Gulf South Historical Association Fellows

2010-Mr. Randall Broxton

Randall Broxton is a history professor at Pensacola State College where he has been employed for many years.  Professor Broxton is listed in the Directory of American Scholars, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who Among America’s Educators.  He is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an honor society in education.  He is active in the Pensacola Historical Society, Florida Historical Society, Gulf Breeze Historical Society, Bagdad Village Preservation Association, White House Historical Society, Southern Historical Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Santa Rosa Historical Society, Atlanta Historical Society, and many others. He is a founder of the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference (1968) and has served as president of this organization. Broxton is the founder and sponsor of the Jared Sparks Historical Society of PSC (1994).  He is a member of the Academy of Teaching Excellence at Pensacola State College. Among his publications is The History of the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference. He speaks across the southeast and enjoys meeting people. Presenting at the Chautauqua Assembly in De Funiak Springs is one of his favorite activities.

rbroxton@pensacolastate.edu  l  484-1099 l History/Language/Philosophy Department l 1000 College Blvd.; Pensacola, FL 32504

2012- Dr. Mike Thomason

University of South Alabama Emeritus Professor of History Dr. Michael Thomason was born in West Palm Beach, Florida an awfully long time ago (actually 1942), He received his BA from Sewanee in 1964. After earning his PhD from Duke on 1968 he came to Mobile in 1970 to teach at the university. During his 36 years there he taught various courses in History, edited The Gulf South Historical Review for all of its 21 year life, published several books on Alabama and Mobile and in 1978 founded the USA Archives. He has been active in The Gulf South History Association since the 1970’s.  He has served as its president on occasion and participated in its annual meetings on a regular basis. He retired in 2006 but still lives in Mobile and writes for Mobile Bay magazine, and does book reviews for several publications from time to time.

2013- Dr. Sam Hyde 

Position: Director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies; Professor of History, Leon Ford Endowed Chair in Regional Studies 

 Fields of Study: Old and New US South, Patterns of Rural Violence, Antebellum Society and Culture, Southern Politics

Classes usually taught: Old US South, New US South, Colonial US, Graduate Seminar, Ancient China and East Asia, Modern China and East Asia, Local and Regional History

Office phone number: 985-549-2151

E-mail:shyde@selu.edu

Education: B.A., Tulane; M.A., University of New Orleans; Ph.D., Louisiana State University

Awards

• Emmy Award nomination for script writing "Storms: Louisiana and Nature's Wrath" episode number five of the Florida Parish Chronicles television program 2006
• Presidents Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2001
• American Association for State and Local History Commendation for "Pistols and Politics", 1998
• Hammond Regional Arts Foundation, Award for Outstanding Achievements in Literature, 1999
• Newberry Foundation Fellowship, Newberry Library, Chicago, 1993
• Distinguished Dissertation Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Louisiana State University, 1993 (dissertation also selected as one of ten distinguished dissertations from among over two hundred university wide)
• T. Harry Williams Fellowship, Louisiana State University, 1991-1992
• Fulbright Fellowship for Overseas Study, 1989-1990
• Rotary Foundation Fellowship for Foreign Study, 1985-1986

Films

• "An Unforgotten Silence: Camp Moore The Confederate Base" 1994
• "Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Securing the Good Life From a Troubled Land" 2001
• "Reluctant Americans: The West Florida Revolt, Completing the Louisiana Purchase" 2003 - recipient Silver Medal New York International Independent Film Festival and Bronze Medal Aurora Film Festival
• "The Manchac Swamp: Manmade Disaster in Search of Resolution" 2006
• "American Crisis, American Shame: The National Consequence of Coastal Erosion" 2008

Publications: Books

• Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1810-1899 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), paperback edition 1997, recipient AASLH commendation 1998
• Plain Folk of the South Revisited (editor/contributor, Baton Rouge: L.S.U. Press, 1997)
• Carnivals and Conflicts: A Louisiana History Reader (editor/contributor, New York: Harcourt, 2000)
• Sunbelt Revolution: The Historical Progression of the Civil Rights Struggle in the Gulf South, 1866-2000 (editor/contributor, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003)
• A Fierce and Fractious Frontier: The Curious Development of Louisiana's Florida Parishes , 1699-2000 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, September 2004)

