Introduction to African American History: Emancipation to Civil Rights Movement (212-2-20)
Instructors
Martha Biondi
Meeting Info
University Hall 102: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This course offers a general introduction to the history of African Americans in the United States from emancipation through the Reconstruction Era, Age of Jim Crow, Golden Age of Black Nationalism, and Long Civil Rights Movement and Black Power. With an acute eye toward human agency, students will explore the myriad ways in which African Americans mobilized their collective resources to demand the recognition of their rights as citizens, women and men, and, more broadly, human beings. This course, thus, explores the myriad ways in which historical actors at the center of dramas challenged racial segregation, exclusion, and discrimination—structural features endemic to U.S. society. In the process, students will engage a problem central to United States history: How do we figure African Americans relationship to the ideologies and institutions at the center of American political development from marginal and subordinate positions? And in what ways do the histories of African Americans demand a rethinking of those ideals embedded in the nation's highest documents?
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: PRE-REG: Reserved for African American Studies majors & minors.