History 512:268 From Plantation to White House: Race, Nation, and the African American Experience*
Dr. Deborah Gray White Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History [email protected] Office Hours: M 11:30 – 12:30 pm and by appointment
Teaching Assistants (Office Hours by appointment): Ms. Kaisha Esty, [email protected] Ms. Beatrice Adams, [email protected] Course Description and Objectives How did a black man become President of the United States? How did a people who were, such a short time ago, on the margins of citizenship move to the center of political power in a land where their color and ascribed status marked them as outsiders. And what does Barack Obama’s election say about race and race relations in this country? These are just some of the questions that this course will address. But there are many more. Obama’s interracial and international heritage prompts us to explore “who is black in America?” Can someone choose to be black or is blackness thrust upon one. “What does it mean to be brown in America today?” Can a person choose their race? To answer these question students will explore America’s early legal and social history. We will explore the history of intermarriage for clues that reveal how American and African American identity is, and has been, forged. It is actually Michelle Obama’s heritage that takes us from American slave plantations to the White House. Her ascendancy to the position of First Lady provokes a series of interrogations about the intersection of a history of slavery, race, women and gender in America. There is also an institutional history that must be examined. What institutions, developed along what models, sustained black people and their allies in their quest for inclusion? Of course, there is always the counterfactual “what if.” What if African Americans had chosen to opt out? To relocate or repatriate en mass or to repudiate American citizenship in large numbers? Why didn’t they? The issue of resistance is one that emerges with enslavement and continues to the present. And what of racism? When and how did it begin here in America; how was it sustained; what groups have been its victim and has it disappeared? This class will address these issues and many others by linking the American past and present in a broad interdisciplinary discussion.
Core Goals 1) Relate contemporary issues to historical precedents and learn how the past informs the present. 2) Learn about American social movements to discern their impact on contemporary American life. 3) Learn how race has been deployed in the United States to affect an individual's life chances. 4) Compare and contrast the meaning and function of race in the past and present and discern how change has occurred over time. 5) Learn to critically interpret historical narratives to understand the importance of who is speaking and how that affects their content. 6) Improve writing and critical thinking through writing discussion papers.
Readings The weekly readings required in this course average 75 to 150 pages. Students are expected to do all the reading, and be prepared to discuss readings in class. Please bring your readings to class with you. If not in assigned books, readings can be found on sakai. Please use the resources tab on the left of the class site to access readings.
Discussion Papers To facilitate discussion, two-page comments on the reading must be written for each class. They should be typed, and they should summarize and discuss the assigned reading, including all the authors listed for that discussion day. These comments will be collected by the teaching assistants at unannounced times during the semester. Your comments will be graded with a letter grade. Late comments will not be accepted (except in the case of excused absences). Please note that plagiarism is a violation of University Policy and subject to disciplinary proceedings.
Exams In addition to discussion assignments, course participants must complete two exams, a mid-term and a final. Both exams will be based on the readings, discussions, and lectures. Students are expected to adhere to the University code of personal integrity. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will be handled in accordance with University policy of academic integrity.
Attendance Attendance is mandatory. At the beginning of lecture, please sign in with your teaching assistant, note that you must also sign in if you arrive after the lecture has started. Please do so after class. Beginning the first week you are expected to attend the entire class. More than three unexcused absences (medical, family emergency) will lower your grade one letter grade. Six unexcused absences will result in failure. Arriving in class more than five minutes after class begins will count as half an absence. Signing in and leaving early (without notifying the TA) is a triple absence. If you cannot get to this class on time due to a schedule conflict, do not enroll in this class.
Course Grade The course grade will be divided as follows: each examination will count for 30% of your grade. Class participation and attendance will also count for 20%. The final 20% will be based on your discussion papers. Extra credit may be earned for attending relevant university lectures. In such cases, attendance counts only if student stays for the entire presentation and writes a two page précis discussing the important points and one’s opinion of them. Although Rutgers does not register minus (-) grades you might receive minus and plus grades in this class which will be averaged to determine your final grade. Grade breakdown is based on the following values: A=4.0; A- = 3.75; B+ = 3.33; B = 3.0; B- = 2.75; C+ = 2.33; C= 2.0; C- = 1.75; D+ = 1.33; D=1.0; F = 0.
Please note that this syllabus is subject to change.*
Books (Rutgers Bookstore)
Edward Countryman, ed., How Did American Slavery Begin (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1999) Heather Williams, Help Me To Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012) Thavolia Gymph, Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Donna Murch, Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010) Eugene Robinson, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America (New York: Doubleday, 2010) Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: New Press, 2010)
Subject and Assignment Schedule
September 3 Introduction to the class and a look at how the election of Barack Obama inspired this African American history course
September 8: Slavery and Race in Early America [Monday Classes Meet on Tuesday] This class will explore the long-standing debate in American history about whether slavery caused racism or racism caused slavery. In order to better understand contemporary debates about the importance of race, we will go back into the formative period in America in the late seventeenth century during which race based chattel slavery emerged from an earlier system of indentured servitude. Class will discuss readings in the context of the first episode of the film “Africans in the Americas.”
