Short Bio
Nona P. Martin has a Ph.D. in History from George Mason University, where she studied with Lois Horton. She is also an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. Additionally, she holds a M.A. in Public History from Loyola University Chicago where she studied with Lewis Erenberg. She is also a trained librarian with an M.L.I.S. from the University of South Florida. Her training and research has focused on US History, Caribbean History, Urban History and Oral History.
Nona’s dissertation, “’I’se a Man’: The 1942 Riot as an Attack on Bay Street, Discrimination and Injustice in the Bahamas,” explores a watershed event in the Bahamas’ social and political history. She demonstrates that the riot was the first sign of political awakening in the country’s black community and set in motion a political snowball that resulted in majority rule and independence for the country. She also shows that this riot was much more like the race riots that occurred throughout the United States in the early part of the 20th century than the riots that occurred in the Caribbean.
Nona is also interested in racial aspects of American sports history. She’s currently researching the historical significance of the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers’ 1963 basketball team. The ’63 Ramblers’ started four black players at a time when there was an unwritten rule in the NCAA that only allowed two blacks on the floor at any given time. Not only did they advance civil rights in the United States, but they won the NCAA championship that year.
Born in the Bahamas, Nona now lives in Manassas, VA, with her husband Virgil Henry Storr.
