AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & STUDIES
Professor Maceo Crenshaw Dailey, Jr., Ph.D. HIST 3329 AFST 2300
Director of African American Studies Program MTWRF
Associate Professor, Department of History LART 319
Liberal Arts Building, Room 401 9:20-11:30 A.M.
Telephone 747-8650
E-mail:
SUMMER 2010
SYLLABUS
Time permitting, all topics listed below will be considered this semester, although not necessarily in the order presented. Students would be well advised to read several topics in advance of lectures and discussions. The primary textbook for the course is:
Required Textbook
John Hope Franklin and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, From Slavery To
Freedom, (9th Edition)
Recommended Textbooks
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley Harrold
The African-American Odyssey
James Blackwell, The Black Community
Nell Painter, Creating Black Americans
Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter
Joanne Grant, Black Protest
Clayborne Carson, et. al., African American Lives:
The Struggle for Freedom
In addition to these books, secondary scholarly essays and tertiary articles will be placed on reserve in the library throughout the semester. The reading assignments are by no means exhaustive; they will, however, provide clues to more detailed treatments of the great majority of issues and questions to be raised in the introductory course in African American Studies and History.
A word about the approach to be used. As we proceed in this introductory course, it will be conceptually helpful for us to keep in mind the statements of the eminent African American historian Benjamin Quarles:
“Because freedom is a deep river, Negroes would prefer to cross over in
calm time. But cross over they must, being Americans.”
“The central theme of American History may well be control of the Negro.”
We will substitute African American for the word “Negro”, but in essence wend our way through the historical era guided largely by the premises of Professor Quarles, and, in the arena of identity construction, what Kool G. Rap referred to as the “nationality of reality.”
Pertaining to a working definition of African American Studies, Professor Manning Marable of ColumbiaUniversity writes:
“African American Studies, broadly defined, is the systematic study of
the black experience, framed by the socioeconomic, cultural, and
geographical boundaries of Sub-Saharan Africa and the black Diaspora of
North American, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Latin American, and
increasingly Europe itself. At its core, it is also the black intellectual
tradition as it has challenged and interacted with Western civilization and
cultures. In the social sciences and humanities, that intellectual tradition
has assumed a complex burden over many generations, seeking to engage
in a critical dialogue with white scholarship on a range of complex issues, and
most significantly, the definition and reality of race as a social construct,
and the factors that explain the structures of inequality which, greatly define
the existence of black people.”
This definition clearly necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on paradigms, critical theories, and computer analyses; and understanding the humanizing nature of learning about and eradicating racism and other “isms” damaging to people.
Note also that films and videos will be used extensively to heighten our appreciation of historical eras and issues.
Course requirements will include the submission of a book critique, satisfactory completion of the mid-term and final examinations, and group report and regular attendance and participation in classroom discussions (each category representing twenty percent of the student’s grade). The grading scale:
A=90-100
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
F=59 or less
Two unexcused absences will result in a deduction of ten points from the student’s final grade. Three or more unexcused absences can result in the student receiving a failing grade for the course. Please review your student handbook for policies pertaining to plagiarism. The policies will be adhered to strictly. The assignments and format for the tests will be discussed more thoroughly within the first week of the semester. Welcome!
Week OneIntroduction
Brief overview
Explanation of Assignments
“Lackawanna Blues”
Levittown, U.S.A.
The African American Experience in the United States:
Scholars and Society: Sociological and Psychological
Dimensions of an Historic Problem
Nell Painter, “Black History”
Beverly Tatum, “Talking About Race, Learning About Race”
Video, “A Girl Like Me”
Handout “Enough Said”
Construction of Theory of History
“What is Africa To Me?”
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 1-21
“Buked and Scorned”: The Middle Passage and All That
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 22-46
Film “Amistad”
Video “African Burial Ground”
Week TwoThe Origins of Slavery And The Lives of Slaves
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 47-101
Video, “A Thousand Miles To Freedom”
Freedom Over Me: Black Abolitionism and Community Building
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 103-28, 159-207
Video, “The Life of Frederick Douglass”
The Jubilee: The Coming of The Civil War
And The Problems of Reconstruction
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 208-59
Video, “The Massachusetts 54th”
From “The Nadir” To The “New Negro”
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 260-326
Video, “Buffalo Soldiers”
Video, “The Life of Booker T. Washington”
Video, “The Life of Ida Wells-Barnett”
Video, “The Life of Henry Flipper”
Week Three No Fear And No Fools: World War I,
The UNIA, And The Harlem Renaissance
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 327-416
Video, “The Life of George Washington Carver”
Depression, Deprivation, And Dilemmas American Style
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 417-509
Video, “Richard Wright”
An American Dream For All, Including
African Americans: The Coming of The Civil Rights Movement
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 510-548
Video, “Eyes On The Prize”
Video, “Life of Rev. Adam Clayton Powell”
Week Four “Strong Women, Strutting Men,” and
Sepia Children As Survivors
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 549-582
Aaron McGruder, “The Boondocks”
A Right To Be Hostile
Video, “The Color Purple”
Black Culture and Consciousness As Avenues To Uplift:
Reconsideration of Music, Dance, Humor, and Styling Out
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 583-611
Richard Pryor, Pryor Convictions
Video, “The History of Black Dance”
The Problems Of This Century
Franklin/Higginbotham, Slavery To Freedom, pp. 612-639
Book Critique Main Points:
Explain the limits of the work
Identify the central thesis
Note the assumptions under which the author operates
Summarize the main arguments
Evaluate the evidence used to support the arguments
Discuss anything you think the author failed to address in the monograph.
Due: End of Third Week
Mid-Term Examination:
End of Second Week
Final Examination
End of Fourth Week
Office Hours:
TWR 1-2 p.m.; 3 – 4 p.m.
And By Appointment