African American History, 1865 to Present Professor TUURI T TH 11:30-12:50 pm ENG :512:334:01

Transcription

1 African American History, 1865 to Present Professor TUURI T TH 11:30-12:50 pm ENG :512:334:01 NB: This syllabus is subject to change during the course. Please check Blackboard periodically for updates to syllabus. Instructor: Rebecca Tuuri (rebtuuri@eden.rutgers.edu). Office Location: Conklin Hall 312 Office Phone number: (973) Office Hours: Thursdays 4:10 p.m. 5:10 p.m. and by arrangement Course Description: African American History II seeks to do the following: 1.) provide an overview of significant events, movements, and people from the beginning of Reconstruction to the present 2.) examine the history of cultural formation within the African American Community. 3.) Examine the struggle towards freedom of African Americans themselves 4.) Consider how larger American society, especially that of white America, has manipulated images and ideas in an oppositional way to African Americans 5.) Consider how memory, literacy, and access to archival sources affect African American historiography. Course content will be drawn from lectures, primary source documents, secondary source literature, documentaries, and websites. Required Texts: Nell Painter, Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present [Paperback] (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN-10: W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk Any version is fine Richard P. McCormick, The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers [Paperback] (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990) ISBN-10: In addition there will be primary source documents and secondary source articles to read for class on blackboard

2 Grade Distribution: Pop Quizzes 20% Midterm Exam 20% Term Paper 25% Final Exam 25% Participation 15% Pop Quizzes (20%) To ensure that you are keeping up with the reading for the class, I will be giving you pop quizzes on material from your readings in Creating Black Americans and the extra articles during the semester. The quizzes will follow a fairly simple format simple multiple choice, short identification, or short answer. I will drop your lowest quiz grade. Midterm Exam and Final Exam (20%, 25% respectively) The Midterm and Final Exam will contain a series of short answer identification questions and an essay question covering reading, lecture, and discussion material. The Final will NOT be cumulative. Term Paper (25% of grade total): You will be required to write a 6-8 page paper that engages a topic of your choice utilizing at least 5 external scholarly secondary sources. As part of this assignment, I ask that you consider the validity of your sources, especially those that you find online. You must upload a copy on blackboard via Safe Assign and bring another PAPER copy to me. Term Papers handed in late will be marked down one grade (A to B+; B+ to B; etc) for each class period late (see late policy below). Participation (15%): For our discussions to be successful, reading assignments must be completed before the indicated class. Your participation grade will be based on how often you speak up in class and how well you use information from readings and lectures to support your interpretations. You must come prepared to discuss the readings for that day. You may be given additional small assignments to do in correlation with the readings that will count as part of your participation grade. Your attendance will also be taken into consideration. Attendance: Lectures and class discussions will play a crucial role in the course. Class attendance is mandatory. Three unexcused absences are permitted. Each additional unexcused absence will lower your final class grade by a grade (i.e. A to B+, B+ to B, etc.). Excused absences are limited to those that are due to medical emergencies, family emergencies, and university business, which require you to be out of town (such as athletic participation). You must provide evidence of the emergency or university business. Late arrivals are disruptive to the class. Therefore, you will be penalized for late arrivals as well. Three unexcused late arrivals equal one absence.

3 Any student who misses eight or more sessions through any combination of excused and unexcused absences will not earn credit in this course. Such students should withdraw to avoid getting an F in the class. Late or Missed Assignments: Only emergencies that would also result in an excused absence (see above) are valid reasons for submitting an assignment late. Without proof of emergency, any late paper will be marked down. Makeup exams will be offered without a penalty only if you miss the exam due to extreme circumstances, for which you can provide written proof of the situation (doctor s note, funeral notice, bail bond receipt, etc.) All assignments will be marked down one grade (A to B+; B+ to B; etc) for each class period late. All assignments are due in class on the last day of the course, no exceptions. Disabilities: If you have any disabilities that require special accommodation, see the professor immediately. Note on Plagiarism and Academic Responsibilities: You are expected to abide by the University s policy on academic integrity found at While completing the papers for this course, be sure to cite any editorial or explanatory information (e.g. author biographies) you find in the database you select, or in any other source, which shapes your interpretation. If you are caught plagiarizing, your work will be submitted to the Academic Integrity Advisor in the History Department at Rutgers Newark. You risk receiving a 0 for your plagiarized assignment, failing the course, or even being suspended or expelled from Rutgers if you commit plagiarism. WEEK 1: Tuesday 1/17 Introduction to Course Class Schedule Thursday 1/19 What is African American History? Preface to CBA John Hope Franklin: The History of African-American History (on Primary Document: Carter G. Woodson on His Goals for Black History, 1922 (on

