This Course Examines a Variety of Issues in the History of Americans of African Ancestry

syllabus
HISTORY 332: African-American History, 2012-13, TERM 1
Department of History, The University of British Columbia
Prof. Paul Krause / krause at mail dot ubc dot ca / 604 822-5168
Lectures & Group Discussions: Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30-11:00 a.m., Buchanan D218
Tutorial:
Buchanan D228, Wednesday, time to be determined
Office Hours: Tuesday, 11:30-13:00

INTRODUCTION

This course examines a variety of issues in the history of Americans of African ancestry from the time of enslavement in the 15th Century to the early 21stCentury. The main focus of the course is the 19th Century and the problems of slavery, of the American Civil War, and of Reconstruction – the period immediately after the war. We concentrate on the 19th Century because two of the most important questions in African-American History, in U.S. History, in Western History, and indeed in World History – the meaning of freedom and of democracy – come into sharp focus in the 1800s. The definitions that various groups gave or tried to give to the ideas of freedom and democracy in the 19th Centurycontinue to shape our world.

The other topics that we will consider in H332 are related to the big issues of freedom and democracy and to the struggles and battles to define them. Among these other topics: the origins and nature of slavery in the New World; slave resistance and rebellion in antebellum America; the emergence of the American system of apartheid in the era of “Jim Crow;” the Harlem Renaissance; the Civil Rights Movement; and the current economic and political status of Americans of African ancestry.

The readings, drawn from primary and secondary works in history and the social sciences, as well as from the American literary canon, focus on groups as well as on representative men and women – some famous, but many who lived at a distance from the center stage of history. By examining the lives of selected individuals and groups, this course will ask youto explore the meaning of freedom and democracy in the United States, and, in particular, to investigate the relationship of freedom and democracy to the question of race and the problem of racism. As the readings, lectures, and video presentations will suggest, the question of gender also will be explored carefully.

This course asks that you think about the past as a set of problems and questions, and not merely as a simple narrative of events. Above all, perhaps, H332 asks you to extend yourselves beyond an engagement with various aspects of the history of African Americans to consider how such history “works” in the present. Accordingly, we will be investigating how parts of the past seem to have been silenced – and how we might come to “unsilence” them.

Some of the highlights of the syllabus include:

1.) The opening module of the course on contemporary issues of race and class has been expanded to include parts of a second documentary by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “America Beyond the Color Line;” and portions of Spike Lee’s important documentary, “When the Levees Broke.” These materials will be studied in conjunction with Gates’s provocative film, “The Two Nations of Black America,” which frames the course from beginning to end.

2.) The readings on slavery have been both more carefully focused and thematically expanded by way of concentrating on two texts: the autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said,and Frederick Douglass’s canonical first autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.These materials, together with our readings about Sojourner Truth, raise myriad interpretive and evidentiary problems, illustrate the great variety of experiences encompassed by slavery, and will allow us to explore in detail a number of intriguing questions regarding religion, gender, and resistance under the slave regime.

3.) We will be reading two magisterial novels in the second term – Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Richard Wright’s Black Boy/American Hunger – and also studying Charles Burnett’s breathtakingly masterful film, “Killer of Sheep.” Over and above the vexing problems of pain, memory, and inequity that these works explore, they also raise intriguing questions about the relationship of history, literature, and cinema.

4.) H332 for many years has been built around a number of engaging documentaries and films. Several new documentaries, in addition to the offerings of Gates and Lee cited above, have been added, among them: “The Murder of Emmett Till,” which examines the infamous lynching of 1954; and “Fatal Flood,” a study of the 1927 Mississippi River catastrophe which focuses on the racialized response to it in Greenville, Mississippi – and which points to similar problems in contemporary Louisiana. We also will be studying two award-winning documentaries: “Reconstruction: The Second Civil War,” and several episodes from “Eyes on the Prize,” which stands as the best visual history of the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

5.) The examination of Thomas Jefferson and his engagement with race, racialism, and slavery has been expanded to include an even more explicit contemporary reckoning by way of reading Randall Kennedy’s new book, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency. We will return to this book at the end of the year.

As in the past, there is no required textbook for H332, but Darlene Clark Hine et al, African Americans: A Concise History, or other surveys, may prove helpful. They are readily available. The required texts are:

Term One:

Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno,” ed. Wyn Kelly / Prior to reading this, please do not consult any outside sources. Please do not talk about the text with anyone prior to class on 19/20 Sept.

