Research on African-Americans in Champaign County: A Webliography - Champaign-Urbana

This webliography brings together research about issues research on the African-American community and on issues facing people of African descent, in the Champaing-Urbana area. Everyone can utilize this scholarship, which is all available online through eBlackCU. Similar webliographies could be made on other communities within Champaign-Urbana. Some items appear multiple times in this list, since they touch on multiple topics.

Webliography Sections

General research & bibliographies
Health
Community Life & Families
Economic Issues and Jobs
Social Services
Civil Rights & Activism
Religious Life
Library Services
Urban Planning, Housing and Neighborhoods
Veterans and Military
Media
Sports, Recreation and Culture
Technology Development
Local Government and the Community (including police)
Adult Education
K-12 Education and Youth issues
University of Illinois-Community Relations
Issues at the University of Illinois

General Research & bibliographies

Urban League of Champaign County (Ed. John McClendon), The State of Black Champaign County, 1984
Table of Contents: Introduction – Vernon L. Barkstall; Profile of Key Data – John H. McClendon; The Demography of Black Champaign County – Mary Blackstone; It Seems to Me – Taylor Thomas; Black Female Headed Households and Literacy in Champaign County – Violet Marie Malone; Housing and Land Use in North Champaign – Earl R. Jones; Black and High Tech for Black Champaign County – Paul R. Parker; Education – James D. Anderson; A Black Perspective on Parkland College – Willie A. Nesbitt; Human Services in Champaign County – Robert O. Washington.

Patricia Miller and Willis C. Baker, A Commemorative History of Champaign County Illinois: 1833-1983, 1983
Look for Blacks in index for references to African-American history at the County-wide level.

Rozann Rothman, The Great Society at the Grassroots: Local Adaptation to Federal Initiatives of the 1960s -- Champaign-Urbana 1984
Book-length study of how the federal programs of the 1960s and 1970s challenged the culture of individualism and small government in Champaign-Urbana. Includes much discussion about issues facing African-Americans in the two cities. Chapters include: Background: Culture and Change; Champaign and Urbana: Twin Civil Communities; Champaign County; Urbana: The Rise of the Democrats; Democratic Development Policies; Urbana: Social Problems; Champaign: The Relationship of Political Culture and Government Structure; Champaign: Toward Racial Integration; Champaign: Economic Development and Environmental Regulation

Kathryn Scarich and Maureen Gilluly, The Black Community and Champaign-Urbana: An Inventory of Recorded Information, May 1971
A Bibliography. Many of the references have since gone missing. Check with the libraries mentioned in the report to see if the items are still available. Bibliography focuses principally on the years 1965-1970.

Margo C. Trumpeter and Kathryn Scarich, Black Community and Champaign-Urbana: A Preliminary Subject List, 1970
African-American Library Sources, Archives

Thomas Weissinger, African Americans in Urbana and Champaign Cities, 2009
Bibliography prepared by Thomas Weissinger, Afro-Americana librarian at the University of Illinois.

John Straw, Ellen Swain and Chris Prom, Guide to African-American Research Resources: University of Illinois Archives, 1994-2003
This guide is intended as a starting point for finding source materials regarding the history of African-Americans at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. As such, the items it describes are generally not available on-line. They can be used for research in the University Archives. Please contact the archives to arrange to view the materials on site. If you are unable to visit the Archives, several fee-based services are available.

Darlene Clark Hine, Patrick Kay Bidelman, Shirley M. Herd, The Black Women in the Middle West Project: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, Illinois and Indiana: Historical Essays, Oral Histories, Biographical Profiles and Document Collections, 1986
A portion of the book is on Champaign-Urbana. The goal of the Black Women in the Middle West Project was to collect and preserve photographs and other documents that record the historical experiences and accomplishments of Black women and their organizations throughout Illinois and Indiana. In the absence of such a "paper" record, it has been impossible to write full and adequate histories of Black women or to incorporate their stories into standard American history textbooks. Alta Jett, the project's Richmond, Indiana coordinator, summed up the project's purpose well when she said: "If you want the history of a white man, you go to the library. If you want the history of black women, you go to the attics, the closets, and the basements." Heeding Jett's advice, this is precisely what the project attempted to do-to reach into attics, closets, and basements where the records of Black women's lives have for too long been hidden. To do this, however, required cooperation between three groups that have seldom coordinated their efforts-historians, archivists, and community people from all walks of life. The Project Director, Darlene Clark Hine, and the Co-Director for Administration, Patrick Kay Bidelman, provided overall guidance for the project working out of the Department of History at Purdue University. Archivists, acting on behalf of their respective institutions, served as the project's instructors and expert advisers. The community people, mostly but not exclusively Black women, formed the grassroots base of the collecting organization that the project put into place. The Champaign-Urbana workshop/conference was held 19 May 1984. Local women featured in volume include Iva F. Matthews, Sarah A.P. Scott, Odelia Wesley, Carrie Luetta Banks (nee Pope), Luvata Bowles, Erma Bridgewater (nee Scott), Jessie Britt, Mattie Estelle Burch, Evelyn Burnett-Underwood, Larine Cowan, Lucy J. Gray (nee Blake), Ruth Beatrice Woodruff Hines, Doris Keanea Hoskins (nee Baker), Jessie Kent (nee Wilson), Carrie Nelson, Tishan Smith (nee Edwards), Ida Elaine Copeland (nee Johnson), JoAnn Armistead-Hodges and organizations, Anna Tutt Honey's Club, Champaign-Urbana Sororities, Order of Eastern Star.

Noah Lenstra, ed. Community Engagement @ Illinois, 2010
Book on University of Illinois research on African-American community in Champaign-Urbana. Table of Contents: Introduction, Noah Lenstra and Abdul Alkalimat vii Section 1. Historical Context
The University of Illinois Negro Students, Albert R. Lee (1940) 2 Descriptive Inventory of Resources for...Work with Disadvantaged (1967) 5 What Does CAD Mean?, John Lee Johnson (1970) 12 Report on Higher Education Public Responsibilities in the Black Community (1972) 13 The Gap Between University Blacks and Community Blacks, by Glenna Bryant (1976) 15 The Art of Social Change, Julian Rappaport (1998) 18
The Concept and Description of an Exchange Center..., Leonard Heumann (2000) 22 Urban Exchange Center, Troy (Kamau) LaRaviere (2004) 27 Section 2. Contemporary Project, 1. Community History of Douglass Center, Michael Burns 41 Writing Rhetorical Education through Archival Records and Oral Histories, Vanessa Rouillon 42 Abstract for Ongoing study on campus-community interactions, Melissa Pognon 49 Inclusive Illinois 2010 Impact Report, Office of Equal Opportunity and Access 50 Economic Development Opportunity Program Flyer and Program, Otis Noble 54 Construction Trades Opportunity Program, Final Report, Otis Noble 56 Letter Requesting Participants in Business Certification Workshop, Fred Coleman 57 The Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club Learning Center Redesign, Deven Gibbs 58 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Planning Committee, Nathaniel Banks 60 Mo' Betta Music Camps, Nathaniel Banks 63 Program for AFRO498 Final Concert at Salem Baptist Church, Willie Summerville 64 Stewarding Excellence Project Team Report, Public Engagement at the University of Illinois 65 Service Learning Opportunities: The Advocacy Model, Nicole Allen 67 $9 Million Grant for Champaign County Secured by Psychology Faculty, Elaine Shpungin 69 C-U Citizen Access, Journalism Department 70 University of Illinois Campus Charitable Fund Drive 72 C-U Volunteer.org, Office of Volunteer Programs 73 Learning in Community (LINC) 74 Diversity and Technology for Engaging Communities website 74 Section 2. Contemporary Projects, 2. Politics and Police Champaign County Courtwatching Project Highlights, College of Law 76 Transforming Policing Practices, Brian Dolinar, Kerry Pimblott and Regina Pritchett 81 Planners Network, Flyers for Events relating to Kiwane Carrington Case 87 Police Brutality, The State and the Killing of Kiwane Carrington, Amira Davis 88 Ubuntu: Anti-Racism, Sharon Irish 95 Letters to the President Program, Ray Muhammad and Ruby Mendenhall 96 ELSEY: Extending Library Services to Empower Youth, Joe Coyle and Jeanie Austin 97 Section 2. Contemporary Projects, 3. Environment and Health Citizens, Experts and Local Environmental Knowledge, Ken Salo 100 Champaign, IL, Toxic Tour Map, Ken Salo 103 Organic Gardener Maps Gardens in African-American Community, Kimberlie Kranich 104 Abstract for Capstone Research Abstract: Young Planners Network, Yolanda Richards 105 Farmers Market on Historic North First Street Community Survey Results, Stacy Harwood 105 North First Street Prosperity Garden opening, University of Illinois Extension 107 Sun, Dirt, Rain and Champaign, Jon Weisman, et.al. 108 Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club Environmental Program, Division of Safety and Compliance 110 Section 2. Contemporary Projects, 4. Culture Revisiting Murals, Animating Neighborhoods, Ryan Griffis, Sharon Irish and Sam Smith 112 Exploring Social and Artistic Elements of African-American Photography, Sydney Stoudmire 114 In Search of Hip-Hop Express, Executive Summary, William M. Patterson 124 Engagement Report, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Sam Smith 125 Speak Cafe' Flyers, Aaron Ammons 127 Section 2. Contemporary Projects, 5. Education Diversity in Higher Education: The Story of SEOP and ATEP, Ronald Threadgill 129 SOLHOT, Ruth Nicole Brown 139 An eBlackCU intern looks back on her Summer, Dominique Johnson and Patricia Rosario 140 Bruce D. Nesbitt African-American Cultural Center website 143 History of Project 500, Bruce D. Nesbitt African-American Cultural Center 145 Champaign Community Unit School District 4 - School Climate Study, Mark S. Aber, et.al. 146 Announcement for The Great Campus Scoping Study 149 Excerpts from website for Campus Academy 149 Harambee: Pulling Together at Freedom School, Jan-Carter Black 150 An Evaluation of the Odyssey Project, James Kilgore 151 U.R. Movement Focal Point Proposal and Flyer. 2009-2010, Jonathan Hamilton 153 TAP In Leadership Academy, Shameem Rakha, Sally Carter and Chaebong Nam 156 Multicultural Youth Conference, Center for Education in Small Urban Communities 162 The Effects of the SOAR Program..., Caitlyn Smith and Emily Wolfkiel 163 Recreating Booker T. Washington Elementary School as a STEM Academy, Lizanne DeStefano 165 C-U Fab Lab Fosters Creativity in Local Youth, I-STEM Initiative website 166 Project Upward Bound. Summer 2007 Report, Office of Minority Student Affairs (OMSA) 167 Section 2. Contemporary Projects, 6. Technology Hook 'em with Technology, Keep 'em with Relationships, Kimberlie Kranich/William Patterson 170 A census of public computing in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Kate Williams 173 Big Broadband (UC2B) Reaching Out to Community Institutions, John Kersh 175
UC2B Below and Above Ground Applications, Mike Smeltzer and Abdul Alkalimat 176 The Engaging and Empowering Youth (E2Y) Project, Chaebong Nam 178 Section 3. Bibliographies Webliography of African-American Champaign-Urbana, Noah Lenstra, et.al. 184 Guide to African-American Research Resources University of Illinois Archives 196 Index to Community Engagement @ the University of Illinois 207

