Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2025
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Pan-African Studies
Degree Program
Pan-African Studies, MA
Committee Chair
Pumphrey, Shelby
Committee Member
Logan, Kossi
Committee Member
Jamison, Felicia
Author's Keywords
Black children’s histories; urban policing; juvenile justice; school to confinement pathways; representations of Black life; participatory archives
Abstract
This study examines the (mis)representation of Black urban childhood in the United States and proposes a framework for Black children’s inclusion in historical narratives. Black children have been excluded from constructs of childhood innocence, justifying violence against Black children and perpetuating anti-Black social hierarchies. This study builds on the work of Saidiya Hartman, advocating for a critical approach to studying, archiving, and understanding Black childhood through the lenses of region, race, age, and gender. Using the participatory digital archive Preserve the Baltimore Uprising as a case study, the research explores Black children’s presence and contributions during the 2015 Baltimore Uprising. I analyze the archive's materials to uncover a spectrum of agency and representation reflecting tensions between adult-centric narratives and youth-authored perspectives, structural power dynamics shaping Black childhood, and the potential of participatory methods to challenge archival practices that produce silences in the histories of Black childhood.
Recommended Citation
Ruffin, Ameena Basheera X, "Black childhood in focus: Counter-histories of Black urban childhood in preserve the Baltimore uprising, a 21st century digital participatory archive." (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4535.
Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4535
