Required Texts
Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal by
Between 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred banks and thousands of other financial institutions. In Banking on Freedom, Shennette Garrett-Scott explores this rich period of black financial innovation and its transformative impact on U.S. capitalism through the story of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first and only bank run by black women. Banking on Freedom offers an unparalleled account of how black women carved out economic, social, and political power in contexts shaped by sexism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation. Garrett-Scott chronicles both the bank's success and the challenges this success wrought, including extralegal violence and aggressive oversight from state actors who saw black economic autonomy as a threat to both democratic capitalism and the social order. The teller cage and boardroom became sites of activism and resistance as the leadership of president Maggie Lena Walker and other women board members kept the bank grounded in meeting the needs of working-class black women. The first book to center black women's engagement with the elite sectors of banking, finance, and insurance, Banking on Freedom reveals the ways gender, race, and class shaped the meanings of wealth and risk in U.S. capitalism and society.
ISBN: 9780231183918Publication Date: 2019-05-07
John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, and the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights by
WINNER OF THE LILLIAN SMITH BOOK AWARD John Hervey Wheeler (1908-1978) was one of the civil rights movement's most influential leaders. In articulating a bold vision of regional prosperity grounded in full citizenship and economic power for African Americans, this banker, lawyer, and visionary would play a key role in the fight for racial and economic equality throughout North Carolina. Utilizing previously unexamined sources from the John Hervey Wheeler Collection at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, this biography explores the black freedom struggle through the life of North Carolina's most influential black power broker. After graduating from Morehouse College, Wheeler returned to Durham and began a decades-long career at Mechanics and Farmers (M&F) Bank. He started as a teller and rose to become bank president in 1952. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Wheeler to the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, a position in which he championed equal rights for African Americans and worked with Vice President Johnson to draft civil rights legislation. One of the first blacks to attain a high position in the state's Democratic Party, Wheeler became the state party's treasurer in 1968, and then its financial director. Wheeler urged North Carolina's white financial advisors to steer the region toward the end of Jim Crow segregation for economic reasons. Straddling the line between confrontation and negotiation, Wheeler pushed for increased economic opportunity for African Americans while reminding the white South that its future was linked to the plight of black southerners.
Call Number: E185.93.N6 W56 2020ISBN: 9780813178257Publication Date: 2019-12-09
The Evolution of Black-Owned Banks in the United States Between the 1880s and 1990s by Publication Date: 1996-03- Lending a Hand: Black Business Owners’ Complex Role in the Civil Rights Movement by Publication Date: 2020-06
- “All the Other Devils this Side of Hades”: Black Banks and the Mississippi Banking Law of 1914 by Publication Date: 2022-01
- The Negro in Banking by Publication Date: 1929-04
- Boley, Indian Territory: Exercising Freedom in the All-Black Town by Publication Date: 2017-09
Additional Readings
Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by
"Read this book. It explains so much about the moment...Beautiful, heartbreaking work." --Ta-Nehisi Coates When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States' total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. Studying these institutions over time, Mehrsa Baradaran challenges the myth that black communities could ever accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. Instead, housing segregation, racism, and Jim Crow credit policies created an inescapable, but hard to detect, economic trap for black communities and their banks. The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. Not only could black banks not "control the black dollar" due to the dynamics of bank depositing and lending but they drained black capital into white banks, leaving the black economy with the scraps. Baradaran challenges the long-standing notion that black banking and community self-help is the solution to the racial wealth gap. These initiatives have functioned as a potent political decoy to avoid more fundamental reforms and racial redress. Examining the fruits of past policies and the operation of banking in a segregated economy, she makes clear that only bolder, more realistic views of banking's relation to black communities will end the cycle of poverty and promote black wealth.
Call Number: E185.8 .B24 2017ISBN: 9780674970953Publication Date: 2017-09-14
Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry by
Looking through the lens of black business history, Beauty Shop Politics shows how black beauticians in the Jim Crow era parlayed their economic independence and access to a public community space into platforms for activism. Tiffany M. Gill argues that the beauty industry played a crucial role in the creation of the modern black female identity and that the seemingly frivolous space of a beauty salon actually has stimulated social, political, and economic change. From the founding of the National Negro Business League in 1900 and onward, African Americans have embraced the entrepreneurial spirit by starting their own businesses, but black women's forays into the business world were overshadowed by those of black men. With a broad scope that encompasses the role of gossip in salons, ethnic beauty products, and the social meanings of African American hair textures, Gill shows how African American beauty entrepreneurs built and sustained a vibrant culture of activism in beauty salons and schools. Enhanced by lucid portrayals of black beauticians and drawing on archival research and oral histories, Beauty Shop Politics conveys the everyday operations and rich culture of black beauty salons as well as their role in building community.
Call Number: E185.86 .G494 2010ISBN: 9780252035050Publication Date: 2010-01-29
The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship by
Comprehensive survey of black business development, discussing the remarkable continuity and diversity of black business. Some of the featured enterprises include commercial real estate speculation, rural and urban land development, and construction. African-American involvement in finance and investment activities, corporate and municipal bonds, international trade, and hair care product manufacturing is also examined. Moves beyond vague depersonalized accounts of groups of nameless blacks, and tells the triumphant and moving stories of people like Madame C. J. Walker, the first female African-American millionaire, and Frederick Douglas Patterson, the first African-American automaker.
