From Cotton Fields to University Leadership

From Cotton Fields to University Leadership PDF

Author: Charlie Nelms

Publisher:

Published: 2019-05

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0253040191

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Charlie Nelms had audaciously big dreams. Growing up black in the Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s, working in cotton fields, and living in poverty, Nelms dared to dream that he could do more with his life than work for white plantation owners sun-up to sun-down. Inspired by his parents, who first dared to dream that they could own their own land and have the right to vote, Nelms chose education as his weapon of choice for fighting racism and inequality. With hard work, determination, and the critical assistance of mentors who counseled him along the way, he found his way from the cotton fields of Arkansas to university leadership roles. Becoming the youngest and the first African American chancellor of a predominately white institution in Indiana, he faced tectonic changes in higher education during those ensuing decades of globalization, growing economic disparity, and political divisiveness. From Cotton Fields to University Leadership is an uplifting story about the power of education, the impact of community and mentorship, and the importance of dreaming big.

From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse

From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse PDF

Author: Christopher M. Span

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1469601338

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In the years immediately following the Civil War--the formative years for an emerging society of freed African Americans in Mississippi--there was much debate over the general purpose of black schools and who would control them. From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse is the first comprehensive examination of Mississippi's politics and policies of postwar racial education. The primary debate centered on whether schools for African Americans (mostly freedpeople) should seek to develop blacks as citizens, train them to be free but subordinate laborers, or produce some other outcome. African Americans envisioned schools established by and for themselves as a primary means of achieving independence, equality, political empowerment, and some degree of social and economic mobility--in essence, full citizenship. Most northerners assisting freedpeople regarded such expectations as unrealistic and expected African Americans to labor under contract for those who had previously enslaved them and their families. Meanwhile, many white Mississippians objected to any educational opportunities for the former slaves. Christopher Span finds that newly freed slaves made heroic efforts to participate in their own education, but too often the schooling was used to control and redirect the aspirations of the newly freed.

The New College President

The New College President PDF

Author: Terrence J. MacTaggart

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2024-08-13

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1421448696

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Think you know what it takes to be an effective leader in higher education? You might be surprised. Think you know what it takes to be an effective leader in higher education? You might be surprised. Why is it so difficult to find and hire college and university presidents? Perhaps search committees are recruiting in all the wrong places. In The New College President, Terrence J. MacTaggart and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran share the stories of seven exceptional presidents from diverse backgrounds. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, these vivid, deeply researched narratives depict the life stories and academic careers of university presidents whose unconventional backgrounds helped them grow into uniquely qualified leaders. The university presidents whom MacTaggart and Wilson-Oyelaran profile exhibit strengths of character and perspective developed through a range of challenging life experiences. Personal qualities like grit, resilience, compassion, and intercultural competence—along with academic credibility—contribute to their effectiveness as chief executives and are critical to presidential success in a fraught era of higher education. MacTaggart and Wilson-Oyelaran, who developed a "forensic" model for improving presidential searches that requires a much deeper look into personal leadership strengths and weaknesses than is typical in current search practices, are uniquely qualified to write this book. They present a fresh perspective on higher education leadership and actionable recommendations to improve presidential searches while arguing that a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is not just a moral imperative, but a valuable opportunity to recruit extraordinary leaders. Featuring Jeffrey Bullock, Waded Cruzado, Mary Dana Hinton, Freeman Hrabowski III, Robert Jones, Kwang-Wu Kim, and Mary Marcy

Cattle in the Cotton Fields

Cattle in the Cotton Fields PDF

Author: Brooks Blevins

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2014-04

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0817357718

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Blevins's study increases our understanding of the history of southern agriculture by providing a valuable model of a story repeated throughout the South.

Ebony

Ebony PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2002-09

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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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.

Having My Say

Having My Say PDF

Author: Charlie Nelms

Publisher:

Published: 2018-08-16

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781719910576

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From a national leader in higher education diversity and equity comes a timely collection of compelling reflections on giving, leading, changing, and advancing. Charlie Nelms grew up as one of 11 children in the Arkansas Delta with parents who believed in education, voting, and land ownership. His parents never had the opportunity to graduate high school, but their faith in the power of education never wavered. They told Charlie and his siblings that they could grow up to be anything they wanted. The reality of apartheid-style racism said otherwise. Segregated schools and "Whites Only" jobs, hotels, restaurants, waiting rooms, restrooms, and water fountains were as common as air. While working in the cotton fields as a young boy, Charlie dreamt of a better life. Due to the deliberate racism of the time, he was among the countless Blacks who received inadequate college preparation. Despite low scores on standardized tests, Charlie graduated from an Historically Black College and University in three years and served as student government president. He went "up North" to earn his master's in College Student Personnel and Higher Education and his doctorate in Higher Education Administration from Indiana University. Charlie was among the first Blacks appointed chancellor of a predominately white university; a university chancellor in Indiana, Michigan, and North Carolina; and vice president of the IU system. He has more than 40 years of experience and leadership in student access, retention, and graduation; institutional effectiveness; and strategic planning. His blogs on these and many other issues, ranging from the personal to the political, have been widely read on the Huffington Post, HBCU Lifestyles, and other influential websites. Charlie's authentic passion for positive social change has made him a highly-sought speaker around the world. He has brought messages of hope and opportunity by sharing his personal story and by mentoring untold numbers of students and faculty, many of whom have gone on to serve as college presidents. In Having My Say: Reflections of a Black Baby Boomer, Charlie shares invaluable insights gleaned from his leadership journey that has taken him from the cotton fields to university board rooms and beyond. His memoir, All Eyes on Charlie, will be published by Indiana University Press.

Leading in a Culture of Change

Leading in a Culture of Change PDF

Author: Michael Fullan

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2007-02-02

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0787987662

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"At the very time the need for effective leadership is reaching critical proportions, Michael Fullan's Leading in a Culture of Change provides powerful insights for moving forward. We look forward to sharing it with our grantees." --Tom Vander Ark, executive director, Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "Fullan articulates clearly the core values and practices of leadership required at all levels of the organization. Using specific examples, he convinces us that the key change principles are equally critical for leadership in business and education organizations." --John Evans, chairman, Torstar Corporation "In Leading in a Culture of Change, Michael Fullan deftly combines his expertise in school reform with the latest insights in organizational change and leadership. The result is a compelling and insightful exposition on how leaders in any setting can bring about lasting, positive, systemic change in their organizations." --John Alexander, president, Center for Creative Leadership "Michael Fullan's work is remarkable. He masterfully captures how leaders can significantly improve their learning and performance, even in the uncontrollable, chaotic circumstances in which they practice. A tour de force." --Anthony Alvarado, chancellor of instruction, San Diego City Schools "Too often schools and businesses are seen as separate and foreign places. Michael Fullan blends the best of knowledge from each into an exemplary template for improving leadership in both." --Terrence E. Deal, coauthor of Leading with Soul Business, nonprofit, and public sector leaders are facing new and daunting challenges--rapid-paced developments in technology, sudden shifts in the marketplace, and crisis and contention in the public arena. If they are to survive in this chaotic environment, leaders must develop the skills they need to lead effectively no matter how fast the world around them is changing. Leading in a Culture of Change offers new and seasoned leaders' insights into the dynamics of change and presents a unique and imaginative approach for navigating the intricacies of the change process. Michael Fullan--an internationally acclaimed expert in organizational change--shows how leaders in all types of organizations can accomplish their goals and become exceptional leaders. He draws on the most current ideas and theories on the topic of effective leadership, incorporates case examples of large scale transformation, and reveals a remarkable convergence of powerful themes or, as he calls them, the five core competencies. By integrating the five core competencies--attending to a broader moral purpose, keeping on top of the change process, cultivating relationships, sharing knowledge, and setting a vision and context for creating coherence in organizations--leaders will be empowered to deal with complex change. They will be transformed into exceptional leaders who consistently mobilize their compatriots to do important and difficult work under conditions of constant change.

Cotton and Race in the Making of America

Cotton and Race in the Making of America PDF

Author: Gene Dattel

Publisher: Government Institutes

Published: 2009-09-16

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1442210192

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Since the earliest days of colonial America, the relationship between cotton and the African-American experience has been central to the history of the republic. America's most serious social tragedy, slavery and its legacy, spread only where cotton could be grown. Both before and after the Civil War, blacks were assigned to the cotton fields while a pervasive racial animosity and fear of a black migratory invasion caused white Northerners to contain blacks in the South. Gene Dattel's pioneering study explores the historical roots of these most central social issues. In telling detail Mr. Dattel shows why the vastly underappreciated story of cotton is a key to understanding America's rise to economic power. When cotton production exploded to satiate the nineteenth-century textile industry's enormous appetite, it became the first truly complex global business and thereby a major driving force in U.S. territorial expansion and sectional economic integration. It propelled New York City to commercial preeminence and fostered independent trade between Europe and the United States, providing export capital for the new nation to gain its financial "sea legs" in the world economy. Without slave-produced cotton, the South could never have initiated the Civil War, America's bloodiest conflict at home. Mr. Dattel's skillful historical analysis identifies the commercial forces that cotton unleashed and the pervasive nature of racial antipathy it produced. This is a story that has never been told in quite the same way before, related here with the authority of a historian with a profound knowledge of the history of international finance. With 23 black-and-white illustrations.