Health

Neumann, Holly; Irfan, Roveiza, Relationship between Carle Foundation and UIUC, 2006
This project investigates the underlying causes of a perceived disparity in resources and access between Carle Foundation Hospital and the local community. Carle Foundation Hospital is home to 90 percent of the doctors in Central Illinois, but is only affordable for 30 percent of local residents. The authors examine the contribution of the university to Carle’s success, and ask if people not affiliated with the university have poorer access to healthcare. This project is based on archival and ethnographic research. The authors interviewed three people, and attended Carle’s 75th anniversary celebration. They find that Carle’s Charity Care program does not cover the expenses of the Clinic, which is for profit. People who can afford it (including many UIUC faculty) will go to Carle rather than Provena. Provena’s charity work only represents one percent of their total revenue, which has caused Provena to lose its tax exemption. Because of this, many Provena patients may have to switch to Carle, if they can afford it.

Awais Vaid and Diana Yates, C-U Public Health District, Champaign Urbana Public Health District Champaign County Public Health Department Champaign County Community Health Plan 2006-2011 A Strategic approach to Community Health Improvement
The Champaign County Community Health Plan provides a current portrait of the health assets and needs of the residents of Champaign County.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Former Champaign Manufactured Gas Plant Site, Champaign, Illinois, 2008
Report by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, on Fifth and Hill site.

Barbara Rhodes, The Frances Nelson Health Center's School Aid Project: an Effective Approach to Problems of Black Exclusion from Public School, 1975
Describes the University of Illinois' involvement in a health education project at the Frances Nelson Health Center, with recommendations about how to make the program more effective.

Dona J. Reese, Robin E. Ahern, Shankar Nair, Joleen D. O'Faire, and Claudia Warren, Hospice Access and Use by African-Americans: Addressing Cultural and Institutional Barriers through Participatory Action Research, 1999
Study based in African-American community in Champaign-Urbana. Rev. W.B. Keaton, Rev. Ronald Brown, Rev. Ben Elton Cox, Sr., Rev. Claude E. Shelby, Sr., Rev. Roger Jenks, and Ruppert Downing all supported this research

Ken Salo and C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice, Champaign, IL Toxic Tour Map, ca. 2005
Map of "Toxic" sites in Champaign-Urbana, predominantly in African-American neighborhoods.

Community Life and Families

Carol B. Stack, The kindred of Viola Jackson: Residence and family organization of an urban Black American family, 1975
How urban families are organized within black communities, and the role of culture in black homes.

Carol B. Stack, All Our Kin, 1976
Stack gives an in-depth look into the culture of blacks. She explains the roles of family members and the way they differ from other cultures.

CAROL BERMAN STACK, KINDRED AND EXCHANGE NETWORKS IN A BLACK COMMUNITY, 1972
This is a thesis about the kindred and exchange networks in the community. It includes a lot of research. It contains an introduction, appendixes, epilogue, cited information, etc.

Ukandi Godwin Damachi, An Explanatory Survey of the North End of Champaign-Urbana, 1968
This is a report on African Americans who resided in the North End of Champaign-Urbana in the late 1960s, it features sociological approaches to gather data and information regarding black identity in this community.

Thomas J. Cottle, Simple Words, Simple Deeds, 1970
Based on interviews in Champaign-Urbana's African-American Community. From First Paragraph: Maybe the easiest way to get from the campus of the University of Illinois to Urbana High School is just to walk south on Lincoln Avenue to Washington Street and then east past handsome homes to Race Street, where the large educational plant stands, its entrance facing Carle Park and the arch on its western boundary, its athletic fields in the rear, and its carefully trimmed lawns and evergreens on all sides. The high school has an older substantial section and a new wing marked 1955 on a white foundation stone. Inside the corridors are wide and long, exceptionally long, lined with hundreds and hundreds of numbered lockers, 1407, 1408, 1409, 1410.

Janet Andrews Cromwell, History and Organization of the Negro Community in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois , 1934
MA Thesis, Sociology, University of Illinois. Path-breaking survey of African-American history and culture in Champaign.

"A Community Report" Champaign County League of Women Voters. 1948.
A report on various issues the African-American community of Champaign-Urbana faced during the 1940s.

Matilda Frankel, Census of Black Families in Champaign-Urbana, 1968
Conducted by Survey Research Laboratory

Mark S. Fleisher & Jessie L. Krienert, Life-Course Events, Social Networks, and the Emergence of Violence Among Female Gang Members, 2004
This journal article is about the context of violence among the gangs of the women. They talk about the North End, Community involvement, Early Family Life, Parent Drug/Crime History, Gang Group Interactions and Membership, “Gang-Related” Violence, the Violent Explosion, Recent Crime, and High School Pregnancy.

Janet D.Carter-Black, Success Oriented Strategies Employed by Middle-Class African-American Families: A Focus on Positive Racial Identity Development and Socialization, 2006
This file is a dissertation about the strategies for a positive racial environment. This includes many chapters but it also includes the problem and the questions trying to be solved, the introduction, and the significance of the study.

Mark S. Fleisher and Jessie L. Krienert, Drug Selling: A Rational Choice, 2004
Research based on years of data collection and analysis in Champaign-Urbana. From chapter: "In this chapter, the facts and conditions in the optimistic scene we have just painted change. Instead of a bright employment future and its lifelong benefits, what would your course of life be if you were born into a community- socially and economically isolated from the community that has all of the good jobs? Adding to community isolation, let us propose you were in your early twenties and had a poor education (less than high school) or a low level of education (high school) and no opportunities to gain employment training or a job within your own community. If you could secure a job in the main community, it would be a low-paying, dead-end j ob with no benefits. Further, let us propose that you commonly use drugs like marijuana, belong to a youth gang, and have been arrested many times. Enhancing that dismal scene, your parents have drug and alcohol dependency and/or addiction, poor levels of education, poor to mediocre employment histories, are most likely unemployed at any time in the year, have convictions on a range of felonies, and have served prison terms. Still further,· let us propose that all your friends were like you: poor and badly educated with families like yours, which means you can get no help from them in finding a job. In this chapter, we will discuss how young women the age of college . coeds cope with virtually insurmountable social and economic barriers in a poor community that has been socially and economically isolated for more than eighty years. We will show that selling illegal drugs to earn a living is a rational choice in such an isolated community. Finally, we will discuss solutions to these types of social problems so prevalent in modem America."

Mark S. Fleisher, Women and Gangs: A Field Research Study Final Report, 2000
Study describes the use and formation of social capital within female gangs in North Champaign.

Andrew D. Case, “The longer I live here the more I see it”: Exploring length of residence, group identification and race-related stress among black Caribbean immigrants, 2009
This study explored the relationships among length of residence, group identification (racial and ethnic identity) and race-related stress for a sample of Black Caribbean immigrants (n = 96). Participants were recruited through university student organizations, community establishments and snowball sampling. It was hypothesized that length of residence and racial identity would predict race-related stress, and that racial identity would mediate the relationship between length of residence and race-related stress. Regression analyses revealed that racial identity did not mediate the relationship between length of residence and race-related stress. However, length of residence was a significant predictor of cultural race-related stress. Further, racial identity approached significance as a unique predictor of cultural race-related stress. The implications of these and other findings for interventions and future research are discussed.

LIS490: The Digital Divide, UIUC, Fall 2009, Champaign Urbana Black Hair Directory.
Directory organized as part of course project.

Economic Issues and Jobs

Michelle L. Pride, Bruce Stoffel and J.C. van Es Designing Educational Programs for Minority Entrepreneurs, Designing Educational Programs for Minority Entrepreneurs, 1997
Abstract: The study analyzed why minority contractors were not bidding on federally-funded jobs. The objectives were to find out why, what were their needs and to design an educational program. Data included a survey completed by 22 minority contractors. Literature was reviewed and local resource persons were interviewed. Conclusions were that minority contractors faced racial discrimination, lacked successful role models and a networking system, had little training in business skills, and lacked knowledge concerning banking. They lacked capital, equipment, workers, insurance and bonding. Recommendations were for professionals to receive diversity training and host a reception to meet minority contractors. Contractors should attend educational workshops to enhance their business and management skills. Formation of a coalition for minority contractors was also recommended.

Ruby Mendenhall, Investing in Enduring Resources with the Earned Income Tax Credit: Barriers and Pathways to Social Mobility, 2011
Research touches on Champaign-Urbana, with Urbana as one of the cases in the study.

Paul Andrew Hutchinson, Perceptions of the Working World Among African-American Participants in a Low-Income Job Training Program, 1995
Focus is on job-training program and the status of labor in Champaign-Urbana. Features interviews and surveys of low-income laborers, including many African-Americans.

William Dale Meier, Black Nonacademic Employment and the University of Illinois' Affirmative Action Program (Urbana-Champaign Campus), 1970
Meier's proposal to enlarge the number of African-Americans on campus. This includes employment and students.

David Edwin Shulenburger, Patterns of Negro Nonacademic Employment at the University of Illinois; Their Consequences for Affirmative Action, 1967
Shulenburger gives his thesis on the consequences of excluding blacks from the academic employment at the U of I.

Deneca Winfrey, How Teachers Perceive their Job Satisfaction is influenced by their principals' Behaviors and Attitudes Related to Race and Gender, 2009
This is a dissertation about the study of how a principal can perceive a teacher's job satisfaction because of the relation to their race and color. This talks about many subjects on this matter which includes race and gender, justice, work climate, etc. It talks about the method of the problem and what was the purpose of the study.

