Links

Links to sites of Interest

This page includes links to some on-line resources that pertain directly to my research as well as links to some of my collaborators, colleagues, and friends. Additionally, resources useful for my students are also maintained, here.

Since some of these sites are out of my control. I can't guarantee that they'll always be active. Please, let me know if you find any broken links and I'll try to correct them, as soon as possible.

Below are a series of quick links (links, with no description. Scroll down for more information

Quick Links

Academics & Research

My Blog
Historically Black Rural Settlements Facebook
Historically Black Rural Settlement Map
Southwestern Anthropological Association

News and Interviews

UC Merced Impact Video
KFCF Interview with Tom Willey
Arts in the Valley Interview with Kim McMillon
UC Merced News Story 1
UC Merced News Story 2
UC Merced Academia.EDU
Freeway Fliers (Movie)

Collaborators

Fairmead Community and Friends
James Loewen
Mark Arax
Gerald W. Haslam
Amy L. Alexander
Ernest Lowe
Joel Pickford
Tom Willey

Divide and Conquer

KCET TV Los Angeles

Gerrymandering is one of the most effective tools to manipulate an election and guarantee a win. "SoCal Connected" profiles how some local governments have used political borders to dilute minorities' power, and what is being done about it.

This program features a look at the racial history of Kern County (for which I was interviewed).

In Madera County, Fairmead Community and Friends hold on to the community’s past while advocating for its future

Kathleen Schock looks at Fairmead Community and Friends, the group of women who've kept Fairmead from drying up and blowing away.

Includes interviews with members of FC&F and me.

The Other California: Chowchilla and Fairmead

Episode of "The Other California" on KVPR

'We've Come A Long, Long Way':
A Forum On Black Heritage In The Valley

KVPR (Valley Public Radio) 2/27/19

This program introduces you to some people whose families have been in the Valley for a century or more. Moderator Kathleen Schock talks to two long-time Fresnans, Dorythea Cooley-Williams and Anne Lopez Gaston about the obstacles and hard work their families faced that allowed later generations to prosper.

They’re joined by Fresno State historian/anthropologist Michael Eissinger. Ph.D.

Impact Video

This short video aired on KVIE in Sacramento, and was produced by the wonderful people at UC Merced. It highlights my engagement with Fairmead, especially at the time of the water crisis that has hit this (and other communities) hard.

Historically African American Rural Settlements

This is a FaceBook page that includes posts and (lots of) pictures related to the communities within which I do my research. It's a FaceBook community that allows for rapid updates, as well as involvement from others. If you have a FB account, please, take a look. If you have information about any of the communities listed on that page, please, feel free to participate

Historically African American Rural Settlement Map

This is a Google Map upon which I have laid out the Colonies, Unincorporated Towns, Unincorporated Neighborhoods, and Labor Camps throughout the San Joaquin Valley that, at some time in their past were all, or majority, black. There are a few brief comments and tidbits of information for added to the map.

KFCF (radio) Interview with Tom Willey (2015)

This hour-long radio interview (broken in sections for your dining and listening pleasure) was recorded on April 3, 2015 and provides an overview of my research and some of the current issues that pertain to the communities I study.

Arts in the Valley, September 2013, 1480 KYOS AM

Speaking of radio interviews: Here's an interview I did with my colleague, Kim McMillon, promoting Central Valley Threads: Life & Art in the Central Valley. This was a group exhibit by scholars from UC Merced and UC Davis, Sept 21st – Oct 4th, in 2013. This event was sponsored by the UC Merced Center for the Humanities, with major funding by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I was the sole graduate student on the project and participating offered me the opportunity to meet the author, Gerald Haslam.

UC Merced Graduate Division Story (2015)

This is a nice story written by Christy Snyder, Communications Manager at the Graduate Division, University of California, Merced about my research.

UC Merced News Story (2012)

This is another story the University did about me, a few years ago. It was written about the time my Fairmead book was published in time for Fairmead's centenary celebration.

The story is a nice human interest story -- one that focuses on what it's like to change careers and be a so-called "non-traditional" student.

Southwestern Anthropological Association

The Southwestern Anthropological Association (SWAA) is a regional association of academic and applied anthropologists and students in the southwestern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Our members do research in all areas of the world and include social-cultural anthropologists, linguistic anthropologists, archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and applied anthropologists in all fields. Our goals are to encourage innovative research and to promote public interest in all varieties of anthropological inquiry.

I am currently a member of the Executive Board of SWAA. My current term as a board member expired at the Annual Meeting in 2016.

Fairmead Community and Friends

For several years, I have observed this organization as they work, at the grassroots level, to try to improve the lives of those living in this unincorporated community.

Journal of the West

Nice peer-reviewed journal out of Santa Barbara, within which my article "Growing on the Side of the Road" was published in 2015.

Jackie Joice

Jackie Joice is the author of Green Grapes, Black Hands, the story of her family's history in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. Her website is here. She writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.

Her Facebook page, is here.

Academia.edu (UC Merced)

The University of California provides each of their grad students and faculty a web presence through their own facilities. The material at Academia duplicates much of what you can find, on this site.

Black Farmworkers in the Central Valley:
Escaping Jim Crow for a Subtler Kind of Racism

The California Report
Alexandra Hall 2/22/19

Excellent report about the rural African Americans featuring the Marshall & Beavers families in South Dos Palos & Teviston, respectively. Aired as a special report during Black History Month. I was interviewed for background and am included in one short clip, near the middle.

