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Summary: American historians have traditionally seen the period from 1915 to 1920 as one of heightened interracial tensions. Several historians have cited the emergence of the "New Negro" or the communist scare as the main reason for the heightened tensions. While those reasons may have contributed somewhat to the tension, the real source of the tension lies elsewhere. My study of Jacksonville has provided different reasons for the tension. Tension increased because of working-class African American resistance in Jacksonville, the impact of the Great Migration on Jacksonville, and the change in white attitudes concerning race., Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1995.

Summary: This paper challenges the belief that state of Florida was different from other southern states in terms of race relations during the modern civil rights movement. As an evidence, the study examines the racial changes that took place in Riviera Beach, Florida, in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite the 1944 Supreme Court decision, Smith vs. Allwright, it took almost two decades for the African-American community in Riviera Beach to elect its first African-American representative in the city government. Furthermore, not until African-Americans had achieved a majority in the city council in 1971, were there any significant changes in city services and employment for African-Americans. African-Americans were able to end discrimination in public accommodations only after demonstrations, sit-ins, and lawsuits. Again, despite the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education, it took almost two decades to desegregate public schools in Riviera Beach and Palm Beach County., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection, Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1994.

Summary: Historians misread the impact of Communism on working-class blacks during the Depression by focusing on membership as a measure of success. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) sought wide influence, not wide membership. During the early 1930s the CPUSA influenced the black proletariat by advocating social equality. This advocacy distinguished the CPUSA from other black ameliorative organizations--like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League--that called for only the economic and political emancipation of African Americans. By the last half of the 1930s the CPUSA, readily embracing the Kremlin's call for a Popular Front against fascism, began to work in coalitions with liberal-bourgeois agencies. This work within these moderate organizations, in addition to a moderation of the black proletariat and a movement left of black ameliorative agencies, eroded CPUSA influence in African America., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection, Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1993.