Michelle Lynn Pride, DESIGNING EDUCATIONAL·PROGRAMS FOR SMALL BUSINESS MINORITY CONTRACTORS, 1993
This is a book on Designing Educational Programs for Small Business Minority Contractors. It contains many tables, an introduction, thesis, etc.

Stacy Harwood, North First Street Neighborhood Survey, 2010
Survey form prepared by Stacy Harwood for Urban Planning Students to carry out.

Jason Liechty, Building Success: An Empowerment Incubator for Champaign-Urbana, 2001
Capstone Planning Workshop, Prof. Leonard Heumann

Social Services

Toby P. Bassford, Aaron N. Cook, Leslie J. Cunningham, Angela Flood, Richard M. Laming, TIMES Center Survey Project: A Study of Homeless Shelters and Transitional Housing Projects, 1999
Research conducted on behalf of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of lllinois and the Mental Health Center at Champaign, lllinois.

Civil Rights & Activism

Aaron Morris Bindman, Minority Collective Action Against Local Discrimination: A Study of the Negro Community in Champaign-Urbana, 1960
Describes the fight to end discriminatory hiring practices at a newly opened J.C. Penney's in downtown Champaign through quantitative and qualitative surveying.

Carrie Franke, Injustice Sheltered: Race Relations at the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana, 1942-1962, 1990.
Dissertation describing the segregated nature of Champaign-Urbana and the struggle to integrate various facilities, especially around Campustown. Education Dissertation, UIUC

Skip Robinson, SLATE Summer Conference: Job Discrimination, 1961
Presentation at a conference in Los Angeles in the early 1960s in which University of Illinois student presents research on the civil rights struggle in Champaign-Urbana.

LISA G. MATERSON, Excerpts on Champaign-Urbana from "For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877-1932", 2009
University of North Carolina Press

Wanda A. Hendricks, Excerpts on Champaign-Urbana from: Gender, Race, and Politics in the Midwest: Black Club Women in Illinois, 1998
Indiana University Press

Thom Moore, Promoting Change through the African-American Church and Social Activism, 2005
An article on John Lee Johnson and how his religion influenced activism. It talks about the goals and social life.

Religious Life

Haruko Kinase-Leggett, About Time (Some Patterns of Time Reckoning)..., 2000
Excerpts from an anthropology dissertation written on the concept of time. Includes a twenty-five page section on Salem Baptist Church and its conceptualization of time and the past. Also includes chapter on St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Frederick A. Rodgers and Elizabeth A. Innes, Using Cooperative Efforts between the African American Church and Local Public Libraries To Expand the Use of Library Services by African Americans. Final Report, 1992
Features the Champaign and Urbana Public Library Districts. Abstract: The African American church has a long history of service to its community. The church in African American life has always served as a source of support, learning, information, and improvement for its members and the community it serves. This project directed its resources and energies toward developing meaningful and effective strategies for working with African American churches to encourage their youth to make better and more extensive use of library services. Topics covered in this document are: an overview of the participants of the project; techniques used to increase communications between the two institutions; an examination of the African American collections at each library; an evaluation of materials purchased by the project; a list of recommended materials for a well-rounded African American collection; descriptions of the project's programs; evaluation of the programs; the questionnaires used in the project; the librarian interviews; the project director's evaluation; conclusions; and the recommendations and products of the project. The appendices include management profiles of the project libraries; a directory of the churches; Urban School Improvement Project church survey documents; library and church newsletters; selected African American publishers; the evaluation questionnaire; and a list of selected children's books and authors.

Vanessa Rouillon, The Baraca-Philathea Lyceum of Bethel AME Church in Champaign, IL: Redistribution of Rhetorical Activities seen in Current Church Practices, 2009
Focuses on the history of lyceums and informal rhetorical education at Bethel A.M.E. in Champaign in the early 20th century.

Larry Fred Ward, Filled with the spirit: The musical life of an Apostolic Pentecostal church in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 1997
This study explores the musical life of Alpha and Omega, an Apostolic Pentecostal church located in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. A member of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Alpha and Omega was founded in 1979, and its youthful constituency, which numbered about 300 at the time of this study, was predominantly African-American. During fieldwork conducted between 1989 and 1992, the researcher witnessed the congregation's move from its storefront location to a spacious, traditional sanctuary across town. The social and musical change occasioned by the move became an important focus of this study.

Gerald Benjamin Gersey, THE MINISTERIAL COUNSELING ROLE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF URBAN AND RURAL PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN, 1959
This article analyzes African American history by researching the differences between white and African American ministers in Champaign Urbana.

Douglas Alan Clark, The White Protestant Churches of Champaign-Urbana: A Survey of Segregation and Integration, 1957
This is a thesis about the white protestant churches of Champaign-Urbana which was a survey of integration and segregation. This includes an introduction, tables, many chapter with background information, conclusions,and bibliographies.

WILLIAM BASIL STROYEN, A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE OF 50 AWOL AIRMEN AND A MATCHED GROUP OF 50 NON-AWOL AIRMEN, 1953
This is a thesis about the comparitive study sbout religion between 50 awol airmen and 50 non-awol airmen. It includes an introduction, tables of experiment, appendix, and a lot of research.

Library Services

Linda Crowe, Mattye Nelson, and Kathy Weibel, If They Could Solve the (Library) Problems in Champaign-Urbana They'd Have the Solutions to the World's problems: A Field Report, November 1972
This journal article is a field report, featuring interviews and quotes from Champaign and Urbana citizens at the time dealing with the issues surrounding the development and stated purposes of the Douglass Branch Library. This article features expansive research and field work.

Jeff Ginger, DIGITAL DIVIDE 2.0 AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES AND LIBRARY RESOURCES IN ILLINOIS, 2008
In the information era inequality is increasingly dictated by a myriad of issues related to both access and use of computer and internet technologies. Mere access to the web is an indisputably insufficient claim to equity; attention must also be paid to issues such as autonomy, skill, purposes, and perceptions related to technological access and participation in cyberspace. The final—and still yet emerging—barrier to equality is termed here as Digital Consciousness, a state of being which most digitally disadvantaged populations have little opportunity to develop. This is understandably so as the recipe for such an understanding includes socialization, digital literacy, and a realization of self and structure in the modern web. All of these factors are dependent upon both access and use. To develop a Digital Consciousness a person must have avenues and contexts available that provide these ingredients. The library is one potential space for this, but it is unclear to what extent contemporary libraries effectively facilitate this process. The inequalities that African American communities have endured historically have been harsh, and digital inequality is no exception. To truly remedy the digital inequality for the African American people and other disadvantaged populations we must call for extensive change; a social movement situated within the context of the information revolution. This movement must embody cyberdemocracy, collective intelligence, and information freedom, each of which is dependent upon Digital Consciousness. This report assesses the computing and internet resources present in numerous Illinois public libraries that serve African American populations. Library outlets are evaluated for their capacity to enable patrons to develop Digital Consciousness. The study finds that while libraries do a moderately good job providing basic resources for connectivity, creation, and the reception and production of knowledge, they do not live up to the potential that they could be. The paper concludes with discussion about how to best address challenges and start crafting sustainable and effective solutions.

Ann P. Bishop, Tonyia J. Tidline, Susan Shoemaker, Pamela Salela, Public Libraries and Networked Information Services in Low-Income Communities, 1999
This article presents findings from an empirical study of community information exchange and computer access and use among low-income, predominantly African-American residents in one locale. Data were
collected through household interviews, focus groups, and surveys. Results indicate that, while computer use is minimal, many low-income community members are poised to participate in the local development
of networked information services. The article emphasizes appropriate roles for public libraries in community-wide efforts to bridge the digital divide that cuts computer use along socioeconomic lines. Study based in Champaign-Urbana

Kathryn Scarich and Margo Trumpeter, The Community Information Inventory: Dope that Users Can't Find, 1971
Community Information, Archives, Libraries

Urban Planning, Housing and Neighborhoods

Benjamin A. Mason and Jason R. Zawila. Bristol Place Neighborhood Improvement Plan. 2005
Master's project entailing working with residents of Bristol Place in Champaign (over 70% African-American as of 2005), in improving their neighborhood.

Annalise Fonza, North First Street Redevelopment Program Research Files, 2002 and Part 2
Research report prepared as part of a North First Street Redevelopment Program Research by Annalise Fonza in 2002. Includes transcriptions of interviews with with Lum Rose & Joe Taylor, Allan Penwell and John L. Johnson. Also includes two documents reflecting on the project by Annalise Fonza herself - the summary and the forward files.

Genevieve Borich, Comprehensive Community Planning, 2004
Master's Thesis in Urban Planning using Civitas, a graduate-led design center located in Champaign-Urbana around 2004-2005, as a model design center. Also mentions the Urban Exchange Center.

Urban Planning Students. North First Street Revitalization Project. Fall 1993
Two volume report on the proposed revitalization of North First Street, prepared by Urban Planning students under the direction of Leonard Heumann for the City of Champaign. In two volumes.

Asabere, Paul K., and Peter F. Colwell, The Relative Lot Hypothesis: An Empirical Note, 1985
Describes issues along the University Avenue strip, including in the historical 'North End.'

The Housing Committee of the Women Voters, League of women voters Public housing and slum clearance in Champaign-Urbana, 1951
The League of Women Voters wrote up a plan to get public housing for women in Champaign-Urbana.

Leonard Heumann and Kathryn Norris, Updating Housing in Illinois, 1970
Includes chapter on Champaign County. Also includes chapters on Cook, DuPage, Will, Williamson and Pulaski.

Carl Vernon Patton, Urban Renewal and Negro Involvement: A Case Study of Negro Politics in Champaign, Illinois, 1968
This study of Negro Politics in a medium-sized midwestern city, describes the role residents of the city's North End ghetto played in the development of an urban renewal program. Through passage of the 1949 Federal Housing Act, Congress took action to ~heck the spread of slums in urban areas. Federal aid was to be provided communities for clearance of blighted areas, and the cleared sites were to be sold to private redevelopers who would agree to develop them "according to the land use des ignated for that area in the redevelopment plan. Depending upon city size, the federal government would pay up to 75% of the cost of
acquisition and clearance of land, the balance to bel paid by the local community.

League of Women Voters, Housing '70 in Champaign County, 1971
Describes the condition of housing, especially low-income housing, in Champaign County, including descriptions of local agencies (including the Community Advocacy Depot) charged with helping low-income individuals achieve adequate housing.

