HIST 331
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY FROM 1865
- Catalog Entry
HIST 331 African-American History From 1865. (A)
Three hours lecture/discussion (3).
Prerequisite: Three hours of History at the 100-level.
Examines the experiences of African Americans from Emancipation to the present. Topics include Reconstruction, Segregation, both World Wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and Status Today.
- Detailed Description of Content of Course
1. Reconstruction and its Legacy
The Reconstruction Era was a period of redefining relationships: relationships between former master and former slave, and between white and black. In this section of the course we will look at how those relationships were redefined. Social Reconstruction will be the focus as we will discuss the objectives of African Americans and the success or failure of those objectives (including economic opportunity, education, and civil and political rights).
2. Rise of Jim Crow
Beginning in the 1880's white America turned their back on the racial issue and proceeded to tear down the civil and political advances of the Reconstruction Era. Disfranchisement and Jim Crow laws arose throughout the country, supported by the judicial system of the United States and the Federal Government. We will look at the reversal of the advances of Reconstruction and the general situation which African Americans will face through the 1960's as it developed during the late 19th and early 20th century.
3. Organization of Protest
With the rise of segregation throughout the country came several alternatives to the situation of African Americans. Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and others, as leaders in the African American represent several of the various ideas in the beginnings of the protest movement. The major concern of this topic will be to discuss those ideas and their viability given the situation in America at the time, as well as the progress of the African American protest movement during the late 19th, early 20th century.
4. World War I and the Great Migration
World War I was seen by many African American leaders, especially W.E.B. DuBois, as a chance to confront racism and discrimination. We will look at the African American experience both in the homefront and the war overseas. The black population, predominantly souther and rural in 1890, became primarily urban by World War II. The transition from countryside to city reached massive proportions during World War I. This great migration changed the character of the black population. It stimulated the transformation of African Americans from agricultural into industrial workers. Migration and urbanization presented new challenges for African American. They had to adjust to the city, broaden their culture, and create new organizations for fight against racial discrimination and segregation.
5. The Great Depression and World War II
African Americans felt the Great Depression sooner and suffered its effects longer than the rest of the country. One of the concerns of this topic will be to discuss the effects of the Great Depression on the African American population and to analyze the New Deal in respect to blacks. The Second World War marks another watershed in African American history. Unlike the First World War, when African Americans agreed by and large to put their grievances behind them and join the struggle to "Make the World Safe for Democracy," they now determined to wage a "Double V" campaign for victory abroad and at home. Migration unleashed by World War I became a flood tide during the Second World War. The protest movement assumed greater militancy during and after the war and set the stage for the next transition from segregation to civil rights.
6. The Civil Rights Movement
Here we will focus our attention on the progression of the Civil Rights Movement from World War I through the 1960's, including an in depth look at the ideologies and policies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
7. Status Today
This final section of the course will serve to connect past and present in that we will take some time to analyze the effects of African American history on the present condition of African Americans and to ask where the United States needs to go from here.
- Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Class will meet three hours each week. The conduct of the course will be structured around a combination of lectures and group discussions-both class and small group discussions. Student participation is strongly encouraged. Primary source material will be used to facilitate classroom discussion and improve writing skills. Slides and films will be employed at varying times to supplement and reinforce the lectures. The lectures and discussions are significant for test purposes.
- Goals and Objectives of the Course
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. identify major themes in the subject of African American history from Emancipation.
2. provide a conceptual framework for exploration of some of those themes in greater depth.
3. present African American history from Emancipation as a subject in its own right as well as an integral part of American history.
4. describe the structural conditions that restricted African Americans and the efforts of blacks to protest and change these conditions.
5. write an analytical paper regarding a particular theme in African American history.
6. utilize primary source material and be able to interpret that material, both orally and in written form.
7. Relate many present day conditions to the effect of African American history.
- Assessment Measures
Two essay examinations will be given during the course of the semester: a midterm and a final examination.
Students will be expected to keep an extensive, progressive journal throughout the semester. Student journals will be based on primary source readings and specific assignments based on class discussion. Journal submissions will be reviewed with the following criteria in mind: (1) the intelligence with which the topics covered are addressed; (2) the thoroughness with which the assignments are completed; (3) the depth of insight expressed in regard to the subjects considered; (4) the thoughtfulness with which the assignments are approached.
Two analytical papers; approximately 5 pages each. Topics and specific assignments for these analytical papers will vary each time the course is taught. For example, students might write a paper in which, by using class lecture, discussion, and their various reading assignments, they analyze the situation that African Americans in the South faced in the years after Reconstruction and identify and evaluate the principal alternatives open to them: such as write an comparison\contrast paper on the ideologies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.
The writing assignments for this course grow out of a conviction that learning is an active (not a passive process); that learning is remembering what interests you; and that learning is both goal oriented and concept centered. Therefore, to enable learning to occur, students must start with what they know, admit ignorance about what they do not know, identify interests growing out of that ignorance, then ask questions and seek to establish connections, building on current knowledge to achieve a new level of understanding.
Good writing is critical both for survival in today’s society and for historical study. The written assignments for the course are aimed at improving writing skills as well as developing an understanding of the specific topic.
- Other course information
This course will serve in conjunction with another proposed course, History 330, African American history to 1865 to provide students with a well rounded, in-depth look into the African American experience. Each course, in of itself, will broaden the breadth of the offerings of the History Department.
- Approval and Subsequent Reviews
Date Action Reviewed by
January 2005 Reviewed and Approved by Charles McClellan |