Cecilia Márquez

This dissertation traces the history of Latino/as in the US South during the demise of Jim Crow segregation. This project uses social history, oral history, and cultural and visual analysis to examine the lives of Latino/as in civil rights organizing, military service, and labor, and their representation in television, film, and food advertising. Overall, it shows that a black/not-black racial order characterized the US South in this period. Latino/as saw a shift in how they were treated as they grew in demographic size, while anti-black racism remained firmly entrenched. This project, therefore, emphasizes the permeable nature of whiteness and the centrality of blackness in anchoring racial hierarchies.