Joshua Alexander Runhaar, A Housing Gap Model for Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 2005
This research proposes a basic housing gap model that can assist in the decision making process related housing construction and rehabilitation programs. This model is then applied to the community. of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to examine how public funding may affect the housing market and if current public housing development projects will ultimately address the needs of area residents. The primary focus is on housing and residents who are below 30% of the area median family income (MFI).

YASMINAH BEEBEEJAUN, The Participation Trap: The Limitations of Participation for Ethnic and Racial Groups, 2006
Study based on Burch Village Public Housing

John A. JakIe & Richard L. Mattson, The Evolution of a Commercial Strip, 1980
Study based on University Avenue between the "North End" and the University of Illinois. Includes discussion of development of black community north of University.

Liz Davis, Jeff Engstrom, Jennifer Forbes, Tim Macholl, Gretchen Minneman, Elaina Osterbur, Public Housing Deconcentration Strategies: Conducted for the Housing Authority of Champaign County, 2004
Since the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe towers in St. Louis, public housing authorities across the nation have recognized the need for a new approach to public housing. Unfortunately, the desire to expedite the process may preclude thoughtful analysis on where to best site these developments. This report focuses on three elements: whether scattered site public housing should be pursued, what constitutes an appropriate site for this endeavor, and available funding opportunities for scattered site housing. Crucial elements for success of scattered site public housing include: " Proximity to employment, education and social services
" Incremental responsibility " Development of strong social networks among neighborhood residents

Leonard Heumann, IMPROVING NEIGHBORIIDOD PLANNING INPUT IN CHAMPAIGN'S NORTH END: A HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP, 1982
Report based on workshop in North End, under the direction of Leonard Heumann

Otha Alonzo Trimm, An Assessment of Housing, Neighborhood Conditions, and attitudes Towards Northeast Champaign and Northwest Urbana: A Study to Improve Housing and Neighborhood Conditions in Northeast Champaign and Northwest Urbana, 1990
Since 1975 the City of Champaign has spent $10 million dollars and the City of Urbana has spent $1.5 million dollars from the federal Community Development Block Grant Program in the area informally
know as the North End. Still the area is plagued with poor housing and poor neighborhood conditions. In addition, the bulk of low-income family public housing projects in the area have not undergone a major renovation since many of them were built in 1952. The Champaign County Housing Authority has jurisdiction over their maintenance and up keep, separate from the programs of both cities. Obviously, money alone will not solve the areas problems. A clear consensus or profile of what the areas problems are is needed.

Lavanga Shah and Mohamad Vaghei, THE REHABILITATION OF BRADLEY PARK AND MT. OLIVE MANOR: A PROPOSAL, 1983
Unpublished student paper for Urban Planning 495

Urban Planning Students, Housing Analysis and Program Recommendation for the Bristol Place Neighborhood, Champaign, Illinois, 2000
Social surveys, physical surveys, City's Assessor's Data collection and Sales data collection and analyses led to the identification of the neighborhood's most pressing housing issues Physical Assessment and Social Inventory Surveys were conducted to determine to study the needs of this neighborhood.

Urban Planning Students, Champaign County Affordable Housing Analysis: A Look at Affordable Housing Needs of Champaign County Past, Present, and Future, 2008
This study examined the past, present, and future need of affordable housing so that the Champaign County Housing Coalition could use this information to assist them in their efforts of providing affordable housing.

The Concerned Citizens for Better Neighborhoods, City of Champaign, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Neighborhood Improvement Program for the Douglass Park Neighborhood, 1997
Through community meeting discussions and analysis of the area's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, the overall developmental goal and four planning objectives to address these issues were derived.

Cameron Wiggins, Brownfield Redevelopment Study of Beardsley Park Neighborhood, ca. 1990s
student report

Lorrie Pearson, Alan Quick, A Portrait of Bristol Place: a picture of community needs and resources in a Champaign neighborhood, 2000
UP 495 - Capstone Workshop

Tim Good, Martin Spencer, Mary Robertson, Small Town - In Town: A New Life for one of our Older Neighborhoods: A Comprehensive Plan: In Town Champaign, Illinois, 1989
Urban planning research project

Veterans and Military

Robert H. Behrens, Champaign-Urbana Black Soldiers in the Civil War, 1990s
This is a chapter about the black troops in the war in Champaign county. It gives you their names and a little bit of information about them. From Book: "FROM SALT FORK TO CHICKAMAUGA"

Media

Ahn, Hanna; Chesley, Camille; LoDolce, Kristin. Community Engagement: WILL Youth Media Workshop Data Analysis. 2008.
In Summer 2008, Kimberlie Kranich, outreach coordinator and co-director of the Youth Media Workshop (YMW) at WILLAM-FM-TV in Champaign, IL, began working with program evaluator Holly Downs of the University of Illinois College of Education and her colleagues to produce an analysis of interviews with program participants. The organization had been collecting the data since 2003. In Fall 2008, Kranich enlisted the help of three graduate students from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at University of Illinois (Hanna Ahn, Camille Chesley and Kristin LoDolce) to organize the 60 interview transcripts into data for the evaluators to use in their analysis. The following report is an excerpt of the analysis* in which the evaluators noted some themes that were commonly found in the interview data. These include participation (including how they learned about the program and why they decided to participate) and results of participation (including reported improvements in self-worth/change/growth). In addition the evaluators identified three themes for future study including relationships, future plans, and skills. Evaluators found that 36 students were interviewed between one to six times. The analysis states that while the data “began to show trends related to these themes” they were unable to make generalizations about some of the data given the inconsistency in data collection procedures. The interviews were conducted by YMW co-directors and, in some cases, program participants guided by YMW staff. This, along with variations in interview questions and program activities, and inability to conduct entrance and exit interviews with all participants contributed to the inconsistencies. However, from the responses, we can begin to see how the program has impacted participants on an individual level.

Sports, Recreation and Culture

Kimberly J. Shinew, Rasul Mowatt, Troy Glover. An African American Community Recreation Center: Participants’ and Volunteers’ Perceptions of Racism and Racial Identity. 2007
Study based on Douglass Center.

Bruce E. Wicks, Kathryn A. Norman, Improving African American survey response rates for leisure marketing and Planning Studies, 1996
Investigates survey methodologies and non-response reasons for low-income African-Americans in North Champaign, especially around the Douglas Community Center.

Matthew Okpani Alu, Recreation Resources in Champaign, Illinois: Comparing Racial Differences in Park Usage and Proclivity for Residual Open Space, 1997
This dissertation includes --abstract --tables, figures, and appendices --the problem --literature review --research design --parks and residual open spaces --data --results --bibliography --vita

Dan K. Hibbler and Kimberly J. Shinew, Interracial couples experience of Leisure: A Social Network Approach, 2002
Describes the leisure experiences of inter-racial families in Champaign-Urbana using social network analysis. Concludes that inter-racial families feel heightened discomfort in public leisure settings owing to racism.

Troy D. Glover and Nameka R. Bates, Recapturing a Sense of Neighbourhood Since Lost: Nostalgia and the Formation of First String, a Community Team Inc., 2006
This qualitative study is an exploratory case analysis of First String, a Community Team Inc., a unique grassroots association founded by a small group of African Americans in Champaign, Illinois. The founders established the neighbourhood baseball league to foster a greater sense of community in neighbourhood youth. In an effort to address the lack of research on the formation of grassroots associations, the purpose of the study was to understand how and why First String was formed, and what this experience contributes to leisure studies and theory. The findings revealed the significance of nostalgia as a driving force behind the effort.

Sharon Irish, Ryan Griffis, Revisiting Murals, Animating Neighborhoods Booklet, 2010
A booklet about the artist residency of Angela M. Rivers during the month of October 2009, which commemorated the thirty-first anniversary of the mural at Fifth and Park Streets in Champaign. This is the mural booklet that the eBlackCU interns and UIUC project team made with Angela Rivers. It has pictures of the mural, the designs they made, and information about the mural. Sponsors: The Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Fund of the College of Fine and Applied ArtsIllinois Informatics InstituteCommunity Informatics InitiativeGraduate School of Library and Information ScienceOffice of the Vice-Chancellor for Public Engagement

Alice Elizabeth Andrews, Douglas Community Center: Its History and Development and the Place of Its Program in the Community, 1945
Thesis in Social Work with a history on the background of the Douglas Center and an overview of its programs, organization and finances. Includes a chronology of the Douglas Center as appendix.

Technology Development

Safiya Umoja Noble, Black Feminist Thought as a Contribution to Community Informatics, 2009
Over the past 20 years, from 1989 to 2009, researchers and community members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been consistently involved in exploring and applying technology usage in the local community, specifically in African-American communities in Illinois. This effort was, in part, an attempt to understand the benefits, obstacles and constraints of informaticizing community activities and preserving and digitizing culture among technologically under-served (and often “redlined”) communities. This paper highlights specific initiatives and collaborations that have been a part of the development and institutionalization of a Community Informatics Initiative in the Graduate School of Library & Information Science at Illinois through the lens of Black feminism. Building on the assorted and emerging definitions of Community Informatics (CI) by researchers who have been at the forefront of grassroots and localized technology programs, this paper will attempt to identify two major theoretical and philosophical approaches to merging community-based interests with technological application and integration and posits a third. By examining two contrasting CI projects from Illinois from a Black Feminist perspective, I attempt to learn how to improve sustainability and model CI projects that affect African-Americans.

Ann Peterson Bishop, Imani Bazzell, Bharat Mehra, and Cynthia Smith, Afya: Social and Digital Technologies that Reach across the Digital Divide,
This paper presents initiatives taken in the Afya project towards bridging the digital divide through social and digital literacy, equitable access, training, and content initiatives at the community level. As a participatory action research project, Afya (Swahili for "health") is designed to engage African American women in assessing and increasing their access to quality health information and services. Based on principles of social justice, the project is geared towards redefining relationships and achieving constructive social change at a community-wide level.

Martha L. Wilkinson, Bridging the Digital Divide: Framing Whiteness, 2010
This master's thesis covers --the digital divide --framing whiteness --bridging the divide in Champaign-Urbana --Revelation of whiteness. Appendices contain transcriptions of the Digital Divide lecture series.

Sarah Ann Duffy, A Planning for Technology: A Case Study in Champaign, Illinois, 2001
These is only the first twenty pages of the study but it covers a lot of the main points.

