Publication Type: Individual Presentation
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Throughout American history, African Americans most diligently fought for the right to fight and serve in America’s armed forces. The historic connection between military service and American citizenship is well documented and provides the foundation to the African American quest for civil rights and the social movement that follows. While military service and training is linked to the fight for freedom and social equality, I argue, it also reflects how African American soldiers and proponents broaden this experience to include literacy and educational opportunities which further served to strengthen and legitimize concepts of masculine identity and manhood embedded in the legacy to bear arms and the civic virtues of education. This multidimensional pursuit of citizenship and social equality becomes intertwined in the late nineteenth century and manifests itself in the establishment of military training programs at Black Colleges and Universities.
Take Your Place among the Soldiers of Your Country, a Man among Men will examine how African American soldiers during the civil war established the link between military service and the communal pursuit of literacy in the black community as a way to empower African Americans in their claim for citizenship rights. In addition, military preparedness and training in the South challenged the docile image of the black man and reinforced a masculine self-identity embraced through military discipline and a strict code of gentlemen’s conduct. This paper will also demonstrate how Historically Black Colleges such as Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute established military training programs in the late nineteenth century and become models for subsequent programs as Negro Land Grant institutions were being created throughout the South.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Large numbers of drug-involved adolescents enter the juvenile justice system (JJS) at risk for the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) chlamydia and gonorrhea, treatable and often asymptomatic bacterial infections that increase HIV risk. However, current STI surveillance in the JJS is symptom-based and typically limited to incarcerated youths, likely resulting in many undetected cases. Implementing effective STI health interventions requires new data on how STIs among delinquents at the “front end” of the JJS and in the community are related to drug use and other risk behaviors. We report preliminary findings from a new project at the Hillsborough County (FL) Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC), involving 450 male and 450 female delinquents tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea and assessed for drug and sexual risk behaviors. Data are presented on STI prevalence, comparing drug-involved youth to those who do not use drugs. Additional comparisons are made by gender, race/ethnicity, age, neighborhood of residence, previous STI testing experience, and sexual risk profiles. Future analyses will explore relationships among drug use and STI risk; the STI-related service needs of delinquent youth; individual and organizational barriers to expanding STI testing and treatment for delinquents; and the factors predicting receipt of STI treatment among infected youth.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Within the context of a theory of perceived group interest this study examines the additiive and interactive effects of minority status and social class in explaining relatively privileged AFrican Americans', Latinos', and Asians' support for income-targeted and race/ethnic targeted redistributive policies. Findings from a sample utilizing th 1994 Multi city Study of Urban INequality and the 200 National Election Study suggesy that across both types of policies perceived allegiances to both fellow racial/ethnic group members and the middle class account for the predomiance of joint minority/social class effects and levels of policy support that are intermediate between co-racial/ethnic group working class and the White middle class. The implications of the findings for further research in the area of investigation are discussed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study explores the choice to engage in coordinated activity and the degree to which the gendered nature of political institutions has an impact on the mobilization strategies of women's groups. In so doing, we explore whether or not the opportunity structure is 'gendered,' producing different outcomes for women's groups than for other social groups. Since we know that coordinated activity can be advantageous for the achievement of group goals, any differences for women's groups are significant. In addition, this study asks if women's groups coordinate activities to advance strategic interests, those that are vested in long-term transformations of gender relations and hierarchies and are concerned with changing the underlying inequities in the prevailing institutional arrangement, or to advance practical interests, those that "do not themselves challenge the prevailing forms of gender subordination…" (Molyneux 1995, 284). This study also asks if the choice to engage in coordinated activities is mediated by issue focus or 'type' of group. Both domestic and transnational/supranational acts of coordination are examined and results focus on the necessity of a feminized interpretation of the POS.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Arrest rates for violence have been increasing among girls for the past decade. Our research examines known correlates of violence to determine whether their effects differ according to gender. A major problem with existing research is the inconsistency of the populations. Our project uses data from the Drug, Alcohol and Violence International study. The study includes a comprehensive sample of high school aged children, including students, detainees and dropouts from the greater Philadelphia area. Using multiple regression we examined general differences between the three sub-samples. Next, gender differences within each sub-sample were evaluated. Results show that delinquency before the age of thirteen is a significant risk factor for all three sub-samples. Contrary to previous research, mental health and family relations are as related to boys’ violence as girls’ violence. As originally hypothesized, a greater gender gap exists for students, narrowing respectively for detainees and finally dropouts.