Dr Mark Newman (BA, MA, PhD, FRHistS, FHEA)

Reader

Biography

Background

I received my PhD from the University of Mississippi and am a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Higher Education Academy. My book Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945-1995 won the Lillian Smith Book Award for nonfiction from the Southern Regional Council, the American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies, and the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize from the University of Alabama Press, and the book Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992 the American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies.  My article "The Catholic Church in Mississippi and Desegregation, 1963 - 1973" won the Willie D Halsell Prize from the Mississippi Historical Society, the article "Toward 'Blessings of Liberty and Justice': The Catholic Church in North Carolina and Desegregation, 1945-1974" received the R. D. W. Connor Award of the Historical Society of North Carolina, and the article "The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and Desegregation, 1945-1984" won the Paul Foik Award from the Texas Catholic Historical Society.

Responsibilities & affiliations

I serve on the Edinburgh University Press Committee.

Undergraduate teaching

  • The American South since the Civil War (Option)
  • Black Nationalism in America (Option)
  • The American Civil Rights Movement (Senior Hons)
  • History in Practice (Hons)
  • Historical Skills and Methods I (Hons)
  • Historical Skills and Methods II (Hons)

Postgraduate teaching

  • Themes in American Historiography (Postgraduate)
  • The Civil Rights Movement (Postgraduate - Option)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

The Civil Rights Movement, black nationalism, African American history and the history of the twentieth-century US South.

Past PhD students supervised

Name - Degree - Thesis topic - Supervision type - Completion year

  • Hingorani, Avinash - PhD - A Clash of Color: A Dialogue on Race, Caste, and Class in the United States and India (1893-1954) - Secondary - 2022

  • Batho, Nick - PhD - Black, Black, Beautiful Black: The Educational Use of African American Children's Literature in New York City, 1965-1979 - Co-Supervisor - 2021

  • Thomas, Amber - PhD - "God Has a Plan for Your Life": Personalized Life Providence (PLP) in Postwar American Evangelism - Secondary - 2018

  • Brown, Christopher - MScR - Primary -      - 2006

  • Burns, Adam - MScR - An Imperial Vision: William Howard Taft and the Philippines, 1900-1921 - Primary - 2006

Research summary

Places: 

  • United States

Themes: 

  • African American History
  • The African American Civil Rights Movement
  • Black Nationalism in the United States
  • Catholics and Desegregation in the U.S. South
  • White Southern Baptists and Desegregation in the U.S. South

Periods: 

  • Twentieth Century

Research interests

Twentieth century United States: African American history, the civil rights movement, and religion and race relations in the U.S. South.

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

Louisiana Catholics and Desegregation, 1945-1976 

Books

Mark Newman, Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018).  

Mark Newman, Black Nationalism in American History: From the Nineteenth Century to the Million Man March (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018).

Mark Newman, The Civil Rights Movement (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).

Mark Newman, Divine Agitators: The Delta Ministry and Civil Rights in Mississippi (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 2004).

Mark Newman, Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945-1995 (Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press, 2001).

 

Edited books

Mark Newman, Co-editor with Suzanne W. Jones, Poverty and Progress in the US South since 1920 (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 2006).

 

Articles, book chapters and other publications

Mark Newman, “Father August L. Thompson and the Struggle for Racial Justice in Louisiana and Catholicism,” Louisiana History (forthcoming).

Mark Newman,  "Father Albert J. McKnight, C.S.Sp., and the Struggle for Racial and Economic Justice in the South," Louisiana History 65, no. 3 (Summer 2024): 319-55.

Mark Newman, "The Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 through the Eyes of Freedom Summer's Northern Clergymen."  In Facets of the American South: Essays on a Peculiar Region.  Ed. Gérald Préher and Frédérique Spill, Biblioteca Javier Coy d’estudis nord-americans.  Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, 2024, pp. 175-92.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Diocese of Lafayette and Desegregation, 1947-1972," Louisiana History 64, no. 2 (Spring 2023): 121-76.

Mark Newman,  "‘Racial discrimination can in no way be justified’: The Vatican and Desegregation in the South, 1946-1968," Journal of American Studies 56, no. 5 (December 2022): 665-98.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Way: The Catholic Diocese of Dallas and Desegregation, 1945-1971," Journal of American Ethnic History 41, no. 3 (Spring 2022): 5-36.

Mark Newman, "The Southern Field Service of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, 1961-1969," U.S. Catholic Historian 40, no. 1 (Winter 2022): 29-52.

Mark Newman. "Black Nationalism."  In the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History.  Ed. Jon Butler.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Mark Newman, "The Marching Priest: The Civil Rights and Labor Activism of Father Sherrill Smith during the 1950s and 1960s," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 124, no. 3 (January 2021): 300-24.

Mark Newman, “The Catholic Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham and Parochial School Desegregation, 1962-1969,” Alabama Review 74, no. 1 (January 2021): 24-61.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and Desegregation, 1945-1984," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 124, no. 1 (July 2020): 16-48.

Mark Newman, "The Diocese of Savannah and Desegregation, 1935-73," Catholic Historical Review 106, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 282-311.

Mark Newman, "Catholics and the Meredith March in Mississippi," Journal of Mississippi History 80, no. 4 (Fall-Winter 2018): 85-117.

Mark Newman, "The Civil Rights Movement."  In Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies.  Ed. Gene Jarrett.   New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.   

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church and the Selma Protests of March 1965."  In Southern Exposure: Essays Presented to Jan Nordby Gretlund.  Ed. Thomas Ærvold Bjerre, Clara Juncker, and David E. Nye.  Odense: The Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark, 2017, pp. 105-17.