Cecilia Bridget Merkel, Uncovering the Hidden Literacies of "Have-Nots": A Study of Computer and Internet Use in a Low-Income Community, 2002
This dissertation includes --research --statement made of the problem --view of literacy --data --summary --computer stories --making sense of technology --computer use --discussion --bibliography --appendix
--vita

Urban League of Champaign County, Blacks and High Tech for Black Champaign County, 1984
From “The State of Black Champaign County, 1984,” The Urban League of Champaign County. Paul E. Parker was an assistant dean in the UI College of Engineering, and director of its Minority Engineering Program since 1973. He was also a member of the Champaign County Urban League.

Martin Wolske and Lisa Bievenue, Innovation Diffusion and Broadband Deployment in East St. Louis, Illinois, USA, 2010
Includes a comparison between big broadband development in North Champaign and East St. Louis.

Local Government and the Community (including police)

Jack David, Larine Cowan, Edward Renner, Thomas Moore, The Police, People and Their Community: Police Community Relations: A Process, Not a Product, 1976
Describes a multi-year research project involving community psychology faculty and students from the University of Illinois and the Champaign Police Department.

Dusty Rhodes - University of Illinois School of Media, Unequal Justice: Small Crimes, High Fees, and Overloaded, Underfunded Attorneys, undated
Website uses google maps and other technologies to show a racist pattern in the ways in which the Champaign Police Department issues small fees.

League of Women Voters of Champaign County/College of Law, University of Illinois, Champaign County Courtwatching Project Highlights Annual Reports, 2008-2009
Report on discrimination in jury selection in Champaign County juries.

Peter F. Nardulli, Team Policing and Police Services: An Experiment the Works, 1979
This is an aarticle that the Illinois government did research on about public affairs about policing. It also goes into details about the basic attributes, benefits, the fear of crimes, and the rates over the years.

Justin Allen, Slave Patrolling in Champaign, Illinois, 2010
This web site was created by one of the student's in Afro 220, Justin Allen. This study will track the progression of slave patrolling tactics to the way Blacks are being patrolled in Champaign, Illinois. The study will follow the transition of slave codes to current Illinois laws. The ways in which slave codes and current Illinois and Champaign laws were written to control, track, suppress and kill slaves will be detailed in this paper. The findings reflect that the link between slave patrolling and current Champaign policing of Blacks still exists.This study will examine how current Illinois and Champaign laws are rooted in slave and Black codes of the past. The results will show slave codes and Black codes have led to current Illinois and Champaign laws that allow, and promote the controlling, tracking, suppression and killing of blacks for economic gain and social control. This study will also explore events of Champaign police misconduct, abuse and murder ranging from 1969 to 2010.

Jonathan Sterne, Scratch Me, and I Bleed Champaign: Geography, Poverty and Politics in the Heart of East Central Illinois, 1994
Abstract: As all maps are unreadable without a legend, I offer you mine at the beginning. This essay will chart the geography of Urbana-Champaign from a hybrid point of view: considering it from the vantage point of the local African-American community (or perhaps, more accurately, a point of view sympathetic to that community, of which I cannot claim to be a part) and at the same time from my own point of view as a white graduate student trying to make sense of this place. By looking at the politics produced in local geography, I will develop a materialist account of Urbana-Champaign. Geography is a substance — and not just an instrument — of local politics. Real (that is to say, material) local conditions themselves produce the imagined geographies that seem to underwrite them. - click on link for full article.

Peter F. Nardulli and Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Politics, Professionalism and Urban Services: The Police, 1981
Book-length study of the Champaign Police Department.

James R. Munn and K. Edward Renner, Perceptions of Police Work by the Police and by the Public, 1978
Three distinctions are proposed to determine what types of efforts are necessary to improve the quality of the relationship between the police and the public: first, whether there are different groups within the public which have contrary expectations that are impossible for the police to satisfy simultaneously or whether the disagreements are between the police and the nonpolice in general; second, whether the content and psychological significance of the disagreements can be specified; and third, whether negative evaluations of the police represent conflicting beliefs about what are proper police functions and services or emotional reactions arising from contact with regulatory power of the police.

State of Illinois, Inside Out: A Plan to Reduce Recidivism and Improve Public Safety, 2009.
State-wide project includes focus on Champaign-Urbana.

Adult education

Eric Vaughn Blacknall, A History of Disadvantaged Student Education in Illinois: A Critical Inquiry of Adult Education at a Public Comprehensive Community College, 1976-1996, 2003
Study based on research at Parkland Community College.

Rob Zaleski, Non-Traditional Minority Students at the University of Illinois and Parkland Community College, 2008
Abstract: As a non-traditional student myself, I wanted to explore the struggles of other non-traditional students, especially those also falling into minority groups. This paper intends to explore the programs in place at the University of Illinois and Parkland Community College to help nontraditional minority students succeed not only financially, but academically and socially. There are many roadblocks in place for nontraditional
minority students in terms of scheduling, child care and a dual feeling of trying to assimilate due to ethnic differences and age differences with peers who may follow a more traditional student status. Also being discussed are some things being done at a political level to increase funding and encourage attendance of non-traditional minority students.

K-12 Education and Youth issues

Terrence D. Fitzgerald, Operation Control: Champaign, Illinois, 2009
Part of book "White Prescriptions?: The Dangerous Social Potential for Ritalin and Other Psychotropic Drugs to Harm Black Boys." Chapter describes the recent history of educational inequalities in Champaign-Urbana schools and the use of drugs to sedate African-American male youth.

Ruth Nicole Brown, Black Girlhood Celebration: TOWARD A HIP-HOP FEMINIST PEDAGOGY, 2009
Book about the SOLHOT public engagement initiative under the direction of Educational Policy Studies/African-American Studies faculty member Ruth Nicole Brown.

Kathryn D. Kurlakowsky, 'Controlled' School Choice: Understanding Educational Decision Making for Families of Low Socioeconomic Status and/or Minority Backgrounds, 2005
Study based on the "school choice program" part of the consent decree, in the Champaign Unit 4 School District.

William M. Patterson, Keeping a face on policy: A reflective case study on collaborative education relationships, 2000
This research was a qualitative case study designed (a) to examine the relationship between two higher education organizations and an Urban League affiliate that came together in response to a National Urban League, Inc. resolution to improve the educational performance of African-American students in two public school districts; (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of the collaboration using the stakeholders perspectives; and (c) to assess the views of social service, public school, university, and community college officials on the potential of this type of collaboration to help improve the academic performance of African-American students in the public schools. Moreover, this study may help us understand what roles each organization should play for effective collaboration and develop guidelines to help education and advocacy organizations such as Urban League affiliates establish collaborative or partnership relationships to address the need of low income and minority students in local public school districts. The outcome of the research revealed that collaborative education policy plays a significant role in supporting academic and social development of youth. However, appropriate policy must be developed in a manner that acknowledges the implications of race and power on organizational cultural conflict in the policy development process. Particularly, as it relates to collaborative education policy designed to serve underachieving minority students, particularly, African-Americans.

Roger Brasel Marcum, An Exploration of the First-Year Effects of Racial Integration of the Elementary Schools in a Unit School District, 1968
Study of the effects of integration in the Urbana School District.

Kimberly J. Shinew, Dan K. Hibbler, Denise M. Anderson. The Academic Cultural Enrichment Mentorship Program: An Innovative Approach To Serving African American Youth. 2000
Study based on Douglass Center programs.

Terence D. Fitzgerald, The Circumvention of Public Law 94-142 and Section 504: The Sorting and Controlling of Black Males, 2002
This study is a comprehensive investigation of the racial ramifications of psychotropic drugs used to control the undesired behavior of Black school age boys. The primary focus of the study examined how federal policy of Education for All-Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975. (P.L. 94-142). known presently as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990. has become a gateway for the introduction of behavioral stimulant used with Black males as a mode for social control. In this study, 456 special education records from the local Champaign, Illinois Unit 4 School District was used to show the circumvention of IDEA. issues of social control of the White elite on Black males in regards to possible linkages with historical data of school use of control, punishment. and the placement of Black males within the special education bracket. Through the examination of the special education tiles. the tallied number of Black males within the special education category was determined. The preliminary results indicate that both White and Black males were disproportionately placed within the category of special education and prescribed psychotropic medication in comparisons to White and Black females. But. the results indicate that Both White and
Black males within special education are placed for different reasons. White males are placed primarily due to only academic reasons. while Black males are placed for academic and behavior concerns. In fact. this is also observed within the reasoning for being prescribed medication as well. Study based on Unit 4 School District.

Kashelia Brianne Jackson, From Sand to Cement: Understanding the Big Brothers Big Sisters School Buddies Program in Champaign-Urbana, 2003
This study is an examination of the infrastructure of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Champaign County School Buddies program. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of what structural components are conducive for creating strong mentoting bonds and establishing positive mentoting relationships. In this study eight mentor/mentee pairs from Prairie Elementary School of Urbana, IL were observed and interviewed. Additionally, mentors were surveyed and other adults involved in the program were also interviewed. The results of this study have significant implications in that they can offer valuable insights for creating improved mentoting initiatives.

Erica Marcia Collins, Disparities in Juvenile Justice Processing of African-American Males in Champaign County, IL. 1998-1999, 2000
The study investigated the frequency of arrest and sentencing outcomes of African-American male youth in comparison to their White counterparts in Champaign County, 1998 through 1999. The study included juveniles between the ages of 10 and 17. The juvenile population was divided into three ethnic categories for this study-White, African-American, and Other. The juveniles studied consisted of male youth who experienced some form of contact with the Champaign-Urbana police. These juveniles were either arrested or taken into police custody for alleged criminal activity. Juveniles adjudicated delinquent, placed on probation, and incarcerated in Champaign County were also identified for this study. This study was based on an analysis of the contingency table and chisquare tests that involved collecting data on male youth at different points in the juvenile justice system. The data collected identified the age and race of juveniles who had police contact. A chi-square test determined that there was a statistical significance of difference for the variables of race, age, and number of police contacts. Crime patterns were explored for all youth arrested and data were examined using frequency tables to compare the crime patterns between White and African-American male youth. Also identified was the frequency of adjudication between African-American and White male youth. The limitation of data prohibited this researcher from testing the significance of variables such as crime, gender, ethnicity, and adjudication outcomes. However, a chi-square test was used to analyze the significance of race and year. A statistically significant positive association was found between year and race. The researcher sought to determine the significance in the incarceration! probation of African-American and White male youth. Chi-square tests were conducted with the assumption that there was no significant difference between incarcerated African-American and White male youth. Descriptive statistics were used to determine factors that are consistent in incarceration for both 1998 and 1999. The study examined the "risk indicator" of incarcerated youth. In particular, the study sought to compare the characteristics of incarcerated African-American and White male youth.

