Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Deborah Beckel

NAME:
- Deborah Beckel

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1998)

ADVISORS:
- Dan T. Carter

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- James L Roark
- Allen Tullos

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Roots of reform: The origins of Populism and Progressivism as manifest in relationships among reformers in Raleigh, North Carolina, 1850-1905

Abstract: "Roots of Reform" recounts the lives of John Nichols (1834-1917), James Henry Harris (1832-1891), Leonidas LaFayette Polk (1837-1892), and Fannie Exile Scudder Heck (1862-1915). Each became a reform leader in postbellum North Carolina. They promoted the rights of workers, African Americans, farm families, and women respectively. Focusing on Raleigh, Wake County, and on the period 1850 to 1905, this work explores how their backgrounds affected their later leadership. It also examines relationships among them, their reform movements, and the development of Populism and Progressivism.

Their reform efforts were rooted in the past, cross-class, and long-lived. A Republican before the Civil War, James Harris fought for African-American men's political rights. A state leader since 1865, he helped launch the reform coalitions of the 1880s. A product of skilled workingmen's associations, John Nichols led the Knights of Labor in the 1880s and later helped build the historic Republican-Populist coalition of 1894-1896. A planter's son, L.L. Polk had embraced antebellum progressive agriculture. This undergirded his later agrarian and Progressive advocacies, and his intwining of white supremacy with each. A Missionary Baptist leader, Fannie Heck became a Progressive proponent for women and civic improvement. In the 1890s she developed inter-racial initiatives, and helped push this idea into the twentieth century. Through silence, she and Nichols both condoned the Democrats' racist 1898-1900 campaigns and the backlash against popular rights.

Reformers' backgrounds differed by race, class, gender, and ideology, This divergence produced leaders who often operated against, or excluded, each other. While important aspects of their pasts propelled their activism, their heritage frequently reinforced restrictive beliefs, particularly about racial and economic hierarchies. Extreme societal pressures also modified their efforts and compromised their goals. Each suffered from powerful retaliation by North Carolina's conservative white male elite. These factors militated against their building the broad and strong coalitions necessary to effect lasting change.

MPACT Scores for Deborah Beckel

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-03-24 09:39:41

Advisors and Advisees Graph

generating graph, please reload

Students under Deborah Beckel

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None