Mark Newman, "Delta Ministry."  In The Mississippi Encyclopedia.  Ed. Ted Ownby, Charles R. Wilson, Ann J. Abadie, Odie Lindsey and James G. Thomas.  Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017. 

Mark Newman, "Freedom City."  In The Mississippi Encyclopedia.  Ed. Ted Ownby, Charles R. Wilson, Ann J. Abadie, Odie Lindsey and James G. Thomas.  Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017.  

Mark Newman, "Religion and Civil Rights."  In The Mississippi Encyclopedia.  Ed. Ted Ownby, Charles R. Wilson, Ann J. Abadie, Odie Lindsey and James G. Thomas.  Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017. 

Mark Newman, "The Arkansas Religious Community’s Response to Desegregation," Digital Exhibition, "Confronting the Crisis: The Legacy of Little Rock Central High School," August 2017.

Mark Newman, "Progressive White Catholics in the South and Civil Rights, 1945-1970."  In Unsteadily Marching On: The U.S. in Motion.  Ed. Constante Gonzalez Groba.  Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, 2013, pp. 135-43.

Mark Newman, "Civil Rights Movement."  The Literary Encyclopedia. Online.  First published December 20, 2011.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Diocese of Alexandria and Desegregation, 1946-1973," Louisiana History 52 (Summer 2011): 261-99.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Diocese of Miami and African American Desegregation, 1958-1977," Florida Historical Quarterly 90 (Summer 2011): 61-84.

Mark Newman, "Desegregation of the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, 1950-1974," South Carolina Historical Magazine 112 (January-April 2011): 26-49.

Mark Newman,"Campaigns stretch back many years: the achieved Civil Rights Act, 1964, reduced but did not eliminate discrimination," New Perspective 15 (March 2010): 10-14.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church and Desegregation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, 1961 - 1976," Louisana History 51 (2010): 306-32.

Mark Newman, "Desegregation in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, 1945 - 1973," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 117 (2009): 356-87.

Mark Newman, "Owen Herman Brooks."  In African American National Biography.  Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr, Evelyn Higginbotham.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Mark Newman, "Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer."  In African American National Biography.  Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr, Evelyn Higginbotham.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Mark Newman, "Hazel Brannon Smith: Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist," Mississippi History Now (2008) online.

Mark Newman, "'Toward Blessings of Liberty and Justice': The Catholic Church and Desegregation in North Carolina, 1945-1974," North Carolina Historical Review 85 (July 2008): 317-51.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church in Arkansas and Desegregation, 1946-1988," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 66 (Autumn 2007): 293-319.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church in Tennessee and Desegregation, 1954-1973," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 66 (Summer 2007): 144-65.

Mark Newman, "The Mississippi Freedom Labor Union."  In Poverty and Progress in the US South since 1920.  Ed. Suzanne W Jones and Mark Newman.  Amsterdam: VU University Press, 2006, pp. 133-42.

Mark Newman, "The Catholic Church in Mississippi and Desegregation, 1963-1973," Journal of Mississippi History 67 (Winter 2005): 331-55.

Mark Newman, "Civil Rights and Human Rights," Reviews in American History 32, no. 2 (June 2004): 246-54. 

Mark Newman, "Journalist under Siege: The Life of Hazel Brannon Smith."  In Mississippi Women: Their Histories, Their Lives.  Ed. Martha H. Swain, Elizabeth Anne Payne and Marjorie Julian Spruill.  Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 2003, pp. 220-34.

Mark Newman, "The Louisiana Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1954-1980," Louisiana History 42 (Fall 2001): 389-418.

Mark Newman, "White Minority Culture in the Southern States of the USA: the Southern Baptist Example."  In The Politics of Identity: Migrants and Minorities in Multicultural States.  Ed. Robert Hudson and Fred Réno.  Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000, pp. 83-111.

Mark Newman, "The Georgia Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1945-1980," Georgia Historical Quarterly 83 (Winter 1999): 683-711.

Mark Newman, "The Florida Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1954-1980," Florida Historical Quarterly 78, no. 1 (Summer 1999): 1-22.

Mark Newman, "The Alabama Baptist State Convention and Desegregation, 1954-1980," Alabama Baptist Historian 35, no.2 (July 1999): 3-40.

Mark Newman, "The Baptist State Convention of South Carolina and Desegregation, 1954-1971," Baptist History and Heritage 34, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 56-72.

Mark Newman, "The Tennessee Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1954-1980", Tennessee Historical Quarterly 57, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 236-57.

Mark Newman, "The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and Desegregation, 1945-1980,"  North Carolina Historical Review 75, no.1 (January 1998): 1-28.

Mark Newman, "Protestantism: Denominational Histories."  In Reader's Guide to American History.  Ed. Peter J. Parish.  Cambridge: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. 

Mark Newman, "The Arkansas Baptist State Convention and Desegregation, 1954-1968," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 56, no. 3 (Autumn 1997): 294-313.

Mark Newman, "The Baptist General Association of Virginia and Desegregation, 1931-1980," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 105, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 257-86.

Mark Newman, "The Mississippi Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1945-1980," Journal of Mississippi History 59, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 1-31.

Mark Newman, "Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945-1980."  In Southern Landscapes, Transatlantic Perspectives 7.  Ed. Tony Badger, Walter Edgar and J. Norby Gretland.  Tübingen: Staffenburg Verlag, 1996, pp. 182-203.

Mark Newman, "Southern Baptists and the Civil Rights Movement in recent historical literature," Over here 14, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 61-69.

Mark Newman, "Hazel Brannon Smith and Holmes County, Mississippi, 1936-1964: The Making of a Pulitzer Prize Winner," Journal of Mississippi History 54, no. 1 (February 1992): 59-87.

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