Ala Alryyes, ed., A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, American Slave

Randall Kennedy, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency

Term Two:

Nicholas Lemann, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War

Mary Frances Berry, My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Richard Wright, Black Boy/American Hunger

Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality

WHO CAN TAKE THIS COURSE? ARE THERE ANY PREREQUISITES?

Anyone who is willing to work hard and to wrestle with the problems and issues in H332 is welcome to enroll. It is not necessary to have a background in African-American History or in the history of the United States. But because this is a third/fourth-year course, there are appropriately higher levels of expectations for work load and performance.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF H332?

Students who complete this course successfully will possess an understanding of the broad outlines of African-American History and many of the complex, important questions raised by studying the history of persons of African ancestry in the United States. H332 in built on an interpretive scheme, and one of your tasks will be to confront and criticize this scheme so that you can formulate one of your own.

There are other, more specific goals. By the end of the year, students should be able to:

Characterize the institution of American slavery and explain its origins.

Explain the origins of the U.S. Civil War.

Discuss and analyze the successes and failures of Reconstruction and their contemporary significance.

Compare and contrast three great works in American and African-American Literature, Black Boy/American Hunger, Beloved, and “Killer of Sheep,” and discuss in an informed way the relationship between studying literature and studying history.

Discuss the origins and workings of American apartheid.

Explain the origins of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the key role played in it by women.

Offer an argument about why, in 2012, racial inequities remain a part of U.S. society.

HOW CAN I SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE? WHAT WILL BE EXPECTED OF ME?
WHAT ARE THE GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR MARKS?

In this arena, your success will depend upon careful reading and note-taking, a willingness to take intellectual risks, and a desire to explore what the novelist and critic Ralph Ellison once labeled the “tradition of forgetfulness…, of denying the past, of converting the tragic realities of ourselves but most often of others, even if those others are of our own group, into comedy.”

Participation in the lectures and large group discussions is an essential part of your success. What does participation mean? It means active engagement with your colleagues; it means asking questions and listening carefully to others; it means trying to answer questions and having the courage to share your ideas; it means coming to class prepared – that is, coming to class with having completed the reading. Each of us shares the responsibility for how well H332 will work. Accordingly, we need to build an environment where everyone feels welcome, and where all of our ideas are respected and where they can be explored and criticized.

This means above all that it is our shared responsibility to ensure that everyone in the class is comfortable in it, and that no one feel ill-at-ease for reasons of age or gender, economic standing, political preference, race, ethnic or religious background, national origin, or sexual orientation. It therefore follows that jokes at anyone’s expense other than that of the instructorare not permitted.

No one likes to deal with marks, but they are a fact of our university lives. In H332, you will be rewarded for consistently doing your work over the course of the entire year; there will be chances to resubmit work with which you may be dissatisfied.

Work that receives an “A” is inspired: it demonstrates a thorough grasp of the material and an original understanding of it. Work that receives a “B” means that it constitutes a strong performance and demonstrates a good understanding of the material. Note that a “C” in this class means that you have done pretty well and that you have attained an adequate comprehension of the material we cover. In order to get this mark, you must do all of the work and complete all of the reading. Work that receives a “D” is inadequate, usually because it contains serious gaps and misunderstandings. An “F” will be awarded if your work is completely inadequate, that is, if it reveals that you have no real understanding of the material we have covered.

Remember that marks are merely an evaluation of your work, and not a comment on your intelligence. They are not an evaluation of you as a person. And they are not a comment on how hard you have worked. It is possible in this class to work very hard – the hardest you have ever worked in a class at UBC – and still receive a “B” or a “C.” Curiously, perhaps, the more you concentrate on marks and on the results, the less well you may do. In learning, it is the process that matters and, I believe, it is the process which in the end determines the results. So, work hard, take notes when you read – I can help with strategies about this – and ask questions. If you can do this, the results should take care of themselves.

If you are experiencing difficulties with the readings, please come see me. We can discuss the troublesome material or, if you like, some general strategies for doing the work in H332. Don’t wait until November or December; drop by early in the term. I always am happy to meet with students. Really.Really.

WHAT ARE THE GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDANCE, DEADLINES, AND INTEGRITY?

What we do in class will help you make sense out of our readings, which are the core of this course. Therefore, attendance at all lectures and large group discussionsis mandatory. If you have a valid reason for missing a class, please send me an e-mail. If you become seriously ill or have a crisis that interferes with your work, please let me know so that we can discuss strategies for dealing with the situation and possible exceptions to the regular deadlines.If you do not inform me of the extraordinary circumstances that you may be facing, all work must be completed on time. You will find me sympathetic and flexible if you are confronting a difficult situation; however, if you do not inform me, in advance, you will be expected to complete your work on time.