4 WEEK 2: Tuesday 1/24 Reconstruction from the Top Down Chapter 7 in CBA: The Larger Reconstruction, Primary Document: Captain Charles Soule, Northern Army Officer, Lectures Ex-Slaves on the Responsibilities of Freedom, 1865 (on Thursday 1/26 Reconstruction from the Bottom Up W.E.B. DuBois Souls of Black Folk forethought, chapter I and II Primary Document: Freedmen of Edisto Island, South Carolina, Demand Land, 1865 (on WEEK 3: Tuesday 1/31 Segregation: Accomodation vs. Radicalism Chapter 8 in CBA: Hard Working People in the Depths of Segregation, 1896-ca DuBois Souls Chapter III, IV, and V Primary Document: Booker T. Washington Atlanta Compromise Speech (on Thursday 2/2 Segregation: Labor and Professionals DuBois Souls Chapter VI VIII Primary Document: David C. Barrow Jr., a Georgia Planter s Son, Describes the Emergence of Sharecropping (on WEEK 4: Tuesday 2/7 Discussion of W.E.B. DuBois Souls of Black Folk Finish DuBois Souls Chapter IX to XI for class discussion Thursday 2/9 The Great Migration Chapter 9 in CBA: The New Negro, Primary Documents: Migrants Letters, 1917 (on WEEK 5: Tuesday 2/14 The New Negro Deborah Gray White Race and Feminism (on Primary Document: Resolutions of the National Association of Colored Women, 1904 (on Thursday 2/16 Marcus Garvey and the UNIA vs. the NAACP David Van Leeuwen, Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association

5 m (url also linked on Primary Document: Marcus Garvey Assesses the Situation for Black People, 1922 (on WEEK 6: Tuesday 2/21 Harlem Renaissance Chapter from Angela Davis Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (on Primary Document: Langston Hughes The Weary Blues, (on Thursday 2/23 A New Deal for African Americans? Chapter 10 in CBA: Radicals and Democrats Primary Document: A Black Cabinet Assembles, 1938 (on WEEK 7: Tuesday 2/28 Midterm Review Thursday 3/1 Midterm Exam WEEK 8: Tuesday 3/6 - African Americans soldiers and International Activists in World War II Chapter from Penny Von Eschen, Satchmo Blows Up the World Primary Document: Images of Jazz Ambassadors in 1950s and 1960s (on Thursday 3/8 Double V for Victory Chapter 11 in CBA The Second World War and the Promise of Internationalism Primary Document: A Marine s Letter to A. Philip Randolph About Discrimination in the Marine Corps, c (on WEEK 9: NO CLASS SPRING BREAK from 3/10-3/18 WEEK 10: Tuesday 3/20 Cold War Civil Rights: Northern Strategy Chapter 12 in CBA Cold War Civil Rights Primary Document: Charles Hamilton Houston Lays out a Legal Strategy for the NAACP, 1935 (on Thursday 3/22 Cold War Civil Rights: Southern Strategy

6 Charles Payne: Ella Baker and Models of Social Change (on Primary Document: Primary Document: Martin Luther King Letter from Birmingham Jail (on WEEK 11: Tuesday 3/27 Freedom Summer and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Chapter 13 in CBA: Protest Makes a Civil Rights Revolution, Primary Document: Fannie Lou Hamer s Speech at the Democratic National Convention (on [ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE] Thursday 3/29 Civil Rights Granted from the Top Down Richard McCormick The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers Introduction and Chapter 1 Primary Document: President Johnson s War on Poverty Speech (on WEEK 12: Tuesday 4/3 The Newark Rebellion In Class Movie: Revolution 67 Richard McCormick The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers Chapter 2 Primary Document: Excerpt from the Kerner Commission Report (on Thursday 4/5 Discussion of The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers Richard McCormick The Black Student Protest Movement at Rutgers Chapter 3 [THESIS STATEMENT AND OUTLINE DUE] WEEK 13: Tuesday 4/10 Black Power Chapter 14 in CBA Black Power, Primary Document: An Interview with Black Panther Jimmy Slater (on Thursday 4/12 The Black Arts Movement James M Harding and Cindy Rosenthal. Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006

7 Primary Document: Song lyrics from song of Sweet Honey and the Rock (on WEEK 14: Tuesday 4/17 Black Politicians from the 1970s to today Chapter 15 in CBA: Authenticity and Diversity in the Era of Hip-Hop Primary Document: Jesse Jackson Addresses the Democratic National Convention, 1988 (on [TERM PAPER DUE] Thursday 4/19 The War on Drugs and the Growth of the Carceral State Heather Thompson, "Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline and Transformation in Postwar American History" (Journal of American History, December 2010) Primary Document: Attica Manifesto, 1971 (on WEEK 15: Tuesday 4/24 Authenticity in Black Art Epilogue in CBA: A Snapshot of African Americans in the Early Twenty-First Century Marvin Gladney The Black Arts Movement and Hip Hop Primary Documents: Hip Hop Song lyrics (on Thursday 4/26 Final Class: Where is Black America Today? Final Exam Review WEEK 16: FINAL EXAM, Tuesday May 8 from 11:45 2:45 p.m.