Readings: A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. in Countryman, How Did American Slavery Begin “How did the subject of slavery enter American law?”; Edmond S. Morgan in Countryman, “Did American freedom rest upon American slavery; Winthrop Jordan (sakai), “First Impressions: Initial English Confrontation with Africans” and “Unthinking Decision: Enslavement of Africans in America to 1700” from Whiteman’s Burden.
September 10: One Drop Rule The One Drop Rule: Our current president, Barack Obama, is of mixed race ancestry. Beginning with colonial America we will explore how mixed raced people were classified in the United States. We will start with the contemporary period and go back into the past.
Readings: Jordan in Countryman, “American Chiaroscuro: The Status and Definition of Mulattoes in the British Colonies; Paul Finkleman (sakai), “Crimes of Love, Misdemeanors of Passion” in Catherine Clinton and Michelle Gillespie, eds. The Devils Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); Virginia Gould (sakai), “A Chaos of Iniquity and Discord” in Devils Lane.
September 14: The American Revolution and the Rise of Herrenvolk Democracy This lecture will trace African Americans’ push for emancipation during the Revolutionary War Era and their continued struggles for citizenship in the Age of Andrew Jackson.
Readings: David Roediger (sakai), Chs. 2-4, Wages of Whiteness; Thomas Jefferson (sakai), “Notes on the State of Virginia”; Frederick Douglass (sakai) “Fourth of July Speech
September 17: [Sections meet in respective classrooms] The Plantation and Its Regime We start with Hilton Head, talk about Michelle Obama’s family, and compare and contrast what a plantation means today and what it meant back then. Work and resistance will be a major theme.
Readings: “In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery” (sakai) from New York Times (October 7, 2009); Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, Chpts. 1-2
September 21: African American Traditions of Resistance This lecture will explore resistance to the institution of slavery from free and bondsmen and women. Drawing on a range of methods, from speech, literacy, running away and organized revolts, we will talk about this long tradition in early African American history.
Readings: David Walker’s Appeal (sakai); Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, chpts. 3-4, pp. 63-136; Williams, chpt 1-2.
September 24: Black Reconstruction This lecture will deal with self-emancipation; the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments; electoral politics and return to the post-emancipation implications of the one-drop rule. Emphasis will be on African American desire to become first–class citizens.
Readings: Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, chpts. 4-7, pp. 137-227; Williams chpts 4-5.
September 28: Birth of a Nation Showcasing clips from “Birth of a Nation,” this lecture will explore the racial, gender, and class politics of early twentieth century America, and consider how southern ideas of segregation influenced American politics and culture in the era of Jim Crow. “Slavery By Another Name”, will be viewed.
Readings: Williams chpts 6
October 1: Black Modernity This lecture will document the forging of a proud New Negro black identity and related strategies to gain full citizenship. We will also explore parallelism, which drove the creation of a number of new black institutions in the first two decades of the twentieth century: Film: A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School
Readings: Williams, Epilogue
October 5: Black Modernity (con’t) [Sections meet in respective classrooms] We will explore the political strategies put forth by African American leaders for full participation in American society.
Readings: Darlene Clark Hine (sakai), “Black Professionals and Race Consciousness: Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, 1890–1950” Journal of American History, (89: 4) March 2003
October 8: Black Modernity (con’t) This lecture will explore how race segmented the New Deal, shaped the emerging system of social welfare, and created fault lines within the Democratic Party. This section will lay the framework for Long Civil Rights Movement spanning the 1930s through the 1970s. Film: “Making a Way Out of No Way.”
Readings: Katznelson: Rules for Work and Welfare in Black and White;” (sakai); Mayor’s Commission on Conditions in Harlem, “The Negro in Harlem: A Report on Social and Economic Conditions Responsible for the Outbreak of March 19, 1935;”
October 12: The Arsenal of Democracy World War II: An exploration of why many think that black America’s freedom struggle begins with the increased expectations aroused during the “Good War.” An examination of the uses of the “social media” of the day.
Readings: “Selected Letters from Soldiers at the Front” We Were There (sakai); Kimberley Phillips (sakai), “War! What Is It Good For?: Conscription and Migration in Black America”
October 15: Victory at Home This lecture introduces the massive changes of the war era, inaugurated by the two of the largest population movements in history: suburbanization for white Americans and the Second Great migration by African Americans. Film: part 4 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.
Readings: A. Philip Randolph (sakai), “Call to the March on Washington of 1941,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Executive Order 8802, Fair Employment Practice Commission”; Robin Kelley (sakai), “The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics during WWII” in Race Rebels: Black Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class
October 19: Cold War Civil Rights [Sections meet in respective classrooms] America has always been concerned with its image abroad. Here we will explore how African Americans internationalized the civil rights movement and how anti-communism almost derailed the civil rights movements.
