Major Requirement: History of United States
This course is a survey of African American activism in the United States from 1830 to the middle of the twentieth century. During the semester, we will cover a range of issues and topics, many of which will challenge traditional notions of what constitutes “activism”. The course is primarily structured chronologically, which means that we will cover several dominant themes of African American history, such as resistance to slavery, life in the Jim Crow South, racial violence, black institution building, cultural responses to oppression, and the beginning years of the civil rights movement. Throughout the course, we will use primary documents, books, oral histories, music and websites to further illumine the themes, people and events that make up the content of the course. In our explorations, it is important to remember at least two points: first, that there has always been a movement for black self-determination, participation and recognition in American society, in short, a civil rights movement; and second, that the record of African American sources must be read with this in mind. (Course offered in alternate years.)
Prerequisite: Sophomore Status