In the realm of academic integrity, you are expected to refrain from cheating, lying, or engaging in acts of plagiarism. All written work in H332 should be prepared and completed by each individual student. If you borrow someone’s words or ideas, they should be cited in the proper manner. See my web page on writing for some links to helpful sites on how to avoid plagiarism.

As the university has explained, “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations.” This means that you will be entitled to write the final exam/paper only if you come to class. The official policy of the university holds that it:“accommodates students with disabilities who have registered with the Disability Resource Centre. The University accommodates students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations…. Please let your instructor know in advance, preferably in the first week of class, if you will require any accommodation on these grounds.

“Students who plan to be absent for varsity athletics, family obligations, or other similar commitments, cannot assume they will be accommodated….”

If you face a learning challenge, such as a diagnosed “learning disability,” please know that I stand ready to work with you so that you can achieve to the full extent that you aspire. Drop by to discuss the course requirements and whatever accommodations may be helpful to you.

Please understand that the readings must be completed before our class meets on Tuesdays. By university standards, there is a moderate amount of reading in this course. If you decide to enroll, be certain that you are prepared to do the reading and to submit your work on time. Failure to meet this expectation is likely to produce unsatisfactory results in our classes as well as on your transcripts.

We will discuss our supplementary readings at our first session on Thursday, Sept. 6

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR MARKS & REQUIREMENTS

Consistent attendance, conscientious reading, and attentive and civil participation are essential parts of your work in this course. In this realm, as in all others, strict adherence to the principles of academic integrity is expected. Plagiarism, in any form, will not be tolerated. For guidance, in addition to the web sites listed on my “writing page,” see the UBC Calendar. Additionally, the following sites may be helpful:

Above all, please remember that all authors own their ideas, words, and research; you therefore must give appropriate credit, typically in the form of quotations and footnotes, when using the work of another scholar. Plagiarism, whether or not it is “intentional,” is a serious violation of UBC’s standards; violations of the standards will be prosecuted. If your work is late, if you feel under pressure, do anything but cheat, please. Do not jeopardize your career and your good name for the sake of a mark in H332. It’s just not worth it.

Take great care when using resources on the Web, as many can prove helpful; a significant number, however, can be misleading – including, of course, Wikipedia. Be certain that unattributed sentences gleaned from the Web do not find their way into your submissions for H332. Failure to be vigilant about this matter inevitably will raise questions about academic integrity.

All written work, including your reading journal – explained below – must be:

1. Prepared only on a typewriter or a computer. Handwritten work is not acceptable. And faxes or e-mails of your work cannot be accepted by the Department of History.

2. Double-spaced and formatted in a simple, easy-to-read font, such as Times New Roman. The size of the font must be 12-point.

3. Set so it has margins of one inch on both sides, and at the top and bottom.

4. Numbered by pages and stapled in the upper left corner. (Do not use paper clips or creative folding.)

5. Backed-up, always, at regular intervals. (I recommend every three minutes.) Use a floppy or a zip disk or a USB mini-drive, a network storage service, and/or a hard copy. Computer or printer crashes or problems are not acceptable reasons for late submissions.

The Faculty of Arts requires that written work conform to accepted standards of English expression; if writing does not meet such standards, it cannot be evaluated. Marks will be based on the quality of your written work and of your participation in the lectures and group discussions.

Regular attendanceand keeping a regular journal should put virtually everyone in a position to achieve marks with which he or she is happy. The key is doing the reading, on time, and coming to class, prepared.

Keep your journal in the form of a diary. When a reading “speaks” to you, write down how you feel or think that the reading relates to you, to your life, and to the world around you. In addressing these issues, however, be certain to explain what you think the author is trying to say – what the author is trying to argue. This explanation should be rooted in the text that you are reading, and it should not be merely an opinion or sense or feeling of what you think the reading is trying to argue. Do not, in any manner, rely on on-line summaries or other glosses or interpretations in writing your journal entries; your journal entries are just that – yours. For each entry, be certain to indicate the author, title, and date that the text was published. From time to time, Iwill ask you to print up your journals and hand them in, and the journals will be collected at the end of the term. Keeping the journal will help you, in crucially important ways, prepare for the term exams, largely because the exam questions will be designed to engage you, personally, with the historical problems we will confront.