Readings: Mary Dudziak (sakai), “Telling Stories About Race and Democracy from “Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000); Thomas Borstelmann (sakai), “The Last Hurrah of the Old Color Line” from The Cold War and the Color Line : American Race Relations in the Global Arena (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001); Paul Robeson (sakai), “You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves
October 22 Midterm Exam
October 26: Post-War America So much of contemporary America’s racial politics was established during the 1950’s. This class looks at the post-war domestic scene with an eye on the effect of the GI Bill and mortgage policies and McCartheyism. Film: “The House We Live In”
Readings: Karen Sacks, “How Did Jews Become White Folks”; Murch, chpts 1-2.
October 29: Defying Dixie The Civil Rights Movement laid the foundation for the election of President Barack Obama. Here we will explore the early or “classic” civil rights movement and view clips and listen to speeches from the period. Film: The Murder of Emmitt Till
Readings: Murch, chpts, 3-4
November 2: The Ballot or the Bullet The push for Voting Rights and the turn toward nationalism. This section will explore the alternate tradition of black politics that looked not to appeals for citizenship and incorporation but to creating “a nation within a nation.” Excerpts from speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Readings: Malcolm X (sakai), “The Ballot or the Bullet;” Murch, chpt 5
November 5: The Fire this Time This lecture continues themes from the previous week and explores the rise of Black Radicalism and Black Power in the era of the urban rebellions.
Readings: Murch, chpts 6-Conclusion
November 9: Black Family, Nationalism, and the Problem of Patriarchy [Sections Meet] Much has been made of the wholesome family image projected by the Obama’s. The sixties image of the black family and black men and women was quite different. The black family was a subject of controversy and the image projected by black nationalist men was controversial. This class will explore these matters. Images of the Obama’s will highlight this class.
Readings: Excerpts from (sakai) The Negro Family: A Case for National Action (The Moynihan Report, Tangle of Pathology); Excerpts from Michelle Wallace (sakai), Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (New York: Verson Press, 1999 [1978] Tracye A. Mathews (sakai), “No One Ever Asks What a Man’s Role in the Revolution Is”: Gender Politics and Leadership in the Black Panther Party, 1966-1971” in Bettye Collier-Thomas and V. P. Franklin, Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001)
November 12: “Black is Beautiful” For this class period, we will watch “Wattstax” which has been described as the “Black Woodstock.” With its oral history interview and live performances, this documentary film is a remarkable primary source that highlights the vibrancy of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements at their zenith in 1972. It also shows the intersection between popular culture, electoral politics, and postwar social movements. “Wattstax,” sponsored by the Stax record company, commemorates the Watts rebellion and reveals its importance to Black historical memory and self concept.
Readings: Nancy Maclean (sakai), “The Rightness of Whiteness,” from Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006); Ronald Reagan’s States Rights Speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi
November 16: Black Electoral Power and Racial Retrenchment Obama started his career in public service in Chicago as a community organizer. This class will look at the urban landscapes of the last quarter of the 20th century and explore the issues that an increasing number of black mayors and elected officials faced. It will also explore the rise of the backlash against new found black political access, the rise of the New Right and the election of Ronal Reagan.
Readings: David R. Colburn (sakai), “Running for Office: African-American Mayors from 1967 to 1996”; Heather Ann Thompson (sakai), “The Rise of Mayor Coleman Young and the Politics of Race in Detroit”
November 19: Boston Against Busing and the Struggle for Affirmative Action This class will screen the episode from Eyes on the Prize entitled Keys to the Kingdom.
Readings: “Jewish Americans Divide Over Justice,” “Conservative Shift from ‘Massive Resistance’ to Color Blindness” from Freedom Is Not Enough (sakai); Alexander, The New Jim Crow, chpt 1.
November 23: A Nation of Law; Mass Incarceration in the age of Law and Order [Sections Meet] This class will continue the exploration of American conservatism and its manifestation via the implementation of law and order tactics. The film Broken On All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration and New Visions for Criminal Justice in the U.S. will be viewed
Readings: Alexander, The New Jim Crow, chpt 2-4
November 26: Thanksgiving Break
November 30: The New Diversity in Black America In the last decade of the twentieth century black America emerged as a very diverse people. This class will explore the reasons for the diversity and the tension it gave rise to. It will explore how new definitions of blackness came to undergird Obama’s victory.
Readings: Robinson, Disintegration, 1-25, 77-138; Alexander, The New Jim Crow, chpt 5
December 3: The Bush Presidency The failures of the George W. Bush presidency paved the way for the Obama victory. This class will look at Bush policies including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Katrina debacle and the economic collapse.
Readings: Robinson, Disintegration, 139-190; Alexander, The New Jim Crow, chpt 6
December 7: The Obama Promise [Sections Meet] This class explores the promises made by candidate Obama and the hope his campaign inspired. The film, By the People will be viewed.
Readings: Robinson, Disintegration, 191-238; Gloria Steinem (sakai), “Women Are Never Front Runners” from NYT, 1-1-2008; Obama Speech on Race (sakai)
December 10: Summary and Final Observations The class will end with a discussion of Obama’s first term in office. It will look at his presidency in the context of contemporary times and American and African American history.
Readings: Obama’s speech on Race (sakai).
Final Exam: December 16, 12 noon – 3pm
*This syllabus is subject to change. As such, it is by no means a contract or guarantee that all subjects will be addressed as stated herein.