronze Age” of superhero comics, Pérez has been largely left out of discussions of comic book art and representation. This book is an effort to redress this lack by examining the artist’s work for how it contributes to the style and storytelling of superhero comics as well as to representations of race, disability, and gender.
Introduction
Authors: Hamilton Patrick L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter asserts that the significance of Pérez and his work have been neglected within comics scholarship and the comics industry, even as his influence can be seen elsewhere, particularly in the Marvel (MCU) and DC (DCEU) film universes. It traces this “invisibility” to a number of factors. Within scholarship, there is a tendency to privilege realist works over superhero comics, writers over artists, and certain auteur creators among whom Pérez is not counted. Various conditions within the industry—again, the ascendancy of writers over artists but also restrictions Pérez labored under while at Marvel as well as his own efforts not to draw attention to his style—have a similar effacing effect.
Play and Possibility on the Comic Book Page
Authors: Hamilton Patrick L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter argues for the significance of Pérez’s stylistic contributions to comics, defining them as a conscious effort to stretch what is possible on the comics page. How Pérez does this is two-pronged. First, the chapter traces his efforts regarding the layout of the physical comic book page, demonstrating temporal and spatial effects his art could achieve. Second, and more significantly, the chapter presents Pérez as embracing and maximizing the possibilities of comic book narratives. It argues for his significant contribution here in not only building storyworlds around his characters but embracing the fantastic nature of these worlds. In both efforts, Pérez follows Jack Kirby, particularly in the conveyance of an experience of the sublime in the worlds he builds.
Copyright Vigilantes
Authors: Claverie Ezra
Published: January 2025

In films based on characters published by DC Comics or Marvel Comics, no plot element recurs more often than a villain who tries to copy the hero’s powers—from technological trade secrets to alien DNA—thereby threatening mass destruction. But no other Hollywood genre obsesses over copying or warns that copying will lead to apocalypse. Copyright Vigilantes explains why. This book argues that Hollywood superhero movies reflect their own mode of production, specifically the comic-book publishers’ dependence upon work-for-hire contracts, which deny human creators the copyright to their work, and the Hollywood studios’ anti-piracy rhetoric, which frames video piracy as an apocalyptic threat not to their profits but to the security of the United States of America. After the introduction of DVDs in the late 1990s, superhero movie franchises quickly became a reliable source of profits, yet during the same period, bootlegging and peer-to-peer file-sharing seemed to threaten these profits. The narratives of superhero films reveal the studios’ alternation between wonder and apocalyptic dread. The DC-Marvel duopoly depends upon work-for-hire contacts to expropriate copyrights from creative workers, and this use of copyright meshed neatly with Hollywood’s anxiety about unauthorized duplication and dissemination. The result is a film genre where action heroes routinely defend intellectual property by force. Against claims that duopoly films seek to assuage public anxieties after September 11th, this book argues that they work even harder to assuage corporate anxieties about a changing marketplace.
Introduction
Authors: Claverie Ezra
Published: January 2025

This chapter presents the historical and theoretical background for the book’s primary argument. During the DVD boom of the early 2000s, the home video market catered to young men, who bought sequels to action-adventure franchises. Studios therefore wanted subject matter for serial filmmaking that appealed to young men and that had decades of brand equity; duopoly superheroes satisfied these criteria. The DC-Marvel duopoly had always treated comic books as means to other ends, publishing characters to license into other media; work-for-hire contracts let publishers expropriate copyrights from human writers and artists, paying wages rather than royalties. This chapter uses the neologism continuity capital to name the duopoly’s accumulation of characters and stories, which simultaneously function as means of producing new stories, as means of attracting new capital through licensing fees, and even as collateral to creditors. This chapter also justifies the book’s allegorical method of interpreting films to understand the workings of secretive and risk-averse companies.
Cartoons and Antisemitism
Authors: Stanczyk Ewa
Published: January 2025