Erica Mattison and Mark S. Aber, Closing the Achievement Gap: The Association of Racial Climate with Achievement and Behavioral Outcomes, 2007
This study investigated the relationship between school racial climate and students’ self-reports of academic and discipline outcomes, including whether racial climate mediated and/or moderated the relationship between race and outcomes. Using the Racial Climate Survey-High School Version (M. Aber et al., unpublished), data were gathered from African American (n = 382) and European American students (n = 1456) regarding their perceptions of racial climate. About 18% of the respondents were low-income and approximately 50% were male. Positive perceptions of the racial climate were associated with higher student achievement and fewer discipline problems. Further, race moderated the relationship between racial climate and both achievement and discipline outcomes. Finally, racial differences in students’ grades and
discipline outcomes were associated with differences in perceptions of racial climate. Results suggest careful attention should be given to the racial climate of secondary schools, particularly for adolescents who perceive schools as unfair.

Erica D. Mattison, Silenced Voices: Rethinking Parental Involvement in Education, 2007
Unpublished dissertation. The present study explored the experiences of African American parents engaging in their children’s education in a medium-sized mid-western community. More specifically, the project examined African American parents’ perceptions of education and how these perceptions were related to their participation in home, community, and school activities. This study was based on a three-year-long participant-observation project in a predominantly low-income and African American elementary school, Woodson Elementary. The participants were the parents and/or guardians of Woodson Elementary School students. Participants were chosen based on Woodson staff’s and parents’ nominations of parents/guardians who were perceived to be involved or uninvolved in their children’s education. Almost all participants were African American and female between the ages of 25 and 76-years-old. Ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, and survey data were used to identify the origin (e.g., parents’ perceptions of education, prior school experiences, school norms) and nature of parents’ participation in their children’s education. Results indicate that African American parents/guardians, regardless of demographic characteristics (e.g., age, educational attainment, socioeconomic status) value education and actively participate in their children’s education. Most parents participated in their child’s education predominantly in the home and community as compared to their participation at Woodson Elementary School. However, two forms of parental engagement in schools (e.g., proactive and reactive patterns) were identified, which differentially impacted parents’ ability to fully participate in their children’s education. Results suggest that incorporating and valuing parents’ unique ways of knowing and interacting in their children’s education will facilitate parental engagement that is informed, builds relationships between teachers and parents, and meets the needs of students and families.

Merle B. Karnes, Primary Investigator, Research and Development Program on Preschool Disadvantaged Children Final Report, 1969
Three volume report on economically and ethnically marginalized populations in preschool. Champaign-Urbana is featured prominently in the data, especially in volume 3. Includes sections on Potter Addition and the North End. See especially section beginning on page 542 of pdf: "Problems of Competence Development Among Ghetto Residents of a Middle-Sized City."

Wendell M, Dans, Evaluation of the Urban League Education Initiative Project, 1988
The Urban League: Education Illitiative Project.

William Stanley Nowak, The Effect of School Busing on Black Student Attitude Toward School, 1970
This source is a thesis written at the University of Illinois on the impact that busing of black students on their attitudes towards school. It includes results from surveys and a detailed section on additional or complementary resources.

Harlan Neil Henson, Some Implications of Busing in Urbana, Illinois: An Inquiry into an aspect of Integration, 1968
This source is a thesis on the ongoing process of the elimination of segregation and the process of integration in Champaign-Urbana, specifically in the educational realm. It features interviews with local residents and members of the school board.

Ezella McPherson, Beyond the Nation’s Capital: Minority Students’ Stumbling on the Tracks After Hobson, 2010
Includes discussion of the Unit 4 Champaign Consent Decree Process on page 7 in the context of National histories of educational discrimination. Abstract: The U.S. District of Columbia’s Federal Circuit Court decision in Hobson v. Hanson (1967) case eliminated racial discriminatory tracking practices in the nation’s capitol’s public schools. The court ruled that D.C. Public Schools’ tracking violated African American and low income students’ rights to equal opportunities to education under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment. While D.C. Public Schools eradicated school tracking, it continued in other urban schools. This article examines the Federal Court’s role in the perpetuation of school tracking practices and challenges minority students’ access to equal educational opportunities in schools with tracked classrooms. It also addresses the need for equitable schools to provide all students with the opportunity to learn.

Virginia Schnepf, A study of political socialization in a subculture: Negro children's knowledge of and attitudes toward the police, law and freedom, 1966
A study of political socialization in a subculture: Negro children's knowledge of and attitudes toward the police, law and freedom

Allen Leslie, Determinants of Self-Esteem: Importance, Satisfaction, and Self-Rating in Significant Areas, 1980
A dissertation about the self-esteem in certain areas. This is a review of self-esteem, the statement of the review, the methods that were used, the results they came up with, the discussion they had, and references that were used. Focuses on measuring students in Champaign, of which 17% of the sample are African-Americans.

Dylan Hall, This Life Ain't Gravy, 2009
From the book's back cover: This Life Ain’t Gravy follows the experiences of Justin, an African American teenager, and his white mentor Dylan. While Justin is struggling through junior high and high school in Champaign, Illinois, Dylan is taking classes at the University of Illinois. The disconnect between their lives becomes apparent in Justin’s illiteracy, delinquency and life in a single-parent household, but they develop an enduring relationship by eating, reading and playing basketball together. As certain obstacles in Justin’s life prove too difficult to overcome, Justin and Dylan find strength in a bond that provides both with something more powerful than their perceived individual limitations.

Dr. Preston Lee Williams, Jr. , A Study of the Desegregation Plan of Urbana School District 116 Elementary Schools: From the Beginning of Implementation to the Present, 2000
Study by current USD superintendent

Kayleen Irizarry, SUPPORT, ACHIEVEMENT, EXCELLENCE, SUCCESS: EXPERIENCES OF UNDER-REPRESENTED STUDENTS IN A PRE-COLLEGE ACADEMIC SUPPORT PROGRAM: Summer Bridge?, 2000
- Project Upward Bound dissertation

Kate Hellenga, The Uncorrected Self: Identity Negotiation in Juvenile Detention, 2003
Dissertation based on ethnographic study at the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center, in which the researcher studies how the process of being a "juvenile delinquent" shapes their self-perception and worldview.

Regina Day Langhout, Acts of Resistance: Student (In)visibility, 2005
On the Champaign School District's consent decree. This paper argues that public school structures are oppressive for all students. Because of racial, class and gender biases, school environments are often especially problematic for African American and working-class/working-poor students. Boys and girls also experience school differently because of gender roles. These intersecting problems include facing dominant narratives based on stereotypes and discrimination. The current study took place in a school building that serves predominately African American and low-income students. The questions examined include: how does school silence children, and how do children resist being silenced? Observational and interview data indicate that children are disciplined into invisibility by treating them stereotypically and cosequently demanding uniformity in their behavior as a way to control their mostly colored bodies. Children resist such treatment through creative and collaborative acts that promote their voice and visibility and which critique the dominant narrative. In general, students attempt to construct an alternative view that allows another, student-generated narrative to emerge.

Bruce Robert Hare and Louis A. Castenell Jr., No Place to Run, No Place to Hide: Comparative Status and Future Prospects of Black Boys, 1985
Study based on research in Champaign Unit 4 School District

Ann Bishop, Bertram C. Bruce, and Sunny Jeong, Beyond Service Learning: Toward Community Schools and Reflective Community Learners, 2010
Describes service-learning curriculum in Champaign-Urbana, much of which involved engagement in the African-American community

Nathaniel C. Banks, Reflections on the Brown Commemoration from a Champaign Native, 2009
School Integration, Education, Town-Gown Relations

Compiled by the Office of Research and Program Coordination of the Urbana Schools, submitted to the Board of Education of the Urbana Schools District 116, Eugene Howard, Superintendent, Review of Data Related to Desegregation in the Urbana Schools 1959-1974, September 1974
Desegregation, School Integration, Hays Elementary, MLK Elementary, Urbana School District

Mark S. Aber, Ph.D. and the University of Illinois School Climate Research Team, School Climate Study: A Report of Primary Findings of the School Climate Study for Champaign Community Unit School District 4, 2001
This includes the info about the findings of a report on Climate Study for Champaign Unit 4 School District. It gives you information about the background, methods, results, and the discussion that was given.

Robert Peterkin & James Lucey, Educational Equity Audit: Finding and Recommendations, 1998, and part 2 from 2007
Report produced as part of Champaign Unit 4 Consent Decree settlement.

School Climate Research Team, School Climate Research Team's School Climate Survey, 1999-2001
Detailed report and appendices prepared by an interdisciplinary UIUC research team, on behalf of the Champaign School District, to study racial/racist climates within the District, as part of the district's consent decree fulfillment. From Sascha D. Meinrath (one of the report authors) personal website.

Sascha D. Meinrath, Reactions to Contemporary Activist-Scholars and the “Midwestern Mystique”: A case study utilizing an evolving methodology in contentious contexts, ca. 2000
Unpublished Master's thesis on Champaign Unit 4 Consent Decree process

Champaign Unit 4 School District, McKibben Demographics and Cropper GIS, Champaign Community Unit School District #4 Demographic Study, April 2008
This demographic study was developed in response to a request for proposal (RFP) published by the Champaign Community Unit School District #4

University of Illinois-Community Relations

University of Illinois Office of Public Information. Office of Public Information. The Gown in the Town: The University in Its Community, 1970
Promotional booklet describing University programs aimed at local community concerns. Includes mention of many programs created in the wake of the civil rights movement and local activism for change. Copied from the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/gownintownuniver00univ

Joseph P. Pisciotte and Samuel K. Gove, Report on Higher Education Public Service Responsibilities in the Black Community, Fall 1972
The research project "Higher Education Public Service Responsibilities in the Black Community" (PSR) has centered around the public service role of the University of Illin01s and Parkland College in the black community of Champaign-Urbana. The project was funded under Title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965, channeled through the Illinois Board of Higher Education. It was one of a number of community-related projects in the state during fiscal year 1971-72 coordinated by Jacob Jennings of the IBHE. Participants included the Black Action Council for United Progress and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois.

