{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86464"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86464","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Jim Crow in Blue: Policing While Black in Postwar New York City","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["De Senso, Justin"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Nightingale, Carl","Transnational Studies - American Studies"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T17:22:41Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T17:22:41Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z","subjects":["African American studies","American history","American studies"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86464","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Nightingale, Carl","Transnational Studies - American Studies"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["De Senso, Justin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T17:22:41Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["African American studies","American history","American studies"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86464"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Jim Crow in Blue is an interdisciplinary exploration of the lives of African American police officers in postwar New York City. Grounded in my eight years of fellowship with retired and on-duty NYPD officers, the project draws from personal interviews and archival materials public and private to examine postwar African American NYPD life and labor. As hiring African American officers became a national priority in the 1960s, black NYPD officers faced anti-black racism that structured their careers and everyday lives—a \"Jim Crow in blue.\" In response, African American officers often blurred the lines between official duties and the broader struggle for racial justice. All the while, black officers crafted and maintained anti-racist commitments on and off the clock, ultimately providing a sense of purpose and hope within the Jim Crow North’s largest police force. Weaving together critical race theory, popular culture analysis, black freedom studies historiography, memoir, film, TV, oral history, and archival research, the first three chapters peel back the layers of \"policing while black\" in postwar New York City. The final two chapters focus on individual officer experiences, particularly those who worked on the NYPD's Preventative Enforcement Patrol Squad and served as members of the NYPD Guardians Association. This dissertation contributes to the field of black freedom studies in three ways. First, by telling African American police history from the bottom-up and recognizing black officers as political actors, Jim Crow in Blue makes a place for African American law enforcement at the black freedom studies table—a growing literature that continues to expand civil rights movement narratives. Second, by understanding black officers as workers and activists, this dissertation argues that the promise and limitations of policing while black continue to be both products of and strategic tools for the broader work of freedom. Third, this project adds to understandings of African American law enforcement as \"dilemmas,\" namely the challenges that black police face in the African American community as both saviors and race traitors. While acknowledging such dilemmas, the project explores how black cops manage the entirety of their professional and personal lives, as workers in majority white and often hostile workplaces, as members of experimental units of color, and as activists in the long civil rights movement.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Jim Crow in Blue: Policing While Black in Postwar New York City"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Nightingale, Carl","Transnational Studies - American Studies"],"dc:creator":["De Senso, Justin"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T17:22:41Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Jim Crow in Blue is an interdisciplinary exploration of the lives of African American police officers in postwar New York City. Grounded in my eight years of fellowship with retired and on-duty NYPD officers, the project draws from personal interviews and archival materials public and private to examine postwar African American NYPD life and labor. As hiring African American officers became a national priority in the 1960s, black NYPD officers faced anti-black racism that structured their careers and everyday lives—a \"Jim Crow in blue.\" In response, African American officers often blurred the lines between official duties and the broader struggle for racial justice. All the while, black officers crafted and maintained anti-racist commitments on and off the clock, ultimately providing a sense of purpose and hope within the Jim Crow North’s largest police force. Weaving together critical race theory, popular culture analysis, black freedom studies historiography, memoir, film, TV, oral history, and archival research, the first three chapters peel back the layers of \"policing while black\" in postwar New York City. The final two chapters focus on individual officer experiences, particularly those who worked on the NYPD's Preventative Enforcement Patrol Squad and served as members of the NYPD Guardians Association. This dissertation contributes to the field of black freedom studies in three ways. First, by telling African American police history from the bottom-up and recognizing black officers as political actors, Jim Crow in Blue makes a place for African American law enforcement at the black freedom studies table—a growing literature that continues to expand civil rights movement narratives. Second, by understanding black officers as workers and activists, this dissertation argues that the promise and limitations of policing while black continue to be both products of and strategic tools for the broader work of freedom. Third, this project adds to understandings of African American law enforcement as \"dilemmas,\" namely the challenges that black police face in the African American community as both saviors and race traitors. While acknowledging such dilemmas, the project explores how black cops manage the entirety of their professional and personal lives, as workers in majority white and often hostile workplaces, as members of experimental units of color, and as activists in the long civil rights movement.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86464"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["African American studies","American history","American studies"],"dc:title":["Jim Crow in Blue: Policing While Black in Postwar New York City"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z"}