This book explores how illustrators in interwar Poland conceived of Jewish people in satirical drawings, while reflecting on the burning political questions of the day. The book discusses hundreds of cartoons, satirical texts, and newspaper articles from the 1930s, and investigates how a visual culture that was essentially hostile to Jews penetrated deep and wide into the print media of the late interbellum. Providing a historically rich analysis, the book analyses how major satirical magazines of the time intervened in the ongoing events and contributed to the polarized political climate of the period. As well as focusing on the local antisemitic tropes that were characteristic of the print media of interwar Poland, the book pays close attention to the antisemitic tropes that were global and reflects on the relevance of Polish pictorial humor to the wider debate on the transmission of visual antisemitism across historical and geographical borders. As it discusses the communities of artists, publishers, and political commentators who made up the visual culture of the day, the book also tells a story of the people who served the antisemitic cause, and those who chose to oppose it.
Against Antisemitism
Authors: Stańczyk Ewa
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses how artists on the liberal left took on their right-wing and fascist opponents through a series of dialogical engagements, consisting of written and visual satire. Focusing on the progressive magazine Szpilki (Pins), the chapter demonstrates how both Jewish and non-Jewish artists and journalists joined forces to protest the overwhelming climate of hate in the country, as well as drawing attention to the international threats, such as the rise of fascism. The chapter argues that, despite functioning in a milieu which was becoming increasingly authoritarian and dominated by the divisive rhetoric of the far-right, the magazine was able to carve out spaces of satirical freedom, testing the limits of state censorship and, effectively, sustaining democratic thinking.
Conclusion
Authors: Stańczyk Ewa
Published: January 2025

Abstract and Keywords to be supplied.
From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich
Authors: Barnholden Neale
Published: January 2025

Comics have become the subject of academic inquiry largely by being constructed—by scholars and fans—as serious works of literature and art deserving serious attention, interwoven with publishers exchanging this cultural capital to increase the value of their catalogues. This book argues that approaches from the field of Book History, focusing on the materiality and bibliographical history of texts, has much to add to Comics Studies for this reason. In Chapters 1 and 2, two “canonical" comics texts (Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge; Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen) are studied for the readings which may exist if the texts are treated as consumer products. In Chapters 3 and 4, the methods are applied to two texts practically defined by their absence in Comics Studies: Harvey Comics’ Ri¢hie Ri¢h and bubblegum comics Dubble Bubble Funnies. Ultimately the book argues that the field of Comics Studies is enriched by studying the way fictional portrayals of value interact with material constructions of same, from the luxurious hardcover art objects of Carl Barks and Dave Gibbons to the literal garbage of Dubble Bubble. Furthermore, these case studies shed light on the ambivalence of comics that emerge from consumer culture, and ultimately on the indebtedness of comics as a whole to the context of consumerism.
Back to “Back to the Klondike”
Authors: Barnholden Neale
Published: January 2025

This chapter outlines the book history of the 1953 Disney Uncle Scrooge story “Back to the Klondike” as an exemplar of comics being salvaged and republished as important works of art. The bibliographical history of the story shows the way that the work of cartoonist Carl Barks has moved through different valuations, from ephemera to expensive artworks. This observation about the cultural capital of the work sits uneasily with the thematic concerns of the story: while the story humanizes Scrooge and is about values beyond the monetary, the more the text is embedded in consumerism the more difficult it is to take this message as an uncompromised artistic theme. Uncle Scrooge is both an aspirational fantasy figure and a satire of the idea of acquisition.
Trash Culture
Authors: Barnholden Neale
Published: January 2025

This chapter analyses the historical context of bubblegum comics, as well as comics otherwise profoundly embedded in consumer culture, before offering a critical reading of the comics found in a bucket of Dubble Bubble bubblegum. The chapter argues that comics are profoundly indebted to marketing, both as advertising and as premiums (items offered free with a purchase). It also argues that even bubblegum comics display an ambivalent relationship to consumerism, particularly as their meanings are unavoidably bound up in the text’s materiality as literal garbage.
DC Gets Onboard
Authors: Smith Troy D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter looks at the relatively late entry of DC Comics onto the Blaxploitation and Kung Fu bandwagons, just as the fads were ending. In fact, DC was well behind the curve on introducing Black superheroes, Asian superheroes, or characters of color in general. This was partially due to many of DC’s editors and creators being of an older generation that was more staid and conservative (and out of touch with younger readers), resulting in editorial reluctance to deal with issues of race. When they did, it tended to conform to the “liberal myth of brotherhood,” calling for respectability in minorities. DC’s martial arts characters were either white, minority sidekicks, or seemed to minimize their Asianness. If Asians were presented as stereotypes, Black people were mostly invisible—until the introduction of Black Lightning, a character who embodied Duboisian double-consciousness, with a respectable secret identity and a radical, streetwise hero identity.
Kung Fu Comics and Interracial Partnerships
Authors: Smith Troy D.
Published: January 2025