Mbanza, Alana, The Myth of the Black Townie, 2008
This inquiry, based on qualitative data obtained from both participant interviews and my own personal observations, seeks to understand the relationship between African American students of Parkland College, the University of Illinois, and similarly aged, non-enrolled members of the Champaign Urbana community. The findings of this investigation suggest that there is often a hostile relationship between African Americans of these diverse populations. The research was based on the popular usage of the derogatory term "townie" to define an uneducaed, lower class African American who was born and raised in the area. Although there might be several viable explanations, my data seems to confirm that cleavages along lines of economics and education were the main source of conflict.

Maynard Brichford, Descriptive Inventory of Resources for the Ecology of Mental Health and Work With the Disadvantaged, 1967
In 1965, a faculty-student group discussing problems in Mississippi and Champaign-Urbana at the University YMCA noted the lack of a list of the University of Illinois' resources and projects to benefit the disadvantaged. Profs. Demitri Shimkin and Maynard Brichford sought to remedy this lack by exploratory work in the spring of 1966 and through initial faculty contacts by research assistants Miss Catherine Salemi and Mr. Dominic Candeloro in the summer and fall of 1966. These activities auickly converged with strong interests of the director and staff of the Illinois Department of Mental Health in the ecological approach to mental
health and information on university resources. In January 1967, a Department grant to the Center for Human Ecology provided funds to complete an inventory of university resources and projects as part of the
program development for research and training in the ecology of mental health. As a permanent central depository of university documentary material, the University Archives had the experience to complete
a systematic listing of personnel, facilities and activities available for consultative purposes. A descriptive inventory compiled in five months has many limitations. Some projects have been overlooked.
Others may have been imperfectly understood. We have attempted to obtain sufficient information, standardize the format, achieve reasonable uniformity and intelligibility in the narrative descriptions, check for accuracy with our informants, provide suitable indexes and print the results. It is important that many people know now what the University is doing in these areas. In a technological society, universities sometimes
reflect their environment by over publicizing the search for new knowledge and inventions. New programs, new mechanical devices and new specialists are given priority. This emphasis can become so heavy as to
support a suspicion that the search is more of a flight from failure than the pursuit of excellence. Broad areas in the social sciences and the humanities have been islands of ignorance bypassed in our haste
to secure material comforts and protect a political or economic position. The past decade has brought increased recognition that our social structure has exciting research and service frontiers in areas that
have been studied for centuries. The challenges of education, mental health and the culturally disadvantaged are as old as mankind.

William Patterson, Center for Civic Engagement, Social Entrepreneurship and Research, ca. 2005
Proposal for an unfunded campus-community center.

Melissa Pognon, Both sides of the story: exploring university relations with local African-American communities, M.S. Thesis, Human & Community Development, 2011
The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of African-Americans and university collaborators regarding their experiences with community-university partnerships and to suggest possible strategies to strengthen these working relationships. By drawing on the responses of eighteen community and university representatives, this study sought to answer the following three questions: (a) Do African-American residents and academics perceive the benefits and challenges of participating in community-university relationships differently? (b) In what context do African-American residents and academics agree on the benefits and challenges of community-university relationships? (c) If there are differences, do these differences create barriers to engagement efforts? Significant findings in this study revealed that university partners generally perceived relationships as a way to access the community On the other hand, community participants viewed relationships as a resource to exchange and share resources with the university but perceived the lack of sustained efforts from the university as a challenge. Both community and university partners perceived institutional protocol and the demand for tangible outcomes in the community as challenges. Furthermore, findings also revealed that the history of race relations and the nature of a college-town community influenced the views and experiences of the participants.

Issues at the University of Illinois

Cathie Huntoon, The University of Illinois and the Drive for Negro Equality, 1945-1951, May 19, 1966
Unpublished student paper. Describes the impact of various individuals associated with the University in pushing for the integration of various public facilities and private businesses in Champaign-Urbana in the early post-World War II period. Draws on the recently institutionalized University Archives. Written as a course paper for History 461, under Dr. J. Leonard Bates.

Abigail Brookens Broga, And Everything's the Same: Transformation of a Campus Through The Eyes of an Intended Change Agent, 2003
Dissertation centered around an in-depth oral history of Clarence Shelley, former Dean of Students at University of Illinois and one of the individuals charged with ensuring Project 500 be a success from an administrative point-of-view.

Wendell W. Bonner, Black Male Perspectives of Counseling on a Predominantly White University Campus, 1997
Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 pp. 395-408

Ronald Stephen Rochon, African American College Students' Attitudes Toward Identity, Culture, and Curriculum, 1997
dissertation, Education, University of Illinois

Joy Ann Williamson, Black Power, Black Studies, University of Illinois, Black Experience on Campus, 2003
From Introduction: "The story of a Black student movement and higher educational reform is reconstructed by examining the in-between layers, the layers between the national level and the local level, between reform initiatives and the actual reforms. Identifying Black student demands and tactics as an outgrowth of Black Power is not surprising, but how did popular Black power rhetoric filter its way to the University of Illinois? How did Black students appropriate Black Power ideology and mold it to fit their purposes? How did Black students then transform their understanding of Black power theory into practice? Some of the Black student-initiated reforms were co-opted by the university, some were squashed, and others were implemented as students envisioned. Some of the administrator-initiated reforms were influenced by Black students. So how did a reform initiative become campus policy? How did this forced negotiation between two groups with different kinds of power color the outcome of certain campus reforms? This examination of these layers reveals how institutional change came to pass and demonstrates the important place of Black Power in the history of higher education."

Victor C. Mullins, The Social Integration Experiences of African American Students Attending a Predominantly White Institution, 2005
Dissertation based on data collected at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Joy Ann Williamson, Reform in the Black Power Era, 2008
Based on research on the University of Illinois

Deirdre Lynn Cobb, Jim Crow Room & Board: The Experiences of African American Students at UIUC 1945 to 1955, 1997
African-American University of Illinois Students, Civil Rights, Segregation, Racism, 1950s, 1940s

Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Student-Community Voices: Memories of Access versus Treatment at University of Illinois, 2006
1940s, 1950s, Black Experience on Campus, African-American Students, Racism, Segregation

Joy Ann Williamson, "We Hope for Nothing, We Demand Everything": Black Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign., 1998
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 230 pp. In the late 1960s, Black students at predominantly White and historically Black campuses across the nation reevaluated the education they received in institutions of higher education and demanded an education more "relevant" to their situation as Blacks in America. This dissertation is an attempt to understand the influence of such notions on one such predominantly White institution, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). It presents an historical reconstruction of the Black UIUC student movement's origin, development, and decline. Preconditions such as alienation and isolation on campus provided Black students with the foundation on which their frustrations with UIUC built. Off-campus events and on-campus experiences precipitated the formation of a Black student union as a way to allay their alienation and to act as a mediating body between themselves and the institution. The organization filled social and psychological needs for Black students and provided a forum in which they could plot a course for change. A catalytic event bolstered the Black student movement and transformed their efforts into an open and large-scale protest which, in turn, elicited responses and control efforts from the UIUC administration. Though short-lived, the Black UIUC student movement was able to leave a tangible and intangible legacy on campus. As a case study of Black Power's influence on the UIUC campus, this dissertation contributes to the discussion regarding the influence Black students had on helping to shape the nature of education at predominantly White institutions. In particular, it allows for an understanding of how unique factors influenced the rise in and character of Black student discontent at a large, land-grant, residential, Midwestern institution. Though unique for several reasons, the discussions and demands that came out of the Black student movement at UIUC were not unlike the discussions and demands at other predominantly White institutions across the nation. This dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the dialogue on the rise, ideology, development, and outcome of Black student movements across the nation in an effort to determine the full impact of Black student efforts and Black Power on American higher education.

Central Black Student Union: Is It Still Needed in 2006?, 2006
This project aims to answer the following questions: 1) What is the historical background of the Central Black Student Union (CBSU)? 2) Does CBSU still perform the same functions and hold fast to the same traditions and beliefs that they once fostered in the 70s, 80s and 90s? 3) If so, are these actions, traditions and beliefs still relevant in UIUC’s current racial climate? 4) Is CBSU’s main purpose to be a politically charged organization or does it have the primary role of meeting the socio-cultural needs of African American students? The author conducted eight interviews and attended several CBSU meetings at the Illini Orange. Results indicat that CBSU is not as militant as in the past. Students do not participate in CBSU activities as they once did, but still find it important in fostering a sense of African American community on campus.

Joy Ann Williamson, The Snail-Like Progress of Racial Desegregation at the University of Illinois, 2004
Abstract: African-American students at Illinois experienced discrimination on and off campus. Perhaps emboldened by legal victories in the South and the more aggressive mood of black liberation efforts, some black students involved themselves in protest. In 1946 the university's board of trustees reaffirmed its policy to "favor and strengthen those attitudes and social philosophies which are necessary to create a community atmosphere in which race prejudice can not thrive." But discrimination continued. On campus, housing became a flash point. In the first half of the twentieth century only two women's dormitories existed. Not until 1945 did African-American women receive space in the dormitories and only after a very public campaign by concerned African Americans in Chicago, home for most African-American students. Charles J. Jenkins, an African-American state representative, mounted a personal campaign to open the residence halls to African-American women by petitioning the university, meeting with the university president Arthur Cutts Willard, and soliciting possible candidates for application to the dormitories. The Illinois Association of Colored Women's Clubs also became very active in the desegregation campaign. In the tradition of the black press, the Daily Defender, the African-American Chicago newspaper, held university administrators' feet to the fire by publicizing the dormitory situation and chastising the university. The newspaper deliberately used buzzwords for racism and discrimination in an article entitled "Just Like Dixie: No U of I Dorms for Negroes," pointing out that "Jim Crow has crowded Negro girl students completely off the University of Illinois campus." President Willard, mildly receptive to the pressure, promised Representative Jenkins and the Colored Women's Clubs he would ask the director of the Division of Student Housing "to hold space for two girls for the time being, because I want the group which is interested in the situation to feel that the University is being absolutely fair." In August 1945 the acting director of housing alerted the president that two African-American women, Quintella King and Ruthe Cashe, had accepted their dormitory contracts for the 1945-46 academic year. Other African-American women would follow, but all were assigned rooms together -- the university desegregated the dormitories by allowing African-American women to reside there, but African-American and white women were not allowed to room together. The Housing Division averted accidents by soliciting race and national origin information on the dormitory applications.

Afro-American Studies and Research Program, UIUC, University of Illinois Graduate Research by and About Afro-Americans: A Comprehensive Listing of Students, 1982
Many of the research projects in this volume focus on Champaign-Urbana African-American Communities. Comprehensive up to circa 1982.

