UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1860 HIS 357D, AMS 321F, AFR 357D URB 353 Spring 2018 Professor Juliet E.K. WAlker Professor Juliet E.K. WAlker Office Hours Office: Garrison 2-136 MWF 10-11, 12:00-1:00, 2:30-3:30 512-471-5581 By appointment [email protected] TTH "This course may be used to fulfill three hours of the U.S. history component of the university core curriculum and addresses the following four core objectives established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: communication skills, critical thinking skills, personal responsibility, and social responsibility." COURSE DESCRIPTION Assessments of the historic experience of African Americans from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era and the Second Reconstruction, i.e., the post-Civil Rights Era from the 1970s through 2017, provide the focus of this course. Emphasis will be placed on the political, economic, including the business activities, as well as social and cultural activities of African Americans. The course begins with assessing the Black American experience during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In the immediate first post- Reconstruction, the Exodus of 1879 is considered along with the founding and building of Black Towns. Also, significant Supreme Court decisions, and extralegal means, including violence, which led to the disfranchisement and segregation of Blacks, that is, the rise of Jim Crow, at the turn of the century are discussed. The Great Migration of the WWI era is examined and the ideologies of black leaders during that period (1900-1930), W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells and Marcus Garvey are compared. Particularly, the establishment of black businesses is examined and compared with white corporate America during the turn of the early twentieth century Industrial Revolution. The rise of the black urban ghetto and impact of the African American working class as it relates to African American culture provide the focus for examining the twentieth century Black Experience. The Harlem Renaissance, the conditions of blacks in the Great Depression, their military participation in WWII, Ralph Bunche’s United Nation’s contribution, the Korean Conflict and the 1954 Brown decision provide an introduction to the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s, including subsequent black military participation in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Assessments are made of the riots in the 1960s, Los Angeles 1992, Ferguson 2014, Charlotte, 2016; ideologies of Black leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, black organizations, NAACP, Urban League CORE, SNCC, Black Panthers, black fraternities/sororities. Agendas of post-Civil rights era black leaders Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Al Sharpton and black business leaders, Bob Johnson (BET), Oprah Winfrey, Houston-based Case Lawal. The post- Civil Rights era rise of national black political leaders is examined: US Senators, Edward Brooke, Carol Moseley-Braun and Congresswomen Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Sheila Jackson-Lee and presidential appointees: Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Eric Holder appointed under 1 President Barack Hussein Obama the first African American president of the United States, elected in 2008 and served to January 2017. Also, two African Americans have been appointed Supreme Court Justices: Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Clarence Thomas. Yet, who are the rising new black political leaders such as New Jersey United States Senator Cory Booker? Still, of all racial/ethnic groups in the US, African American incomes are at the bottom and black business profits are less than 1% of total USA business profits. The course ends with commentaries on the retrenchment in affirmative action policies, late twentieth century black conservatism, and the commodification of African American culture seen in the wealth of the superstar athletes and hip hop entrepreneurs. Then, too, the new technology led to the first two black billionaires, Robert Johnson (BET) and Oprah. And, did the Internet with viral social networking websites, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Black Planet Google+, “Black News,” “Griot” and YouTube streaming videos, provide a basis for Barack Obama to emerge as the front-runner in the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Significantly, the course begins with a Civil War, marking an end of slavery and the beginning of black political participation. But what about Civil Rights, the 1868 14th Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What does this say about, race/racism in America? What about Katrina in New Orleans in 2009 as well as “the $40 Million Dollar slave,” 153 years after the 13th Amendment? Also, what has been the impact of the nation’s changing racial demographics on African Americans in the 21st century? And, how do we explain the continued racial violence in America and protest in 2014-2015 that claimed: “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breath”? Being among the last generation of the millennial cohort, those consisting of individuals born from 1982-2004, how do you view your future in America? REQUIRED TEXTS Coates, Ta-Nehisi, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy Collier-Thomas, B. & Franklin, V.P. Sisters in Struggle: African-American Women Civil Rights- Black Power Franklin, John H. and Evelyn Higginbotham, From Slavery to Freedom, 9th ed, paper Harris, Robert and Terborg-Penn, R. The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 Holt Thomas and Barkley-Brown, E., Major Problems, African American History vol 2 Krugler, David, 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back Walker, Juliet E. K. Course Packet, History Black Business: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, chps 6-11 Co-op CFO textbook rental program ...Rental books can either be returned at the Co-op buy back counter or purchased at a discount of the rental price. If needed, Kindle books Suggested Books— Anderson, Carol, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide Cha-Jua, Sundiata K. America's First Black Town, Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830-1915 Collier-Thomas, Franklin, V.P. Sisters in Struggle: African-American Women, Civil Rights-Black Power Dyson, Michael, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America Gill, Tiffany, Beauty Shop Politics; African American Women’s Activism in the Beauty Industry Glasrud, Bruce and J. Smallwood, eds., The African American Experience in TeXas: An Anthology Lang, Clarence, Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics, Black Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, 1936-75 Makalani, Minkah, In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism Harlem to London, 1917-39 Mills, Quincy, Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America Moore, Leonard N. Black Rage New Orleans: Police Brutality & African American Activism WWII-Katrina Rhoden, William, Forty Million Dollar Slaves: Rise, Fall, Redemption of the Black Athlete Smith-Shomade, Beretta, Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy: Selling Black Entertainment Television Shapiro, Thomas, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality 2 COURSE REQUIREMENTS DATE DUE PERCENT OF GRADE Midterm Exam 1 (Take-home) March 5 25 HistoryMakers Report Apr 16 10 Panel Group Presentations Apr 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 27, 5 Apr 30, May 2, 4 Oral History Research Paper May 4 30 Final Exam (Take-home) May 7 30 EXAMINATIONS Midterm and Final All exams are essay. The take-home essay midterm exam will be distributed in class Friday, March 2 to be returned in class Monday, March 5. NO LATE EXAMS ACCEPTED. Lecture outlines, distributed each week, include, “consider” questions, the basis of the exams, and should be answered each week. The Final Exam is take-home. I strongly suggest that you keep up-to- date in answering the “consider questions,” listed on lecture outlines as a basis to prepare for any exam exigencies, such as computer problems, printing problems, car problems, personal problems, unexpected illnesses, deaths in family. Or, students take a three-hour in-class final exam-no books, notes, and computers. The Exams will focus on two chronological time periods The Midterm Exam, distributed March 2, will cover course material from 1861 to 1939, that is from the Civil War, Reconstruction, Post-Reconstruction, Black Economic Life, Rise of Jim Crow, early twentieth century Black Leaders 1860s to 1930s, WWI, the Great Depression and New Deal to 1939. It will be due Monday, March 5. Students who do not turn in the exam on that date can take an in-class exam. No papers, books, etc. allowed. Final Exam 2, will cover course materials from 1940-2018 Topics include Blacks in the US Military from 1945 to 2018, including Korean War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Middle East. Also, Black Urban and Economic life, Prelude to Brown, Black Freedom Movement, Civil Rights Protest, Civil Rights Acts, Black Power, Riots, War on Poverty, Black Women’s Rights Momentum and Black Capitalism. Also, the Post Civil Rights Era, Black Entrepreneurship, Diversity, Black Politics, Hip Hop and Commodification of Black Culture, Black Organizations, Election of first African American President and Black Women’s Rights Momentum. CLASS ORAL HISTORY RESEARCH PAPER Your topic for the oral history paper can be selected from any 20th century to 21st century topics mentioned in the Course Introduction, including post-Civil Rights era contemporary issues in African