History 399 Black Thought
Course Description
This course examines the history of black radicalism in the United States
from roughly the 1890s to the present. The term "black" is used
instead of African American because many of the individuals we will be
studying were from European and American colonies in the Caribbean. "Radicalism"
refers to the broad range of ideologies and political praxes that have
challenged the racial status quo, which, in both the American and global
context, has generally been characterized by economic marginalization,
political and civil inequality, and private and state-sponsored violence.
In this sense, our definition of radicalism is quite expansive and includes
militant integrationism, racial separatism, various forms of black nationalism,
pan-Africanism, socialism and communism, black feminisms, and Afrocentrism.
The course will also pay special attention to the ways that diverse forms
of radicalism have worked with, and against, one another and how they
have addressed, or ignored, issues of class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity
within the larger framework of racial collectivity.
Course Policies
This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. Don’t be alarmed
at the amount of reading indicated in the course outline, however. In
addition to the texts, we will be reading quite a few primary documents
(that is, speeches and writings produced by the historical figures we
are studying) but, for the most part, those documents are fairly short
(anywhere between 5-20 pages). Although I will give occasional lectures
to introduce key concepts and/or provide broader historical context for
the readings, the questions we are seeking to answer require group discussion.
Therefore, I expect students to attend class regularly and be prepared
to discuss the assigned readings. Class participation is paramount. Students
with more than three unexcused absences will have their final grade
lowered by a letter grade. Students with more than five unexcused
absences will fail the course.
The assignments for this class consist of two short papers, a take-home
midterm exam, and an in-class final exam. Both of the exams will be in
essay format. The two short papers (3-5 typed, double-spaced pages with
1" margins and in 12 point font) will be analytical essays on, respectively,
Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk and Davis' An Autobiography.
All due dates are listed in the course outline. All writing assignments
should be submitted in hard copies. I will accept papers formatted in
electronic text only in the case of emergencies and, even then, it is
the student’s responsibility to follow up on whether or not the file
was successfully transmitted and opened.
Course Evaluation
Class participation (10%)
Two short papers (20% each for a total of 40%)
Midterm and final exam (25% each for a total of 50%)
Required Texts
The following books are available at the University Bookstore. There
is a course reader. Articles within the reader are indicated in the syllabus
by (R). There are also articles on reserve at Knight Library that
are indicated by (KL). All articles are required reading.
W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk. 1903. Reprint, with
an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York: Bantam Books, 1989.
Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism
in Early Twentieth-Century America. London: Verso, 1998.
Angela Davis, An Autobiography. New York: International Publishers,
1974.
Course Schedule
| Week 1 Historical Background |
|
Tue 4/2 Course overview
Thu 4/4 Jim Crow, Panama Silver and the Civilizing Mission:
Race relations in the U.S., the Caribbean, Central America and Africa
at the turn-of-the-century
|
| Week 2 Radical Responses to Jim Crow |
|
Tue 4/9 Resisting the Color Line
Douglass, "The Color Line in America" (1886) R
Turner, "The Negro Has Not Sense Enough" (1900), "War With Spain"
(1898), and "Emigration" (1900) R
Turner, "The Negro Has Not Sense Enough" (1900), "War With Spain"
(1898), and "Emigration" (1900) R
Cooper, "Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress
of a Race" (1892) R
Thu 4/11 Accommodationism and its critics
Washington, "Atlanta Exposition Address" (1895) R
Wells-Barnett, "Booker T. Washington and His Critics" (1904) R
Du Bois, "Forethought" and "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,"
in Souls of Black Folk, pp. xxxi-xxxii, 30-42
|
| Week 3 Radical Responses to Jim Crow |
|
Tue 4/16 Cultural pluralism and militant integrationism
Thu 4/18
Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chs. 1, 5-6, 8-10, 13-14
Du Bois, "The Conservation of the Races" (1897) R
Film: "W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices"
|
| Week 4 Black Nationalism and Black Marxism:
1910s to the 1950s |
|
Tue 4/23 Nationalism and Marxism
**First writing assignment due**
Thu 4/25 African Caribbean radicals in the Caribbean and
the U.S
James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, prologue and
chs. 1-4
|
| Week 5 Black Nationalism and Black Marxism:
1910s to the 1950s |
|
Tue 4/30 Nationalism and class struggle
James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, chs. 5 and
6
Moore, "Problems and Struggles of the Negro Workers" (1929) R
Garvey, "Africa for the Africans" (1923), "An Appeal to the
Conscience of the Black Race to See Itself" (1925), "Aims and Objects
of Movement for Solution of Negro Problem" (1925) R
Thu 5/2 Nationalism and the "Woman Question"
Taylor, "ÆNegro Women are Great Thinkers as well as Doers³: Amy
Jacques Garvey and Community Feminism in the United States," Journal
of Women³s History 12 (Summer 2000) R
Film: "Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind"
|
| Week 6 Black Nationalism and Black Marxism:
1910s to the 1950s |
|
Tue 5/7 Afro-Latino radicalism: Puerto Rican nationalists
and Afro-Cuban tabaqueros
James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, chs. 7-8 and
epilogue
Thu 5/9 Black radicalism in the early years of the Cold
War
**Take-home midterm exams due**
Robeson, "Anti-Imperialists Must Defend Africa" (1946) R
Du Bois, "Behold the Land" (1946) R
Film: "I³ll Make Me a World" or "Scandalize My Name"
|
| Week 7 Civil Rights and Black Power: 1950s
to the 1970s |
|
Tue 5/14 Civil Rights and the evolution of Martin Luther
King, Jr.
King, "The Social Organization of Non-Violence" (1959), "The Time
For Freedom Has Come" (1961), "A Time to Break Silence" (1967) R
Thu 5/16 The evolution of Malcolm X and its legacy
"Minister Malcolm X Enunciates the Muslim Program" (1960) R
Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet" (1964), "Prospects for Freedom
in 1965" (1965), and "Basic Unity Program" (1965) R
"SNCC Urges Revolutionary Action" (1967) R
|
| Week 8 Civil Rights and Black Power: 1950s
to the 1970s |
|
Tue 5/21 Black Power
Davis, An Autobiography, read parts I and III, pp. 3-73,
117-145; skim part II, pp. 77-113
Thu 5/23 The gender and sexual politics of black liberation
Davis, An Autobiography, part IV, pp. 145-89
The Black Panther Party, "Ten Point Program" (1967) R
Cleaver, "Notes on a Native Son," in Soul on Ice R
Newton, "The Women³s Liberation and the Gay Liberation Movement,"
in Devon Carbado, ed., Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality:
A Critical Reader KL
|
| Week 9 Civil Rights and Black Power: 1950s
to the 1970s |
|
Tue 5/28 Black radicalism and the state in the late 60s
and early 70s
Thu 5/30
**Second writing assignment due on May 30th**
Davis, An Autobiography, parts IV-VI and epilogue, pp. 189-400
Film: "A Nation of Law?"
|
| Week 10 Post-Black Power Nationalism(s) |
|
Tue 6/4 Afrocentrism and its Discontents
Asante, "Afrocentricity, Race, and Reason," in Manning Marable,
ed., Dispatches From the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront
the African American Experience R
Ransby, "Afrocentrism, Cultural Nationalism, and the Problem with
Essentialist Definitions of Race, Gender, and Sexuality," in Marable,
ed., Dispatches R
Thu 6/6 The Million Man March
"To March or Not to March: Two Op-eds," Harris, "My Two Mothers,
America, and the Million Man March," and Farley, "Sadomasochism
and the Colorline: Reflections on the Million Man March," Carbado,
ed., Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality KL
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