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Acknowledgments
- Rutgers University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Countless people have aided me in completing this project. To thank by name everyone who offered me intellectual, moral, and emotional support during these years would be impossible. Below are those who have had the most impact on me. For those unnamed, know that if I knew you between 2002 and 2009, you are appreciated. I could not have completed this project without the aid of the librarians and archivists at New York City’s Municipal Archives, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Radcliff College’s Schlesinger Library, and the Library of Congress, especially Kenneth Cobb, Leonora Gidlund, Julie Koven, Lyn Slome, Elaine Kastel, Karla Goldman, and James Rosenbloom. I owe a special debt of gratitude to David Ment, the New York City Board of Education’s archivist, who provided essential information about, and allowed me unfettered access to, the then-unorganized collection. Academic mentors provided me with both the skills and support necessary to complete this project. Doug Hartmann, Ronald Aminzade, Penny Edgell, and Rose Brewer at the University of Minnesota fostered the development of my methodological skills and theoretical tools necessary to begin my career as a professional sociologist. Their continued support sustained my pursuit of this project as a book. Jonathan Zimmerman’s generosity with his time and feedback , reading every word of my manuscript, pushed me to critically examine my assertions and include vital historical information to generate the most historically incisive and complete manuscript possible. Monte Bute enthusiastically talked me through chapter organization, the writing, research, and thinking processes, and conceptual and theoretical arguments. The arsenal of books he recommended to me facilitated the development of a better, and more historically and theoretically grounded, project. Anna Linders’s astute observations and probing questions of theoretical issues enhanced the book’s attention to sociological details. My colleagues at Quinnipiac University provided support, advice, and encouragement during the seminal years of this writing. Lynne Hodgson ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS welcomed me with open arms into the Sociology Department and did everything possible to ensure my academic and personal security at QU. I could not have been luckier to be hired alongside Cynthia Duarte, with whom, as a race scholar, I could discuss my research, and who was my closest friend during these years. Her emotional support was, and continues to be, immeasurable. The next year, Hillary Haldane quickly became equally integral to my success. Her humor, integrity, and keen academic insight got me through the darkest days and her generosity of spirit helped me celebrate the brightest. I am also deeply indebted to Lori Sudderth, Gloria Holmes, Marilyn Ford, Keith Kerr, Penny Leisring, Alan Bruce, Kanicka Ingram, Patrick Frazier, and Hans Bergmann, who all provided me with both the intellectual and emotional support necessary to complete this project. Dean Bergmann and the College of Arts and Sciences provided generous summer stipends to complete this manuscript and funds to attend conferences, where I presented papers based on these findings and received essential feedback and support from the above-mentioned colleagues. I am deeply grateful for my wonderful students at Quinnipiac University, who, across courses and disciplines, through in-class conversations and probing questions, forced me to think about the concepts addressed in this project in new and different ways. They truly enhanced the final result. I have the honor of acting as a faculty advisor to the Black Student Union, and these amazing young men and women, every day, remind me and make me appreciate why I do what I do. In this capacity, they have upheld my intense interest in this project and in social justice issues. Their emotional strength has sustained my own. They are truly my heroes. I would especially like to thank Anastacia Tucker, Carla Brown, Shana Bennett, Ashley Hobby, Kerry Ellington, Simone Parker, and Olamide Oduyingbo for their encouragement and inspiration. For the last two years, I have had the privilege of mentoring Kwegyirba Croffie, who has been integral to my happiness at QU. Her unwavering support and her astounding and inspirational energy and involvement on campus enhance my own performance as I try to live up to the title “mentor.” Additional students who continue to act as beacons of possibility from near and far include Mallory Grimste, Jennifer Buckmeyer, and Jared Zeidman. The adundant emotional support I received from friends and family was essential to this book’s completion. I am deeply grateful to my grad...