Call Number: HD2344.5.U6 W35 1998ISBN: 0805716505Publication Date: 1998-06-12
Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago by
From Jean Baptiste Point DuSable to Oprah Winfrey, black entrepreneurship has helped define Chicago. Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers curate a collection of essays that place the city as the center of the black business world in the United States. Ranging from titans like Anthony Overton and Jesse Binga to McDonald's operators to black organized crime, the scholars shed light on the long-overlooked history of African American work and entrepreneurship since the Great Migration. Together they examine how factors like the influx of southern migrants and the city's unique segregation patterns made Chicago a prolific incubator of productive business development--and made building a black metropolis as much a necessity as an opportunity. Contributors: Jason P. Chambers, Marcia Chatelain, Will Cooley, Robert Howard, Christopher Robert Reed, Myiti Sengstacke Rice, Clovis E. Semmes, Juliet E. K. Walker, and Robert E. Weems Jr.
Call Number: F548.9.N4 B85 2017ISBN: 9780252041426Publication Date: 2017-08-10
Research & Writing Tools
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History by
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History is the concise, trusted, and easy-to-use guide for the writing and research skills needed in undergraduate history courses. Thoroughly updated to include strategies for making useful outlines and organizing a paper, the tenth edition ensures that students have the most up-to-date advice and ample instruction for writing a research paper for their history class.
ISBN: 9781319244415Publication Date: 2020-09-09
Edit Yourself: A Manual for Everyone Who Works with Words by
"A strong new entry for the reference shelf of anyone who writes to be understood--or would like to."--Pittsburgh Press In the first part of this useful book, the author shows how to solve common problems of writing. The reader will learn how to recognize common problems of writing. The reader will learn how to recognize words and phrases that should be cut; how to shorten cumbersome sentences; how to arrange the elements of pairs, series, and compound subjects and predicates; how to recognize and rectify mismanaged participles; and how to be on the lookout for the better word. The second part of the book consists of more than 1500 recommendations for cuts, changes, and comparisons that editors make to produce writing that is concise and effective.
Call Number: PE1408 .R725 1982ISBN: 9780393313260Publication Date: 1996-01-17
The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition by
A newly updated Fifth Edition of The Craft of Research has just been published under the ISBN 9780226826677. You can find it through search on this site or at any retailer. With more than three-quarters of a million copies sold since its first publication, The Craft of Research has helped generations of researchers at every level--from first-year undergraduates to advanced graduate students to research reporters in business and government--learn how to conduct effective and meaningful research. Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique. The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions, but reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today. Its chapters on finding and engaging sources now incorporate recent developments in library and Internet research, emphasizing new techniques made possible by online databases and search engines. Bizup and FitzGerald provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem. Following the same guiding principle as earlier editions--that the skills of doing and reporting research are not just for elite students but for everyone--this new edition retains the accessible voice and direct approach that have made The Craft of Research a leader in the field of research reference. With updated examples and information on evaluation and using contemporary sources, this beloved classic is ready for the next generation of researchers. Over 700,000 copies sold Every step of the academic research process, from the "why" of research through forming the research question, formulating an argument, and revision Helpful chapters on research ethics, formulation of writing assignments for teachers, and an appendix of research tools for both off and online Clear advice on building a strong argument in an age of false claims Careful attention to both the how and why of objective research-based writing Easy to follow, time-tested advice A must-have for any college or graduate student
Call Number: Q180.55.M4 B66 2008ISBN: 9780226239736Publication Date: 2016-10-18- The elements of style. by Call Number: PE1408 .S772 1972
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by
For close to sixty years Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers has offered comprehensive and detailed guidance to authors of research papers--term papers, theses, and dissertations. Now the editors of The Chicago Manual of Style have revised Turabian's Manual to bring the details of style into conformity with the fourteenth edition of The Chicago Manual. This new edition of Turabian also reflects the way students work today, taking into account the role of personal computers in the preparation and presentation of their papers. The familiar organization of this popular book remains largely unchanged. Chapter 1 describes the parts of a long formal paper. Chapters 2-5 introduce the mechanics of writing style, from abbreviations to quotations. Chapters 6 and 7 show how to prepare and refer to tables and illustrations. The section on documentation, chapters 8-12, describes two of the most commonly used systems of citation; these chapters provide many examples including guidance on how to cite electronic documents. Chapter 13, on manuscript preparation, shows how to take advantage of word processing software to present the elements of a paper clearly and effectively. Chapter 14 offers more than two dozen sample pages illustrating ways of formatting some of the complex features found in many research papers. Authoritative, comprehensive, easy to use, and filled with good sense, this new edition will be the standard for yet another generation of students and their teachers. Kate Turabian (1893-1987) was dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1958. This manual and her Student's Guide for Writing College Papers made her name so well known that she has become "part of the folklore of American higher education" (Quill and Scroll).
Call Number: LB2369 .T8 1996ISBN: 0226816265Publication Date: 1996-04-01
