In late December of 1951, a news story out of Mims, Florida, shocked the nation. The story contained elements of prejudice, discrimination, injustice, lynching, rape, bombings, and murder. The story not only made headlines across the country, but also the world. On the evening of December 25, a bomb was placed under the floor joists of the bedroom…

Organizational efforts of Black women from the post- revolutionary period to the depression are examined. Informal community organizations of slaves led to benevolent and self-improvement organizations among free women. Major concerns were the family and the uplifting of the race. (VM)

Social prejudice by Texas-Anglo society as reflected by politicians and administrators resulted in a segregated school system. However, the Mexican community never passively accepted discrimination in the schools. The American G.I. Forum's records and the action of the World War II generation indicate that Mexicans have long struggled to acquire…

Vancouver Institute began in 1916 as a partnership of community organizations and the University of British Columbia for liberal adult education and mutual enlightenment. By 1934 the cooperative venture was dominated by the university, reflecting changes in the workplace and the role of universities. (SK)

The author discusses the history of the Grange movement and reminisces about her experiences at the Castle Hill Grange in rural Maine during the depression. Granges were organizations established during the 1800s to enhance the educational and social growth of farmers, preserve the unity of rural families, and promote moral values. (LP)

The contributions made during World War II by Mexican-American women on the home front have not been recognized in their proper historical perspective. Like their Anglo counterparts, these women took up the responsibilities left by their men and worked to support the war effort. In 1944 the Mexican-American women of Tucson formed La Asociacion…

The attempts of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to implant mandatory alcohol and tobacco instruction in Alberta's public schools is traced. These efforts are compared with the group's simultaneous efforts at temperance reform in the United States. (SJL)

During World War II Arizona's Mexican-American communities organized their own patriotic activities and worked, in spite of racism, to support the war effort. In Phoenix the Lenadores del Mundo, an active fraternal society, began this effort by sponsoring a festival in January 1942. Such "mutualistas" provided an essential support system…

The history of European immigration to the United States and the roles that white ethnic groups have played in American industrialization, urbanization, and suburbanization are discussed in this paper. Focused on is the process by which major American cities grew and changed in terms of their ethnic composition. Fluctuations in the national…

Lying within the Cumberland Plateau of Appalachia, the Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD) comprises eight rural Kentucky counties: Breathitt, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Owsley, Perry, and Wolfe. This report reviews regional history of economic development and examines socioeconomic indicators, including education, poverty, and the…

Almost unnoticed, growing numbers of working poor people are entering politics at the community level in dozens of major cities in Texas and across the United States. These people are unusual because they view politics as a long-term process to build relationships, new institutions, and humane communities. This book tells the story of a new kind…

Representing part of the first phase of a 5-year ethnographic research project, this report explores connections between school achievement and Irish ethnicity. Part 1 of the report reviews Irish history from 400 B.C. through the Irish famines of the mid-1800s, highlighting England's cultural and economic suppression of Ireland. Part 2 describes…

To make more valuable to the people those things from which the people are accustomed to derive value has been appropriately been said to be the prime business of legislators. That the schoolhouse, whose value to the people is already great, may become still more valuable to them, is the purpose of the community-organization movement which the…

Representing part of the first phase of a 5-year ethnographic research project, this report investigates the ways in which Puerto Rican families influence their children's school achievement. The report examines the history of Puerto Rico and the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States. Puerto Rican community organizations, both local and…

In the early 1970s, thousands of Mexican-origin students, parents, and community members participated in legal and political actions against the Houston public schools. Their actions were sparked by the school district's effort in 1970 to circumvent a desegregation court order by classifying Mexican American children as "white,"…