From Desegregation to Desexigration in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-1973
.......................................................................................................v Introduction...................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Designing Dignity in the Dress ways of Downtown Richmond..............17 Chapter Two: Cashing in On Chivalry: Dignity, Desegregation, and the Demarcation of Space in the Thalhimer Boycott..........................................49 Chapter Three: Revolutionizing Retail & the Region: The Formation of Multiracial Female Coalitions in Downtown Richmond.................................74 Chapter Four: Feminism in Fashion: The Foothold of Personal Politics in Richmond, Virginia...............................................................................94 Conclusion.................................................................................................106 Bibliography...............................................................................................109
A “New Frontier” for Women: The Public Policy of the Kennedy Administration
In December 1961, more than four years before the emergence of a vigorous wave of feminism, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women. The creation of the commission, which one newspaper hailed as the launching of a "distaff 'Fair Deal,' " denoted a fundamental shift in federal policy, expressed also in the enactment of equal pay legislation and the prohibition of discrimination against women in the federal civil service.' These steps, taken without the impetus of either a widespread feminist movement or a national emergency, marked the federal government's assumption of a new responsibility with regard to equal treatment for women in the labor force. How Kennedy came to appoint such a commission, why the departure in policy took place, and what consequences resulted from the change constitute the subjects of this essay. Throughout the period 1945 to 1960, government agencies, women's organizations, educators, and journalists expressed concern about proper roles for women. Immediately after the war, those who spoke for working women concentrated on the need to "protect" women in the labor force, including their right to jobs, while providing employment for returning service personnel. Reinstitution of "labor standards" or protective labor laws and the attempt to persuade women to leave their "masculine" jobs for more "feminine" ones in the burgeoning clerical and service occupations served both purposes, and both were attempted.2 A desire to resume "normal" family
The Impact of School Desegregation Programs on White Public-School Enrollment, 1968-1976.
This article examines the findings of a national study of the impact of school desegregation programs on white public-school enrollment trends in school districts grouped according to region, metropolitan status, and source of pressure to desegregate. The analysis is based on a larger and more diverse sample of districts than was used in previous studies. It shows that the increased exposure of white pupils to black pupils (or interracial contact) substantially affects the demography of school systems and leads to reductions in white enrollment. Moreover, the adverse effect of increased interracial contact is not limited to school districts that have implemented desegregation programs, although these districts experience an accelerated rate of white enrollment decline. White enrollment losses appear to be short term, limited primarily to the year a desegregation program is implemented. An important implication of thesefindings is that white enrollment 'trends are sensitive not to the programmatic components of desegregation strategies but rather to the amount of change in interracial contact that such strategies bring about.