This dissertation examines Black city managers in the State of Texas, specifically how these individuals became city managers, and what challenges, barriers, and obstacles they encountered while reaching and serving in these positions. The dissertation utilizes semi-structured surveys and narrative inquiry to determine whether, and if so, how the conflict between professional and community norms influences their career paths and choices. These stories demonstrate how outside factors and dynamics shape career paths and city managers' performance of their duties. The result of this process found that Black city managers have educational backgrounds similar to their White counterparts, and they mostly followed the ladder climber career path.

Career Paths of African American Directors is a collection of in-depth conversations with African American directors. These conversations provide an insightful overview of the interviewees’ work and artistic vision and explore their personal influences, aesthetic philosophies, directorial styles, and some of the creative successes they achieved while navigating the obstacles, challenges, and biases encountered while establishing their careers in American theatre. The directors are presented with similar core questions as well as pertinent questions related to their own aesthetics, philosophy, and career. Often, these selected directors’ productions are grounded in a non-European aesthetic and philosophy, and their directorial styles are refracted through the prisms of ethnicity, gender, race, and culture, thus bringing a fresh approach to their work and the art of directing. Career Paths of African American Directors will be of interest to actors, early career and established directors, and students of Acting, Directing, and Theatre Studies.

The field of public administration holds social equity and inclusiveness as a core administrative value, but African American voices in the discourse about the theory and practice of public administration have been ignored all too often. This book is the first to formally chronicle the evolution of the field of public administration in the United States through desegregation, equal opportunity, affirmative action, diversity/multiculturalism, and presumptions about a "post-racial" society, incorporating African American contributions to public policy-making and implementation at every stage. As long as the "post-racial" America myth continues to influence the design, development, and implementation of public policies, African American perspectives need to be reconsidered as a legitimate and important focus of public administration’s theoretical and practical framework. Focusing on the lives and profound contributions of several unsung but seminal African American public administrators, accompanied by personal accounts of perseverance and detailed descriptions of unique approaches used for social change, this book demonstrates the intellectual, academic, and pragmatic evolution of these leaders as they built careers in their discipline and blazed the trail for those to come. Authors Beverly C. Edmond and Ron W. Finnell demonstrate how these pioneers extended the very definition of the enterprise of public administration through their movements between the intersecting worlds of academia, practice, social movements, and community activism. Trailblazing African American Public Administrators serves as a timely practical, social, and historical teaching text for graduate and undergraduate courses in Public Administration, Public Management, Public Affairs, and Human Resource Management.

EBONY is the flagship magazine of Johnson Publishing. Founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, it still maintains the highest global circulation of any African American-focused magazine.

Named to the shortlist for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award in the Women in Business Category Addressing gender alone won't help women rise to the top. Although women come from widely diverse backgrounds, they share a common assumption upon entering the workforce: "I have a chance." Along the way, however, they discover that people question their authority, challenge their intelligence, and discount their ideas. And while gender is a common denominator among these women, race and class are often wedges between them. In Our Separate Ways, Ella Bell Smith and Stella M. Nkomo take an unflinching look at the surprising differences between Black and White women's trials and triumphs on their way to the top. Based on groundbreaking research, the book compares and contrasts the experiences of 120 Black and White female managers in America. Powerful stories bring to life the women's often difficult journeys from childhood to professional success, highlighting the roles that gender, race, and class played in their development. Now with an updated preface and epilogue, the book provides candid discussions of the continuing challenge of achieving race and gender equality in the midst of deep political and ideological divides. You'll discover how White women have—perhaps unwittingly—aligned themselves more often with White men than with Black women and how systemic racism and biases still exist in organizations. But you’ll also learn what to do to leverage the talents of all women and eliminate systemic racism for good. Whether you lead an organization or simply want to better understand the dynamics at play in business today, you'll discover provocative ideas for creating a better workplace and encouraging equality for everyone.

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