A Case Study on the Role of Miles College in Preparing African American Leaders During the Birmingham Freedom Movement, 1960-1962

The purpose of this case study dissertation is to investigate leadership styles of some leading faculty and students at Miles College, as well as key community women activists in the nearby community, from 1960 through 1962, crucial years of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The Birmingham freedom movement, also known as the Birmingham civil rights movement, led to nationwide expansion of African-American political and social rights, and it ultimately sparked movements with similar aspirations around the world. Since its founding in 1898, Miles College has had principles of leadership interwoven into its fabric. During the climactic years of 1960 to 1963 in Birmingham, the leaders of Miles College---students, faculty, and the new president---emerged as creative and courageous community leaders.;This study shows that Miles produced and supported civic, political, educational, and community leaders who demonstrated components of adaptive, authentic, servant, and transforming/transformational leadership. These components served to position Miles College as an institution that functioned as a solid community leader, able to endure multiple challenges and develop leadership through crisis.;A qualitative case study research design is used to explore how Miles College was instrumental in the leadership development of African American students and several faculty members who assumed leadership roles in the Birmingham movement. The qualitative case study, as conceptualized by Sharan Merriam, author of Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education (1998), is an "intensive, holistic description and analysis of a bounded phenomenon such as a program, an institution, a person, a process or a social unit" (Yazan, 139, Merriam p. xiii). This case study approach is appropriate for the research on Miles College. The sample for this study includes faculty and student activists of Miles College, along with the college president, who served in leadership roles on the campus and throughout greater Birmingham. Data collection involved: (a) previously recorded interviews; (b) the reviewing of archival data; and (c) autobiographical written material, including seminal works on the Birmingham Civil Rights movement. Summative content analysis was used in order to generate themes.;Keywords: Miles College, Civil Rights Movement, Birmingham Freedom Movement, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), adaptation, resiliency, leadership, boycott, segregation, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), adaptive leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, transforming and transformational leadership, leadership theories.