Spencer D. Wood, Kansas State University

Thanks for visiting my weebly web page. Here, you can find information about my research interests and academic training. To see my CV click on "Vitae." For more information about my courses, my current research projects, and how to contact me, look to the right or scroll to the bottom of the page.

I have been interested for some time in the Black Land movement and especially encourage you to follow links and find out more about it. Black Land Loss is a considerable problem. As Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro have recently brought to our attention in their important book, Black Wealth/White Wealth, income discrepancies have declined but wealth inequalities have worsened between Blacks and Whites. A portion of this inequality pertains to African-American owned land.

I have worked on several significant research efforts, especially in establishing a Fund for Rural America Center on Minority Land Security (see my C.V.). I have also written about the decline of African-American farmers (see Who Owns the Land?: Agricultural Land Ownership by Race/Ethnicity and Returning African-American Farmers to the Land: Recent Trends and a Policy Rationale). Several of my other papers pertain to historical efforts to combat Black Land Loss.

My dissertation explores the importance of land ownership in Mileston, MS an African-American New Deal Resettlement Community in the Mississippi Delta. In particular, I explore how land ownership fostered civic growth contributing to Mileston's significant role in the Mississippi civil rights movement.

In addition to these interests my collaborative work with Ricardo Samuel concerns the culture and the development of a black transnational identity in Memphis beginning in the 1930s, see the links to the right.

Please feel free to contact me, sdwood AT ksu DOT edu, if you have any comments or questions. Again, thank you for taking the time to visit my site.

Civil Rights Action Team Report, USDA

The 1997 CRAT Report of the USDA documented significant civil rights violations on the part of the Department in its treatment of both clients and employees of color. Unfortunately the report is not available in electronic form from the USDA. I have scanned the report in and make it available here for your use. Below and via Black Farmers and Black Landowners tab above, you can access this important report. Please check back as I intend to also digitize the 1982 Civil Rights Commission Report with its similar findings.

Civil Rights at the USDA, Part One

Civil Rights at the USDA, Part Two (Appendices)

Current Projects and Recent Pubs

"History as Community-Based Research and the Pedagogy of Discovery: Teaching Racial Inequality, Documenting Local History, and Building Links Between Students and Communities in Mississippi and Tennessee," with Ricardo Samuel, 2012, Journal of Rural Social Science, 27:2:32-49.

"Grass Tops Democracy: Institutional Discrimination in the Civil Rights Violations of Black Farmers," with Cheryl R. Ragar. 2012, Journal of Pan African Studies, 5:6(Sept)16-36.

"Black Farmers United: The Struggle Against Powers and Principalities." March 2012, Journal of Pan African Studies, with Gary R. Grant and Willie J. Wright.

"He Was Non-Violent, But My Boys Weren't": The Hegemonic Myth of Non-Violence and the Construction of a Black Identity." December 2010, Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies, with Ricardo Samuel

Black Power and Uncle Sam: The New Deal Origins of Black Power in Mississippi

Harlem on the Mississippi: Race and Black Culture in Memphis, 1930-1970, with Ricardo Samuel, two flash files below tell more about the project

Black Harvest: Sowing Seeds of Democracy in the Rural South Through State Experimentation, with Jess Gilbert (University of Wisconsin)

Urban Agriculture, Building Civic Community, and Challenging Health Disparities in Kansas City, KS, with Laszlo Kulcsar, Nozella Brown, and Cultivate Kansas City.

Course Material

Sociology 822, Intro. to Quantitative Methods
Sociology 823, Intermediate Graduate Methods
Sociology 841, Social Stratification
Sociology 901, Racial Inequality
Sociology 520, Social Research Methods
Sociology 541, Wealth, Power, and Privilege
Racism, Violence, and the Civil Rights Movement
The Political Economy of Food

Course Information

If your are taking or interested in taking a course with me at Kansas State University:

Log on to KState Online.
See Syllabus under Course/Information
Or, see links above for pdfs of recent syllabi

Contact

204 Waters Hall, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506

785.532.7178

Xsdwood AT ksu DOT edu (remove the X before sending email).