Some Kung Fu comics featured interracial teams or strictly African/Asian-American duos. Such partnerships reflected a comic book trend of the time focused on interracial/international teams as a way to promote the liberal theme of egalitarian diversity (such as the X-Men). However, it also reflected a trend in the cinema genres themselves, illustrated in the movie Enter the Dragon. One could also argue that such combinations appealed to Black and Asian-American audiences due to the intersection of their cultures in the radical anti-imperialist movements of the 70s, and the confluence of Black Power and Yellow Power. The comic trend was exemplified by the pairing of Luke Cage and Iron Fist as “heroes-for-hire” partners. Nonetheless, most such partnerships tended to focus on the white gaze—until Powerman and Iron Fist was handled by an African-American writer/artist duo, in which case they were criticized by white editors for not making Cage “black” enough.
Straining against the Structure of Whiteness
Authors: Smith Troy D.
Published: January 2025

This final chapter looks at the long-range repercussions of the 1970s Kung Fu and Blaxploitation characters, and the interactions with fans of color in those letters pages. One significant result was that a whole generation of fans of color had lead heroes who looked like them, and many of the younger fans in that set grew up to be comic book writers and artists who would bring a more authentic perspective to the very minority superheroes they had grown up reading about, which should interest scholars in the bourgeoning field of fandom studies. Many of those creators of color, and several fans, are highlighted in the chapter, which then moves to the portrayal of those 70s heroes in recent movies and TV shows and examines showrunners’ interactions with fans via social media. Finally, it looks at ways that whiteness has pushed back in an effort to preserve white privilege.
The Bates Siblings Find a Home in Los Angeles
Authors: LeFalle-Collins Lizzetta
Published: January 2025

This chapter details the author's family's migration from Shreveport to Los Angeles between the 1920s and 1950s. The family engaged in various trades: Mrs. Helen provided beans and greens, Aunt Lizzetta grew watermelons, Aunt Phoebe made cherry brandy, and Uncle Angus was known for his gumbo. Aunt Lilly, who later moved to San Francisco, was renowned for her Cornish hens and chicken-flavored Rice-A-Roni. As they migrated to LA in stages, seeking better opportunities among other Black migrants from the South, the family made significant contributions. Aunt Lena worked in Hollywood, while Uncle Leonard served as a hotel porter. The Dunbar Hotel was a pivotal venue for Black travelers and jazz musicians. Aunt Lula worked in the club scene and cooked for affluent families, and Aunt Lizzetta, arriving in 1937, worked at a popular waffle shop. The family valued homeownership and supported each other in achieving it. The author's mother overcame initial schooling difficulties to become a skilled tailor in LA. Meanwhile, after a brief arrest at The Dunbar Hotel, Aunt Lena married Uncle Bill Day and moved around LA as racial restrictions eased. The chapter also highlights Aunt Lula's perilous boat trip in low-country Louisiana, reflecting on racial tensions and the role of water in Black history. Aunt Lizzetta's resilience and Aunt Lilly's teaching career illustrate the family's adaptation, cultural exploration, and connection to their roots.
Introduction
Authors: Wilson Evelyn L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter introduces the reader to the concept of free people of color and their different treatments under different colonial governments. The liberal manumission policies of the French and Spanish governing authorities often led to a three-caste system elevating the free person of color to a position of high status. Free people of color were well established in New Orleans before 1803. English and American governing authorities treated a free person as an anomaly that did not fit into their preferred binary groupings of enslaved people of color and free white people. Free people of color in West Feliciana Parish experienced both viewpoints. The discussion of the findings of other scholars who have examined the lives of free people of color explains how their conclusions are consistent with or contrary to the experiences of free people of color in West Feliciana Parish.
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Authors: Wilson Evelyn L.
Published: January 2025

