The University of North Texas Libraries invite applications for the 2016 The Portal to Texas History Research Fellowship. Research using the Portal is relevant to studies in a variety of disciplines including history, journalism, political science, geography, and American studies. We encourage applicants to think creatively about the opportunities that research with large digital library collections can enable. Preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate the greatest potential for publication and the best use of The Portal to Texas History.

The Portal to Texas History 2016 Research Fellowship Awardee

David J. Cameron

Project Title

Race and Religion in the Bayou City: Latino/a, African American, and Anglo Baptists in Houston’s Long Civil Rights Movement​

Project Description

In his dissertation, “Race and Religion in the Bayou City: Latino/a, African American, and Anglo Baptists in Houston’s Long Civil Rights Movement,” David J. Cameron examines how the intersections of race and religion in the Bayou City shaped Houston-area Baptists’ participation in the struggle for civil rights through religious associations, churches, and leaders. This examination reveals how African American and Mexican American Baptists have resisted and challenged racial inequality in the twentieth century, as well as how those in power have at times used religion to uphold and protect white privilege and inequality.

Biography

David J. Cameron is a doctoral candidate in Chicano/Latino and Twentieth-Century United States History at Texas A&M University in College Station. He is currently writing his dissertation, “Race and Religion in the Bayou City: Latino/a, African American, and Anglo Baptists in Houston’s Long Civil Rights Movement,” which he will defend in the spring of 2017. His research on the intersections of race and religion in Chicano/Latino, African American, Southwestern, Texas, and Southern history has appeared in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly and Baptist History and Heritage. He has presented on these themes at the annual meetings of the Western History Association and the Texas State Historical Association, as well as the Third Bi-Annual Sal Castro Memorial Conference on Chicano Movement Historiography at UC-Santa Barbara.