BATON ROUGE — The 18th Annual National Association of African American Studies (NAAAS) Conference was recently held in Baton Rouge, La. The Crowne Plaza Executive Center Hotel flourished with young scholars from around the globe, including four undergraduate Jackson State University students.
The theme was “Beauty is in the Details: A Global View of Persons of Color.”
JSU students’ papers centered around a recent examination of artifacts at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. In grappling with problems of racism and discrimination, first-time researchers Derrick Burton, Stadford Mace, Fontaine Love and Cinderella Walls focused their research on Strategic Resistance of Racial and Gender Equality as Depicted Through Coded Language, Vocal Expressions, and Bodily Behavior.
The students gave a semiotic perspective of the National Civil Rights Museum in light of racial tension and student unrest. Focusing on Ting-Toomey’s face-negotiation theory of conflict, Burton investigated the relationship between cultural variability and differing conflict management. He explained that conflict is mediated through communication exchanges involving “face work.” College students in the everyday expressions of civil rights during the turbulent 60s managed to save face as they sat-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC to make a moral demand upon all who were there or who would witness their action at a distance. These protesters performed their right to be served as if they were white; thereby, integrating their black bodies into formerly white public space.
Thus, what these students did helped to galvanize public opinion that segregation was an outdated, if not a wholly unjust practice. Further, the Greensboro sit-ins are equated with transforming the civil rights movement from a local to a national campaign for the equal rights of Americans of color. Saving face occurred when students, though heckled, resisted temptation to fight back violently.
Mace charged the American system with depriving citizens of the right to know the complete history of the civil rights movement. “History books do not make public the unsung people in American history, especially those of African descent,” he said. Mace contended that though men are “thoroughly” discussed in the classrooms, lecture halls, and discussion groups across the country, many women and their contributions remain excluded. More remains to be explored of notable female activists (“unsung women whose participation and leadership were so embedded in the daily struggle that they have been hard to distinguish from the movement itself).”
Love and Walls were compassionate about the necessity of passing the torch from one family member to the other. Revealing their understanding of the slaves and their reliance upon each other for survival purposes, they concurred that unification, a legitimate means of success, was a missing link among generations today. Thankful for recognition of Black History Month, they claimed that “there is no better time than now to regroup within the village.”
This writer, who also serves as JSU Associate Professor of Speech Communication and Theatre and Coordinator of Speech Communication Studies, directed these NAAAS fellows in their research projects.
The students were partially funded by Kimberly Ross-Brown (associate professor at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Lexington, KY), who is a textbook author and former speech communication and theatre major. She applauded their research efforts and provided funding to encourage them to continue to seek the truth in the academy.
Other topics that addressed issues pertaining to people of color were “Haki Madhubuti and the Era of African American Discontent (Vincent F. A. Glophin, Rochester Institute of Technology); “Resurrecting Emmett Till: Re-Visioning Black Manhood in Melinda Haynes’ Mother of Pearl” (LaShondra V. Robinson, university of Southern Mississippi & Bishop State Community College); “No Time Like the Present: The Urgent Need for a Culturally Relevant and African-Centered Education” (Berlethia J. Pitts, Fort Valley State University); “The Mythic Lives of Urban Students” (Mary Lynn Navarro, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY); “Gang Banging and the Academy” (Lou H. Sanders, JSU); “The Impact of Cultural Capital on the Experiences of Latino and Latina Undergraduate College Students of Mexican and Mexican American Origin at a Private University” (Eva Serrano, Aurora University); “Faculty of Color in the Academy: An Investigation of Trend Lines and Comparisons with Population Statistics” (Marci M. Middleton, University System of Georgia); “Law, Progress and the American Indian: Re-examining the Rule of Law Governing America’s Founding in the Eighteenth Century” (Raymond Cross, university of Montana School of Law); and “The Cause of Social Justice and Equity in the Obama Era and Beyond” (Stephone Addison, Kingsley Esedo, Wanda Jackson, Chanika Jones, and Riad Yehya, (all from Southern University and A & M College).
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