After a short narration of the history of the parish located in a bend of the Mississippi River, this chapter uses census data to document the distribution of free people of color throughout Louisiana and the United States. It describes emancipation in Louisiana as a personal act rather than the product of the Revolutionary fervor that led to emancipations in the upper south. The Saint-Domingue refugees who came to New Orleans from Cuba in 1809 did not settle in West Feliciana Parish, but their story is included to demonstrate the French/Spanish attitude towards free people of color. The chapter concludes with legislation enacted by the American authorities and by the State of Louisiana directed at the lives of free people of color. It shows how that legislation became more restrictive as the nation marched towards Civil War, although it did not at any point prohibit equal access to public spaces.
Black-White Personal Relationships
Authors: Wilson Evelyn L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter begins with a description of everyday black/white personal relationships and presents a complex picture of intertwined lives. It then discusses relationships rooted in slavery. Many white male slaveholders sexually exploited their enslaved women. Some abandoned their children who remained enslaved; others emancipated the children and may have made provision for their support. A few male slaveholders sought to establish a nuclear family with their children and the mother of the children. This chapter captures these relationships in their variety and examines them individually.
And Then the War Came
Authors: Wilson Evelyn L.
Published: January 2025

After 1850, the environment for free people of color in the parish became caustic. The national antislavery movement became more aggressive, and slaveholders became more defensive. Slaveholders believed that class antagonism could be muted by embracing white supremacy and that the resulting body of “white people” could fend off threats to slavery. They created a divide between those raced white and those not raced white. This chapter examines this shift and then looks at the impact of the Civil War on the parish. Two former residents joined the Louisiana Native Guards while the West Feliciana Parish Rail Road sacrificed its train and its track in support of the Confederacy. The chapter describes the fates of the few free people of color who remained in the parish and notes their exclusion from the post-war economy.
Bludgeoning the Ballot
Authors: English Bertis D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter analyzes the ongoing struggle for voting rights in the United States, highlighting the efforts of conservative Republicans to limit suffrage through tactics like partisan gerrymandering and strict voter identification laws. It cites Chief Justice John Roberts's 2019 decision in a case involving North Carolina Republicans that exemplifies the broader Republican strategy to undermine the franchise rights that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought to secure. It also reviews the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 as a response to the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling that weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The chapter covers the continuity of racial and identity politics from the civil rights movement through the presidency of Barack Obama. It recounts the Republican-led efforts to entrench disenfranchisement strategies and their implications for Dr. King's enduring dream of equality.
King and the Case against Violence
Authors: Rodriguez Amardo
Published: January 2025

This chapter argues that the election and reelection of the first Black president of the United States, Barack Obama, have been mistakenly interpreted as proof that the nation has achieved a post-racial society. It asserts that viewing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream solely through the lens of race diminishes its true significance. It also posits that Dr. King's vision was centered on the concept of becoming post-violent, not post-racial. Dr. King, as a Christian, was deeply committed to opposing all forms of violence, seeing it as a fundamental malady within the American spirit that must be addressed to truly eradicate racism. The chapter highlights that separating racism from violence leads to a reactionary politics that fails to bring about meaningful change, a critique implicitly directed at the politics of the first Black president.
#Gendergap
Authors: Chaffin Latasha
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the persistent issue of wage discrimination in the United States, tracing its historical roots and current manifestation. It highlights the enduring wage gap, which, despite progress through movements like the Civil Rights and Equal Rights movements, continues to disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic women. It also explores the role of social movements, such as the #gendergap Twitter movement, in raising awareness and pressuring employers to adopt anti-discrimination policies. The chapter reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy in advocating for economic justice and questions how he might address the ongoing challenges of wage discrimination in today's intergenerational and socially responsive environment. It presents a study that surveys women across various sectors to understand their experiences with wage discrimination and awareness of workplace policies.
Addressing Health Disparities in Vulnerable and Underserved Populations by Continuing Dr. King’s Legacy
Authors: Wallace Edward V.
Published: January 2025

