11/06/2025
By David Joyner
The College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by David Joyner on a thesis titled, “Voices of the Vote: Stories of Black Citizens in Arkansas During and After Reconstruction.”
Candidate Name: Charles David Joyner
Degree: Master’s
Defense Date: Monday, Nov. 17, 2025
Time: 2 - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Allen House 107 and by Zoom (Email candidate and/or advisor for link)
Thesis/Dissertation Title: “Voices of the Vote: Stories of Black Citizens in Arkansas During and After Reconstruction.”
Committee:
- dann j. Broyld, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History, UMass Lowell (advisor)
- Robert Forrant, Ph.D. Distinguished University Professor, History, UMass Lowell
- Christoph Strobel, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, History, UMass Lowell
Abstract:
The interviews by Federal Writers’ Project canvassers with formerly enslaved people in Arkansas from 1936 to 1938 uniquely addressed Black citizenship and voting, even if in limited ways. Collectively these accounts offered testimony not just of the Southern system of slavery but of freed people who used the franchise to support Black political interests and office holders, as well as the coercive, violent and eventually legal attempts to suppress these citizens and their votes.
The research described in this thesis identified interviews in the Arkansas collection speaking to Black citizenship stories, as well as their contributions to the historical record of two major periods — Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era. This paper explores evidence of Black political success; witness accounts of the violence faced by Black citizens during Reconstruction and afterward; voting habits; the rationale given by people who chose not to vote; as well as a significant portion of interviews addressing women’s suffrage. This thesis also explores the geography of these stories in light of a significant migration in the aftermath of the Civil War.