Jan Carter-Black, A Black Woman’s Journey Into a Predominately White Academic World, 2008
The paucity of Black women at predominately White institutions of higher education is well recognized. Like me, some Black women survived the gauntlet of coursework, qualifying examinations, and dissertation research and writing in pursuit of doctoral degrees, followed by the whirlwind campus visits that are integral to the faculty recruitment process. Upon our arrival, we were confronted by the challenges of being African American and female in a majority White university community. This article is a personal journey that spans 40 years of my life—from an 18-year-old freshman to a tenure-track assistant professor—at the same university.

Deirdre Lynn Cobb, Race and Higher Education at the University of Illinois, 1945 to 1955, 1998
The vast majority of literature on the history of education for African Americans focuses on the role of racism as the principle factor shaping their educational experiences. To understand what African American students experienced during the 1945-1955 era (end of World War II to Brown decision), it is necessary to investigate and interpret the traditions, rules and practices developed during the four and one-half decades leading up to 1945. Fusing written sources with oral histories enhances a document by providing a compete account of an historical event or encounter, thus enabling the development of a conceptual framework for the history of African American students at the University of Illinois, between the years of 1945-1955. This dissertation examines the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, centering on the special conditions confronting African American students. Furthermore it seeks to show how racism was a principle factor in shaping the educational experiences of Americans of African ancestry. African American students that attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois and University), from the early years of its founding had to bear much of the burden their ancestors had endured. They were allowed to attend the University, however enrollment was on a limited basis, and they were not accepted as full and equal participants. The experiences of African American students at UIUC from 1945 to 1955 (end of World War II to Brown decision), though unique in their own terms, were nonetheless part of a history of overt and institutionalized discrimination dating back to the founding of the University. In order to fully appreciate and understand the experiences of 1945-1955 it is critical to comprehend the traditions and customs of coping with racism and alienation that were established in the preceding decades. This information is vital to the establishment of a conceptual framework for the history of African American students, at the University of Illinois, between the years of 1945-1955.

Stephen Joseph Lamos, Sponsoring Educational Opportunity: Race, Racism, and Writing Instruction at the University of Illinois, 2004
Within the field of composition history, much is presently known about the ways in which elite groups have employed literacy instruction to preserve economic and/or political power and privilege. However, as a number of recent scholars suggest, much less is presently known about the means by which elites have employed literacy instruction to preserve and promote the power and privilege of white racism, particularly at the institutional level. Accordingly, this dissertation explores the ways in which one predominantly-white university, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sought to conceive, implement, and maintain "Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Rhetoric," a writing instruction program for "high risk" minority students. It analyzes a variety of archival EOP Rhetoric documents-program descriptions, meeting minutes, administrative correspondence, syllabi-to understand how literacy was "sponsored" by the university (in Deborah Brandt's sense of the term) to support white power and privilege over time, as well as to understand
how such sponsorship was resisted by reform-minded administrators at certain points during the history of the program. The dissertation contends that understanding such interplay between racist sponsorship arrangements and anti-racist administrative resistance can help us to recognize how white racism has profoundly shaped past composition program formation. It contends, too, that such work can help us to reconceptualize future composition reform efforts, shifting thinking away from overly-simplistic "color-blind" assessments of reform toward assessments that both can account for and work against the multiple and complex effects of racism.

Sandra Joy Kato, Abandonment or Inclusion of Race in Higher Education Admissions: A Case Study of Consequences, 2003
Unpublished dissertation. A case study was conducted of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to explore the consequences of its historical inclusion and exclusion of race as a factor in the
college admissions process. During the 1960's, the UIUC subscribed to a numbers only admissions policy and revisited its mission and made a commitment to enhance diversity on campus. To this end, the UIUC juxtaposed the concepts of merit and diversity and sought to infuse this belief with campus mores and practices. The focus of this research was directed at determining the UIUC impact of returning to a potential numbers only admissions policy on African American enrollment. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to inform the discourse about race conscious admissions. A chronology was compiled detailing the steps involved in the UIUC decision to consider race as a factor in admissions and the decisions and policy which followed in the interest of maintaining diversity on the campus. Eleven interviews were conducted.
Admissions practices and academic records were examined for African American students admitted to the University in 1968, 1978, 1985 and 1995. Independent t-tests were conducted on the means for both African Americans and majority students (all freshmen excluding African Americans) across Campus Selection Index, ACT-C and High School Percentile Rank (HSPR) for the 1978, 1985 and 1995 cohorts. A difference in each of the means was found to be significant at the .05 level Examination of the data revealed that the mean Campus Selection Index for African Americans for the years 1978, ' 85 and '95 was 3.5. Graduation rates for African Americans during 1978, 1985 and 1995 equaled or exceeded national norms, despite the fact that over 75% of these Campus Selection Index scores fell in the bottom quartile range for the entire freshmen cohort during each respective year. These findings support the argument that a numbers only admissions policy would force the University to reject a large cadre of otherwise qualified students, restrict the opportunity for African American students to enroll in a highly selective four year institution, and limit the level of student diversity at the University.

Paula D. Causher, Female and Male African-American Senior Undergraduate Student Leaders' Perception of Factors Influencing their Academic Success in Illinois Public Doctoral Degree-Granting Institutions: Implications for Higher Education Leadership , 2003
This dissertation includes --the intro to the study --review of related literature --methodology --presentation of data --study learnings --references

Ernest F. Anderson and Freeman A. Hrabowski, Graduate School Success of Black Students from White Colleges and Black Colleges, 1977
This study compares the academic performance of black American graduate students who graduated from traditionally black colleges (Group A) with the academic performance of black American graduate students who graduated from historically white colleges (Group B). The study also presents data on the relationship between undergraduate grade point average and graduate school grade point average. No significant difference was found between Group A and Group B on mean graduate grade point average, retention rate, or graduation rate. There was a positive correlation between undergraduate and graduate grade point averages for Group A and Group B within each of four fields of study and for the total group.

Joy Ann Williamson, Affirmative Action at University of Illinois: The 1968 Special Educational Opportunities Program, 1998
First Paragraph: In the spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Higher Education Act of 1965, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) initiated the Special Educational Opportunities Program (SEOP), a program to recruit more African American students to the UIUC campus. The SEOP will be the focus of this piece. The objectives are twofold. First, I will discuss the implementation and nature of SEOP including recruitment, admission requirements, initial academic achievement, and graduation rates. Next, I will illustrate the impact this first substantial number of Black students left on the UIUC campus both socially and academically. The first group of SEOP students will be the focus though later students will be discussed tangentially.

Dionne Danns, Maudelle Bousfield and Chicago's Segregated School System, 1922-1950, 1998
Bousfield became the first African American woman to attend and graduate from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She continued to be the only African American female at the university for about two years. Continues some discussion of her experience at the University of Illinois.

Deirdre L. Cobb, Segregated Students at the University of Illinois, 1945 to 1955, 1997
African American students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UlUC) had to bear much of the burden their ancestors had endured. They were allowed to attend the University, however enrollment
was on a limited basis, and they were not accepted as full and equal participants. The experiences of African American students at UIUC from the end of World War II to the Brown decision (1945 to 1955)
were part of a history of oven and institutionalized discrimination dating back to the founding of the University. African American students were constant victims of discrimination from the start of their enrollment at the University of Illinois. The determination of these students, with the assistance of Albert R. Lee, the unofficial dean of African American students, and the encouragement of African American elected officials, community individuals, the Interracial Committee, and individuals in nearby Chicago and St. Louis, enabled them to fight the discrimination emanating from varying levels.

Kathryn H. Anthony and Nicholas Watkins, A Legacy of Firsts: African Americans in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009
African-American University of Illinois Students, Architecture, Integration

Joy Ann Williamson, An Oral History of Black Students at the University of Illinois, 1965-1975, 1998
Midwest History of Education Journal, volume 25, number 1

Joy Ann Williamson, Who is "Black" at the University of Illinois, 1965-1975, 1997
During the late 1950s and early I 960s, the proponents of the Civil Rights Movement encouraged African Americans to petition for the protection of their constitutional rights. Securing equality of social and educational opportunity was seen as a key to success and this was pursed through non-violent means. By the late 1960s, a new development, the Black Power Movement, advocated a more aggressive posture
as some Blacks were becoming increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of change. Some African Americans opposed the non-violent strategy adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the more moderate Civil Rights leaders in favor of more confrontational methods. Blacks on university campuses across the United States gathered to discuss and plan ways they could more aggressively combat the inequalities Blacks experienced.

University of Illinois African-American Architecture Alumni Project, ca. 2008
Research by School of Architecture

Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Interracial Cooperatives at the University of IllInois. 1940-1960, 1998
Very little attention has been given to a discussion of interracial cooperatives on college and university campuses. In fact the literature discusses interracial partnerships and organizations but does not ameliorate the value of these partnerships on college and university campuses. This paper will investigate interracial partnerships (e.g., Congress on Racial Equality-CORE, Student Community Interracial Committee-SCIC, and Student Community Human Relations Council-SCHRC) that were fonned on the University of lllinois at Urbana-Champaign campus during the years of 1940-1960 in an effort to fight extant racial discrimination. Sources utilized for this paper will include institutional records, correspondence records, CORE papers and selected interviews.

Rene Bangert, Paul Davis, Nicole Ortegón, and Teresa Ramos, Ethnography of the Brown v Board Jubilee Commemoration, ca. 2005
Part of Ethnography of the University initiative

Stacy Harwood, Margaret Browne Huntt, & Ruby Mendenhall, RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA–CHAMPAIGN: VOICES OF STUDENTS OF COLOR LIVING IN UNIVERSITY HOUSING, 2010
From introduction: The University of Illinois is committed to excellence in research, teaching, and public engagement. The university’s mission is to transform lives and to serve society by educating, creating knowledge, and putting knowledge to work within a framework of excellence. The University of Illinois serves the state, the nation, and the global market through innovation in research. In addition, the University of Illinois prepares students to live in a global society and uses the transfer and application of knowledge to meet societal needs. This campus has been and is committed to undergraduate and graduate education. Over 30,000 undergraduate students are enrolled in nine (9) divisions that cumulatively offer over 4,000 courses in over 150 fields of study. The university has an enrollment of over 11,000 graduate students from around the world and ranks among the top five (5) universities in the nation in doctoral degrees awarded. In its 2008 rankings, U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges rated Illinois as the number 8 public university and the number 38 national university.

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