Spring 2005

HIST 251 African American History II

Course Description:
This course surveys African American experiences from emancipation from slavery in the mid-nineteenth century to the present. In addition to studying the staples of African American history, such as race relations in the southern U.S. and the Civil Rights movement, we will examine other important elements of black historical experiences, including migration and urbanization, black political thought and cultural production, and gender roles and class formation within the African American community. Drawing on both primary sources – that is, documents produced by the actual historical figures we are studying – and secondary sources, this class seeks to increase students’ awareness of, and appreciation for, the complexity of the history of people of African descent in the United States.

Course Readings:
The following books are available at the University Bookstore. There is a course reader available for purchase at the University and on reserve at Knight Library. Articles in the reader are required reading and are indicated in the syllabus by (R).

Pauli Murray, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999.
Alfred Brophy, Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press, 2003.

Course Requirements:
Students are required to attend class regularly and participate in discussion of the course readings. To assess whether students are doing the reading assignments, there will be five unannounced quizzes over the course of the term. Students are subject to being quizzed on any of the reading material (including readings that are being discussed in lecture) but the quizzes will be given during discussion sections. Attendance, discussion, and quizzes will constitute the overall class participation grade. Students with more than two unexcused absences in discussion section will have their final grade lowered by a letter grade. Students with four or more unexcused absences in discussion section will fail the course. For logistical purposes, students are asked to direct all communications regarding absences and other sundry matters to the GTFs of their respective discussion sections.

There will be two short papers and a cumulative final exam. The exam will be based primarily on material covered in lecture. As I make it a policy not to share my lecture notes with students, I urge you to attend lecture regularly. The short papers (3-5 typed, 12 point, double-spaced pages) will be on Proud Shoes and Reconstructing the Dreamland. I will provide paper topics several weeks before the papers are due. Late papers will be lowered one letter grade for every day that they are beyond the deadline unless there is a documented medical reason that warrants an extension. Both the GTFs and I reserve the right to refuse to grade papers that are handed in well past the deadline.

Course Evaluation:
Quizzes and class participation (25%)
Papers (25% each, for a total of 50%)
Final Exam (25%)

NOTE: Outside of extraordinary (and I do mean extraordinary) circumstances, I do not believe in allowing students to do extra credit work. Instead, students should devote the time they would spend doing extra credit work on the regular assignments. Also, “incompletes” will only be considered for students who have completed two of the assignments (excluding quizzes), have at least a “C” average, and have a compelling reason to need an incomplete.

Course Outline:

Week 1 Mon 3/28	The Civil War and the Meaning of Emancipation
Wed 3/30	The social and political dimensions of Reconstruction, 1863-1877
Fri 4/1
Week 2 Mon 4/4	The demise of Reconstruction
Wed 4/6
Fri 4/8	The triumph of white supremacy and the African American response
	Discussion (IN CLASS): Booker T. Washington, “1895 Speech Before the Atlanta Exposition” (R)
	Discussion section: Murray, Proud Shoes, pp. 1-155.
Week 3
Mon 4/11	Race, sex, and violence in the Jim Crow South
	Film: Excerpts from Birth of a Nation
	Discussion (IN CLASS): Wells-Barnett, “Lynching: Our National Crime” (R)
Wed 4/13	Jim Crow and the rise of the Talented Tenth
Fri 4/15	Discussion (IN CLASS): Du Bois, selections from Souls of Black Folk;
	Wells-Barnett, “Mr. Booker T. Washington and His Critics” (R)
	Discussion section: Murray, Proud Shoes, pp. 156-276
Week 4
Mon 4/18	The Great Migration
Wed 4/20	World War I and the Red Summer
Fri 4/22	Enter the New Negro: Black political thought, 1915-1930
	Discussion section: Brophy, Reconstructing the Dreamland, pp. xvii-xx, 1-68
Week 5 Mon 4/25	Enter the New Negro: Black political thought, cont.
	Discussion (IN CLASS): Selections from Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (R)
	Film: “Look for Me in the Whirlwind”
	**First writing assignment due in class on Monday, April 25 th**
Wed- 4/27	Enter the New Negro: Black cultural production, 1915-1930
Fri 4/29	Discussion (IN CLASS): Selections from Portable Harlem Renaissance (R)
	Discussion section: Brophy, Reconstructing the Dreamland, pp. 69-119
Week 6 Mon 5/2	The Great Depression
Wed- 5/4	The racial politics of the New Deal
Fri 5/6	Film: “The Great Depression”
	Discussion section: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 1-38
Week 7 Mon 5/9	The rising wind: African Americans during World War II
Wed 5/11	The beginnings of the Civil Rights movement, 1930s-1954
Fri 5/13	**Second writing assignment due in class on Friday, May 13 th**
	Discussion section: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 39-222
Week 8
Mon- 5/16	From reform to rebellion: the evolution of the movement, 1955-68
Wed 5/18	Discussion (IN CLASS): King, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” (R)
Fri 5/20	Film: “Eyes on the Prize” or “Brother Outsider”
	Discussion section: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 223-357
Week 9
Mon 5/23	The evolution of Martin Luther King, Jr.
	Discussion: (IN CLASS): King, “The Social Organization of Nonviolence” and “A Time to Break Silence” (R)
Wed 5/25	Moving beyond Civil Rights: Black nationalism and Black Power
Fri 5/27	Discussion (IN CLASS): Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” “SNCC Urges Revolutionary Action,” “Black Panther Party” (R)
	Discussion section: D’Emilio, Lost Prophet, pp. 358-494
Week 10
Mon 5/30	MEMORIAL DAY – NO CLASS
Wed 6/1	African American women and the feminist movement
	Discussion (IN CLASS): Williams, “Why Women’s Liberation is Important to Black Woman” and Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement” (R)
Fri 6/3	African Americans in the post-Civil Rights era
	Discussion section: Review for final exam

Final exam is Tuesday, June 7 th at 3:15 p.m.