Introduction to Modern African American History
AFAM 204
Spring 2015
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
HIST 242, AMST 238 |
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the discipline of history in general, and to African American history in particular, by exploring the major themes, issues, debates, figures, and actions in African American history spanning from the American Civil War through the twentieth century. Such a task requires us to also examine the evolution of ideas about race in the United States, and consider how those ideas affected the operation of the nation's political and economic systems and the development of American culture.
No small undertaking, we will begin with a consideration of the Civil War and the part played by African Americans both enslaved and free. Continuing beyond the war and the abolition of slavery, we will assess the challenges of freedom during Reconstruction, and the concerted effort of white southerners (with the implicit, or, at times, explicit, help of white northerners) to curtail that freedom and reestablish white supremacy by the end of the 19th century. Here we will focus on the rise of new leaders, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, T. Thomas Fortune, and others, as well as new organizations and institutions like the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and Tuskegee Institute, that led the fight against segregation, lynching, and ignorance. Pivoting from our primarily southern focus to engage the African American experience in the 20th century, we will examine the development of urban migrations and urban black culture; the Great Depression era; the rise of modern protest movements during the post-WWII era; and the explosion of black political struggle and cultural production during the Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Arts movements of the 1960s and 1970s, before pausing at last to reflect on how much progress toward racial justice had (or had not) been achieved as the by the end of the century. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AFAM |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AFAM-MN)(AFAM)(AMST)(EDST)(HRAD-MN) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
James O. and Lois E. Horton, HARD ROAD TO FREEDOM: THE STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICA, VOLUME 2
John H. Bracey, Jr. and Manisha Sinha, AFRICAN AMERICAN MOSAIC: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY FROM THE SLAVE TRADE TO THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY, VOLUME 2
John Hope Franklin (ed.), THREE NEGRO CLASSICS
Deborah Gray White, TOO HEAVY A LOAD: BLACK WOMEN IN DEFENSE OF THEMSELVES, 1894-1994
Jacqueline Jones Royster ed., SOUTHERN HORRORS AND OTHER WRITINGS: THE ANTI-LYNCHING CAMPAIGN OF IDA B. WELLS, 1892-1900
Harvard Sitkoff, THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK EQUALITY
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly short response papers, 2 short essays, 1 exam, 1 final paper/project |
| Instructor(s): Swiderski,David Michael Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: ALLB103; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 35 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 12 | FR: 14 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 12 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 12 |
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