Publications: Articles

• "Discovering a Neglected Southern Subregion" in A Fierce 
  and Fractious Frontier: The Curious Development of Louisiana's Florida 
  Parishes (Louisiana State University Press, September 2004)
• "Plain Folk Reconsidered: Historiographical Ambiguity in Search of Definition" in 
  Journal of Southern History, Vol LXXI, No. 4, November 2005
• "Feuding is Our Means of Societal Regulation: Elusive Stability in Southeastern 
  Louisiana's Piney Woods, 1877-1900," forthcoming in Louisiana History 
  (Spring, 2007).
• AA Threshold of Unobtainable Commitment: Irregular Operations in Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1862-1865,@ in A Fierce and Fractious Frontier: The Curious Development of Louisiana's Florida Parishes (Louisiana State University Press, September 2004)
• The Challenges and Expectations of Social Change in the Gulf South, 1866-2000,@ in Sunbelt Revolution (University Press of Florida, 2003)
• Plain Folk Yeomanry in the Antebellum South, in John B. Boles (ed.), Blackwells Companion to the American South (London: Blackwell's, 2001)
• "Historical Perspectives on the Common South," in Plain Folk of the South Revisited (Louisiana State University Press, fall 1997)
• "Backcountry Justice in the Piney Woods South," in Plain Folk of the South Revisited (Louisiana State University Press, fall 1997)
• "Mechanisms of Planter Power in Eastern Louisiana's Piney Woods," Louisiana History, XXXIX, No. 1 (Spring 1998)
• "Blood Feud: Violence and Democracy in Louisiana's Florida Parishes," Cultural Vistas, IX, No. 2, (Summer 1998)
• "Power and Place: Gender, Greed, and the Creole French Elite," in Reviews in American History, September, 1998
• "Bushwhacking and Barnburning: Civil War Operations and the Florida Parishes Tradition of Violence," Louisiana History, XXXVI, No. 2 (Spring 1995).
• "Research Methods in Historical Archives," Origins, IX, No. 2 (Spring 1993).
• "Cultural Assimilation in Confederate New Orleans," Southeast Louisiana Historical Papers, XVII, 1993.
• "The Cultural Geography of Southeast Louisiana," Cultural Resources Management Report for Southeast Louisiana, 1988.
• "The Maritime History of the Lower Mississippi Valley," Maritime and Cultural Resources Planning Design for Southeast Louisiana, 1988.

Sample Presentations

• "The Relevance of the West Florida Revolt to Economic Development in the Florida Parishes" Hammond Rotary Club, January 2003
• "Sources of Opposition to the West Florida Revolt" Ponchatoula Kiwanis Club, January 2003
• "Understanding the Connection between History and Economic Development" Leadership Tangipahoa Seminar, February 2003
• "A Threshold of Unobtainable Commitment: The Civil War in Southeastern Louisiana", Denham Springs, La Kiwanis Club, February 2003
• "The Curious Connection of the West Florida Revolt and the Louisiana Purchase" Hammond Kiwanis Club, February 2003
• "The Louisiana Purchase as a Fulfillment of Jeffersonian Republicanism", Keynote Address, United Daughters of the Confederacy State Convention, Baton Rouge, La., May 2003
• "Developing an Identity for the West Florida Republic", Republic of West Florida Society Annual Meeting, Baton Rouge, La., May 2003
• "The Changing Face of a Fragile Ecosystem", Annual Conservation Banquet, Florida Parishes Skeet and Conservation Association, Amite, La., August 2003
• "Sources of Opposition to the West Florida Revolt", West Florida Society Meeting, Baton Rouge, La., September 2003
• "The Violent Legacy of Louisiana's Florida Parishes", Canary Island Heritage Society, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge, La., September 2003
• Master of Ceremony, Film premier "Reluctant Americans: The West Florida Revolt, Completing the Louisiana Purchase", Columbia Theater, Hammond, La., Fanfare eve premier, September 2003
• Livingston Parish Premier "Reluctant Americans", Walker, La., October 2003 
  Keynote Address, Washington Parish Fair and Festival Commission, Franklinton, La., October 2003
• "Sources of Opposition to the West Florida Revolt", 22nd Annual Gulf South Historical Association Conference, Pensacola, Fl., October 2003
• "Genealogical Studies and Resources at SLU", Hammond Round Table, October 2003
• "St. Helena: A Divided Role in Rebellion, 1810", Greensburg, La., St. Helena Parish Tourist Commission Annual Meeting, October 2003
• "West Feliciana Capital of the Original Lone Star Republic" West Feliciana Parish Tourist Commission Annual Meeting, October 2003
• "Curious Aspects of the Civil Rights Struggle in Southeastern Louisiana", Louisiana Festival of the Book, State Capital Building, Baton Rouge, La., November 2003
• "Developing an Identity for Washington Parish", Washington Parish Genealogical Society Meeting, Franklinton, La., November 2003
• "Why Celebrate the West Florida Revolt", Reception Highlighting Unveiling of I-12 Commemorative Signs, 7 members State Legislative Delegation Present, Alumni Center, SLU, November 2003
• "Examining the Native American Cultures of Southeastern Louisiana", America Reads Program, Baton Rouge, La., November 2003
• "A Territory of Greatest Importance Sources of Support and Opposition to the West Florida Revolt, 1810", Foundation for Historic Louisiana, Premier Lecture Series, November 2003
• "Exploring and Understanding the History of Southeastern Louisiana", Presentation before 400 school children, Columbia Theater, Hammond, La., December 2003