Freeway Fliers

Freeway Fliers is a story about higher education's best kept secret, the outsiders of higher education. The adjunct teachers that educate America's college students, but are marginalized economically and academically. These teachers are standing up to a system that is unjust to them, to students, and which threatens the integrity of higher education itself.

Watch it now.

James Loewen

Professor James Loewen has been one of my heroes for quite some time. Best known for Lies My Teacher Told Me, I became a huge fan when I was able to read, Sundown Towns. At the time, I was working on my Master of Arts in History degree at California State University, Fresno, and out of the blue, I decided to email Professor Loewen. I was shocked, a few days later, when he provided me with a 200 page Word document containing raw data concerning sundown and other exclusionary practices in California -- census data, emails, newspaper clippings, etc. We have maintained an email correspondence for years, and one of my happiest accomplishments was to be part of bringing him to both CSU Fresno and UC Merced to speak in April of 2015. I am now happy to call him a colleague, a collaborator, and (now) a friend.

James returned to the Valley in 2018 to talk at the Annual Banquet for KQED. Additionally, he spoke at Fresno State, Clovis Community College and Fresno City College, during that trip.

James Loewen and myself in the middle of the back row following Loewen's talk at the University in April 2015. Kim McMillion (UCM), directly to Jim's right, was instrumental in securing the funding for the event. My dissertation committee chair, Robin DeLugan is on the far right of the picture.

Mark Arax

Mark Arax contributed to my initial interest in the history of Black San Joaquin Valley settlements. While an undergraduate at Fresno State, his Los Angeles Times series Black Okies, from 2002, and a small article in the Fresno Bee about the Cooksey family were my introduction to these all (or majority) black communities scattered across the landscape of the San Joaquin Valley. From there, my interest grew and I have had the opportunity to spend countless hours in archival research and in fieldwork studying this fascinating topic. I frequently find myself returning to the Black Okies series, as well as his King of California for inspiration.

The author of several other books about the San Joaquin Valley and California (several of which I have assigned to students in my California History classes), Arax (along with Joel Pickford) is currently putting the finishing touches on a short documentary about the Black Okies, based on his articles and interviews they recorded, several years ago. I've seen a rough draft of much of the film, and the moment it's available, I will include a link, on this page.

The following are the original "Black Okie" stories Mark wrote for the LA Times in 2002. In a round-about way, these articles are ultimately responsible for introducing me to the topics of my research just a few years, later.

Gerald W. Haslam

I've only had the opportunity to meet Dr. Haslam once, at the Central Valley Threads exhibit in Merced, in 2013. However, we have exchanged correspondence and several times he has pointed reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post to my research (and, to me, directly). When we first met, following his talk, I introduced myself, and he said, "Happy to meet you, I just cited you in a book I'm writing." My son was standing there, with me -- he got two inches taller. Of course, I've relied on Haslam's work in my own writing, as well as when teaching California history classes, for years.

Amy L. Alexander

Amy Lynn Alexander writes and produces news, analysis, and commentary. Her work has appeared in print and broadcast outlets nationwide, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, TheRoot.com, and The Nation. Alexander spent several years covering the San Joaquin Valley at the Fresno Bee

She is author of four nonfiction books, including Fifty Black Women Who Changed America; and Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans, co-authored with Alvin. F. Poussaint, M.D.

Ernest Lowe

In the early 1960s, Ernie Lowe took many amazing photographs of farm workers in Teviston, Pixley, and South Dos Palos. His beautiful black and white pictures are among some of the few extant records of African American settlements from this period.

In 2015, Arax, Pickford, and I took Ernie back to Teviston and South Dos Palos where we were able to locate some of the original subjects of these photos, after five decades.

Joel Pickford

I first met Joel in college, but we lost touch until the first time I took Mark Arax to Fairmead. At the time, he was working with Arax on the Black Okies documentary and several other projects. The outcome of that meeting was introducing me to the work of Ernie Lowe.

We have since made several trips to the field, together.

Matt Black

Although I've never had he pleasure to work with Mr. Black, he was the photographer who took the original photographs that accompanied Mark Arax's Black Okies series in the Los Angeles Times, in 2002. Black is an amazing photographer, and these images are an amazing representation of what Arax discovered when he pulled off Highway 99, outside of Pixley. Although this link will take you directly to the Black Okies' page, you should check out some of the other, amazing, photographic art created by this talented man.

Tom Willey

Tom is interested in all aspects of Central California agriculture and has joined me several times to visits to South Dos Palos & Teviston.

If you're interested in organic produce, contact Tom.

He also hosts a monthly program on Valley agriculture on KFCF.

Boley, Oklahoma: The All-Black Town that Fought Back Against Pretty Boy Floyd's Gangsters

Nice short article about one of Oklahoma's best known African American Settlements

News Coverage of Black Settlements

Drought In Calif. Creates Water Wars Between Farmers, Developers, Residents (NPR interview with Mark Arax)
Photographer Captures Drought Turning California Farms Into Kingdom of Dust (National Geographic Article featuring the photos of Matt Black)

As Water Cut Details Trickle In, African Americans Get Set (Sacramento Observer)
How the Drought is Impacting California's Black Families (TakePart.com)

Campuses

The following links will take you to the home pages of the colleges and universities where I teach or have taught.

Community Colleges

Fresno City College
Merced College
Clovis Community College (formerly Willow International)
West Hills Community College Lemoore

Universities

University of California, Merced
California State University, Fresno (aka. Fresno State)
Brandman University (formerly Chapman University)