Register
If you haven’t already, register to start contributing news and events, and to search the Member Directory. Registration is free, but only open to current members of the American Studies Association.
Events
Jan. 9 | Call for papers: Identities and Technocultures
A 2-day conference about American culture and technologies that examines how new technologies dominate and define Americaness in the US and abroad. Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts (CESA) and the Mid-America American Studies Association (MAASA).
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Collins, Elliott. "Bayard Rustin: A Civil Rights Biography," New York University, January 2000.
This study traces the contributions of Bayard Rustin (1912-87) to the civil rights movement, contending that Rustin formally introduced the tactics of nonviolence and nonviolent direct action to the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., despite a knowledge of and fascination wit the nonviolent direct action strategies used by Mohandas K. Gandhi, did not view them as viable weapons in the black American struggle for equal rights. In a series of critical discussions, Rustin was able to convince King of the efficacy of these strategies and the need to impose them on the protest in Montgomery. Conscious of the need for a south wide campaign to destroy segregation in public accommodations, education, voting, and interstate transit, Rustin conceived of an organization (the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that would provide support and coordination to the spontaneous, local grassroots protests that erupted in the wake of the success of the Montgomery boycott. Furthermore, despite being a member of the Young Communist League in his youth, a conscientious objector, and a homosexual, Rustin functioned as a close and trusted advisor to King from 1956-60. This study addresses the influences that shaped the civil rights movement using archive materials, interviews, FBI files, and other primary sources. It concludes that Rustin was critical to the introduction of nonviolence an nonviolent direct action to that movement.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]