Black-white inequality through the lens of race, class, and gender in North Texas, 1880-1940

Utilizing the three-article format, this dissertation examines the severe inequalities related to race, class, and gender in North Texas from 1880 to 1940. The unifying theme of all three articles is the ways in which inequality was enforced in Black-White relations, including the role of creating and maintaining mainstream cultural memories. Each article investigates a different aspect of Black-White inequality and, while relating to the unifying theme, makes distinct contributions. The first article is a socio-historic examination of anti-Black police violence in North Texas from 1880 to 1930. Patterns of official dereliction of duty, misconduct, abuse, and murder are revealed to have had not only racial elements, but gendered and classed elements as well. The second article takes a comparative approach to a nonviolent community removal in Denton, Texas, and an extraordinarily violent destruction of a community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, both of which targeted economically successful Black neighborhoods and both of which were perpetrated by White Supremacists. Variations in Black resistance and the construction of local cultural memory are also explored. The third article documents experiences with inequality by Black women and girls in North Texas from 1900 to 1940. When read together, these three articles reveal a complex exercise of raced, classed, and gendered power in a region that is often overlooked and understudied.