This chapter analyzes the persistent health disparities experienced by African Americans, rooted in over four centuries of slavery, segregation, racism, and discrimination. It notes how the health disparities began at birth and extend through much of life, reflecting the profound impact of institutionalized racism within American society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized these “broken systems” and challenged the delusional belief held by many white Americans that society was just and equitable. The chapter highlights how these systemic injustices have led to ongoing negative health outcomes for African Americans and other minorities, drawing a stark contrast with countries like Cuba, which have been more successful in addressing health disparities despite having fewer resources. It considers what Dr. King might say about the current state of health inequity in the United States.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Authors: Johnson Beverly A.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dual role as a national civil rights leader and an absentee father, highlighting the complex interplay between his public accomplishments and personal sacrifices. While King's absence from his own family is often overshadowed by his profound impact on civil rights, his leadership provided a model of maturity and responsibility that can inspire young Black men. The chapter emphasizes the significance of Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in offering Black male college students insights into their own familial relationships and personal development. By examining Dr. King's writing methods and core messages, the chapter argues that his legacy should include his role as a father figure who, despite his physical absence, left a lasting impact on the nation and set an example for others in similar circumstances. The nuanced perspective on King's life encourages a deeper understanding of his contributions beyond his public persona.
Epilogue
Authors: Clemons Michael L.
Published: January 2025

This chapter highlights the current plateau in political and economic progress for African Americans and the poor in the United States, where gains in voting rights, affirmative action, and economic opportunities have stalled or even reversed. It critiques the resurgence of right-wing backlash, exemplified by efforts to undermine civil rights and manipulate historical legacies, such as the questionable claims against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It also discusses the dangers of manipulated imagery, especially in the digital age, which can distort public perception and memory. The chapter emphasizes how Dr. King's legacy remains vital, offering enduring insights and solutions to ongoing issues of racial and economic oppression. As the nation grapples with these challenges, the ongoing relevance of Dr. King's work serves as a beacon of hope and a call to action for future generations.
A Notebook for Hamilton
Authors: Giner Oscar
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the postracial symbolic violence embedded in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton through the lens of American imperialism and Puerto Rican cultural identity. It critiques how Hamilton appropriates and dilutes fugitive aesthetic traditions to fit a bland, abstract form of multiculturalism that serves American imperial interests. It also situates Miranda's commercial success within the broader context of Puerto Rico's ongoing struggle for cultural affirmation. The chapter reviews the political implications of Hamilton, arguing that while the play is about politics, it fails to be a truly political work and instead serves as a postracial spectacle that obscures deeper cultural and mythological roots. The chapter urges for reflection on the cultural costs of representations in an era where political narratives are increasingly shaped by spectacle rather than substance.
Police Brutality Without Race
Authors: Gent Whitney , Loehwing Melanie
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines The Public, a 2019 film by Emilio Estevez, as a case study in the rhetorical shortcomings of postracial narratives. Although Estevez intended the film as a tribute to public libraries and their role in fostering inclusion and community, the narrative ultimately fails to address the racial inequities central to its subject matter. It highlights The Public's silence on race, which reflects a broader trend of postracial rhetoric that suppresses explicit discussions of racism. The chapter explores how this omission is tied to the film's reliance on an enthymematic structure, where key premises about race are left unstated. It notes how Estevez's approach undermines the film's potential to advocate for antiracist action, as it preaches to those already aware of racial disparities while failing to persuade those who most need to understand them.
“Literature Is the Expression of Life”
Authors: Summerville Raymond
Published: January 2025

Chapter two explores sayings, proverbs, and proverbial expressions used by the first African-American writer of fiction, Charles W. Chesnutt (June 20, 1858–November 17, 1932). In addition to writing fiction, Chesnutt became an activist, a spokesman, and a leader as black people faced backlash stemming from the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation and concessions made for black people during Reconstruction. Chesnutt used proverbs throughout dozens of speeches and articles speaking out against racism, racial violence, and disfranchisement. Likewise, throughout his fiction, Chesnutt used proverbs to communicate Progressive ideals including: devotion to God, protestant work ethic, economic upward mobility, and social and political advancement for black people. Chapter two demonstrates Chesnutt’s mastery for accentuating harrowing tales about social injustice and racism with well-known proverbs such as: “the Golden Rule,” and “You reap what you sow” to the extent that their meanings actually become haunting and etched in the minds of readers.
“Something Incalculably Precious”
Authors: McMaster Lindsey
Published: January 2025

The chapter examines those objects with which Emily is most closely associated: the paper, letters, and journals that she produces. McMaster considers Emily’s writing as an especially rich and provocative space from which to understand the mysteries that haunt Emily’s existence and that invite the reader to probe the boundaries of the public and private. For Emily, as for Montgomery, journal writing served multiple purposes, and Emily’s writing for herself provides an opportunity to think about what elements of privacy might be inherently less than private.
Claiming and Reclaiming the Maternal
Authors: Bode Rita
Published: January 2025

Bode uses Montgomery’s own loss of and longing for a certain kind of maternal force in her life to open up the barely spoken longings of the novel. From this starting place, she reinvents our understanding of what mothers might be and how they might be valued in Emily’s story.
The Transgender Problem
Authors: Corbett Emily
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the early development of transgender young adult (YA) literature, focusing on the problematic conventions that shaped early representations of trans characters. Building on Rudine Sims Bishop's metaphor of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, the chapter investigates how early works often reflected distorted and limited views of transgender identities. It also traces the emergence of trans YA fiction from 2007 to 2015, highlighting how early novels, mostly authored by cisgender writers, reinforced binary notions of gender and often resolved trans characters' struggles through cisgender acceptance rather than authentic self-discovery. The chapter draws on the genre of problem novels and reveals how early texts framed trans-ness as a social issue to be understood by mainstream readers rather than centering authentic trans experiences. It explores how later works have challenged and expanded writing conventions, marking significant shifts in transgender YA literature.
Optimizing in vitro micropropagation strategies in Santalum album L. through different explants
Authors: Gowsalya M , Jude S R , Hemaprabha K , Revathi R , Mathivanan M , Parthiban K T , Sekar I , Kiruba M , Sujith P P , Kabinesh V
Published: January 2025

This study focuses on optimization of in vitro propagation protocols for Santalum album L. (Indian sandalwood) to address the increasing global demand and to aid in conservation aspects. This investigation evaluated various micropropagation parameters including explant types, basal media, disinfection methods and plant growth regulators (PGR). Murashige and Skoog medium consistently outperformed other media, with shoot tips showing the highest morphogenetic response (66.66%). Surface disinfection with 4% NaOCl for 10 min was the most effective and resulted in the explant survival rate of 86%. For shoot induction, 2 mg/L kinetin in MS medium resulted in the highest number of shoots (3.81) and longest shoots (5.39 cm) after 60 days. An effect was observed when PGR was combined with 5.0 mg/L kinetin + 2.0 mg/L BAP, corresponding to a shoot induction rate of 65.75%. Root induction was recorded at 14.79% after 10 days with the best treatment (MS + 1 mg/L IBA). Callus culture showed limited success as only one treatment (MS + 1 mg/L BAP + 25% coconut water) showed a regenerative response of 7.14%. These results provide a foundation for micropropagation of Sandal while highlighting areas that require further optimization, particularly in root induction and acclimation phases.
Effect of gibberellic acid and Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed on the growth and development of Ornithogalum saundersiae Baker
Authors: Scheffer de Andrade Silva Ricardo , Aguiar Moreira Miró Medeiros Manoela , Nogueira Moraes Carneiro Daniella , Yokohama Soraya
Published: January 2025

Ornithogalum saundersiae Baker is a bulbous ornamental species native to southern Africa, with relatively recent cultivation in Brazil. It is highly valued in floral arrangements and bouquets. Ornithogalum has low establishment costs and is easy to manage. One of the main challenges for its cultivation is the scarcity of products that can be used in cultivation, such as plant growth regulators and biostimulants. Gibberellic acid (GA3) is a plant growth regulator known to promote earlier flowering in various ornamental species, while Ascophyllum nodosum seaweed extract has potential for promoting vegetative growth. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of gibberellic acid (Progibb 400®) and seaweed extract (Acadian®) on the growth and development of Ornithogalum saundersiae. A completely randomized design was used in a 4 × 3 factorial scheme, with four concentrations of GA3 (0, 250, 500, and 750 mg L⁻¹) and three concentrations of A. nodosum extract (0, 2, and 4 ml L⁻¹), with one plant per plot and six replicates. Before planting, O. saundersiae bulbs were immersed in solutions containing the products and distilled water, the twelve combinations for 15 minutes, allowed to dry for one hour, and then planted. There was no significant difference between concentrations in the vegetative growth of O. saundersiae. All tested concentrations promoted earlier flowering compared to the control, with the best results observed at 500 mg L⁻¹ of GA3 combined with 2 ml L⁻¹ of A. nodosum extract, which accelerated flowering by 27 days.