AAST/HIST 248
African American History Since 1877
Spring 2017
Mon/Wed/Fri. 2:00-2:50pm, 2LH 312
Johari Jabir,
Office hours: M/W 11am-12noon,
University Hall, room 1203
Email: [email protected]
Description: This course will survey the history of African Americans from 1877 to the present.
The course follows a progression of figures and events, but we will also take into account
historical dissonance; forms of “backlash” and setbacks that contradict narratives of linear
progress. Indeed, “history” is the organizing frame of the course, but this is an interdisciplinary
course that will engage sociology, gender and sexuality studies, black feminist studies, religious
studies, and a range of cultural studies.
Expectations: The format of the course will consist of brief lectures and discussion, along with
film clips and selected music. The assigned reading is to be completed before class. Supplemental
readings are available on Blackboard, as noted on the syllabus. Reading is “fundamental” to this
course. Your class participation depends on your deep reading of the material, and each student is
required to serve as interlocutor at least once during the semester. Attendance is mandatory.
Excessive tardiness, early departure, and absenteeism will negatively impact your grade. Should
you have to miss a class it is your responsibility to inform the instructor well in advance. It is also
your responsibility to acquire class notes from one of your peers, not from the instructor.
Laptops may be used in class for taking notes – only. Fact checking, face book, and other forms
of social media are not allowed during class. Cell Phone usage of any sort is not permitted during
class.
Required Texts:
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of
Modern Urban America
Michele Mitchell, Righteous Propagation: African Americans and the Politics of Racial Destiny
after Reconstruction
Robin D.G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class
Akinyele O. Umoja, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom
Movement
Ta nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
*Grades will not be posted on blackboard. It is not the policy of the instructor to send to you your
final grade via email at the end of the course.
** Your progress and status in the course is your responsibility. Office hours are designed to
discuss the ideas put forth in class as well as your standing in the class.
An excess of 3 unexcused absences will potentially lower your grade by one letter.
Grading, Percentage breakdown
Attendance
Interlocutor (each member is responsible for presenting a question at the start of class)
Mid-term exam
Final Exam
15%
15%
30%
40%
1 Schedule
Mon. Jan. 9: Introductions and Course Expectations
Wed. Jan. 11: Blackboard: The Coming of the Lord, from “Black Reconstruction in America” by
WEB Du Bois
Fri. Jan. 13: Text Muhammad, The Mismeasure of Crime
Mon. Jan. 16: MLK Holiday – No Class
Wed. Jan. 18: Text Muhammad, Saving the Nation: The Racial Data Revolution and the Negro
Problem
Fri. Jan. 20: Text Muhammad, Writing Crime into Race: Racial Criminalization and the Dawn of
Jim Crow
Mon. Jan. 23: Text Muhammad, Incriminating Culture: The Limits of Racial Liberation in the
Progressive Era
Wed. Jan. 25: Text Muhammad, Preventing Crime: White and Black Reformers in Philadelphia
Fri. Jan. 27: Text Muhammad, Fighting Crime: Politics and Prejudice in the City of Brotherly
Love
Mon. Jan. 30: Text Muhammad, Policing Racism: Jim Crow Justice in the Urban North
Wed. Feb. 1: Text Muhammad, The Conundrum of Criminality
Fri. Feb. 3: Blackboard Selection from “Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, ‘Coon
Songs’ & The Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz” Eds, Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff
Mon. Feb. 6: Text Mitchell, A Great, Grand, & All Important Question: African Americans and
the Concept of Racial Destiny
Wed. Feb. 8: Text Mitchell, The Black Man’s Burden: Imperialism and Racial Manhood
Blackboard: Ronald Takaki, The Masculine Thrust Toward Asia from “Iron Cages: Race and
Culture in 19th Century America.”
Fri. Feb. 10: Blackboard, Washing Amazons and Organized Protests from “To Joy My Freedom:
Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War” by Tera W. Hunter,
Mon. Feb. 13: Text Mitchell, The Strongest, Most Intimate Hope of the Race: Sexuality,
Reproduction, and Afro-American Vitality
Blackboard: I Used to be Your Sweet Mama from “Blues, Legacies, and Feminism” by Angela
Davis
Wed. Feb. 15: Text Mitchell, The Righteous Propagation of the Nation: Conduct, Conflict, and
Sexuality & Text Mitchell, Making Home Life Measure Up: Environment, Class, and the Healthy
Race Household
Fri. Feb. 17: Take Home Midterm Exam
Text Mitchell, The Colored Doll Is a Live One! Material Culture, Black Consciousness, and the
Cultivation of Interracial Desire
Mon. Feb. 20: Midterm Due
Blackboard: Atlanta Compromise 1895 Booker T. Washington
Blackboard: The Sorrow Songs from “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois
Wed. Feb. 22: Text Mitchell, What A Pure, Healthy, Unified Race Can Accomplish: Collective
Reproduction and the Sexual Politics of Black Nationalism
Fri. Feb. 24: Blackboard: From Race to Nation: Ethiopia and Pan-African Pageantry in the UNIA
from “Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidary in the African Diaspora” by Shana
Redmond
2 Mon. Feb. 27: Text Kelley, (1)Shiftless of the World Unite & (2)We Are Not What We Seem
Wed. March 1: Text: Kelly, Birmingham’s Untouchables: The Black Poor in the Age of Civil
Rights
Fri. March 3: Text Kelly, Afric’s Sons with Banner Red: African American Communists and the
Politics of Culture, 1919-1934
Blackboard: True Versus False Religion: The Labor-Civil Rights Community & The Struggle to
Define a Progressive Faith, 1935-1941 from “Faith in the City” by Angela D. Dillard
Mon. March 6: Text Kelly, This Ain’t Ethiopia, But it’ll Do: African Americans and the Spanish
Civil War
Wed. March 8: Text Kelly, The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics
during World War II
Fri. March 10: Blackboard (TBD)
Mon. March 13: Text Umoja, Terror and Resistance: Foundations of the Civil Rights Insurgency
Wed. March 15: Text Umoja, I’m Here, Not Backing Up: Emergence of Grassroots Militancy
and Armed Self-Defense in the 1950s
Fri. March 17: Text Umoja, Can’t Give Up My Stuff: Nonviolent Organizations and Armed
Resistance
March 20 – 24 Spring Break
Mon. March 27: Text Umoja, Local People Carry the Date: Freedom Summer and Challenges to
Nonviolence in Mississippi
Wed. March 29: Text Umoja, Ready to Die and Defend: Natchez and the Advocacy and
Emergence of Armed Resistance in Mississippi
Fri. March 31: Text Umoja, We Didn’t Turn No Jaws: Black Power, Boycotts, and the Growing
Debate on Armed Resistance
Mon. April 3: Umoja, Black Revolution Has Come: Armed Insurgency, Black Power, and
Revolutionary Nationalism in the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
Wed. April 5: Text Umoja, No Longer Afraid: The United League, Activist, Litigation, Armed
Self-Defense, and Insurgent Resilience in Northern Mississippi
Fri. April 7: Blackboard Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin
Mon. April 10: Blackboard Kimberle` Williams Crenshaw, Color Blindness, History, and the
Law from “The House That Race Built” ed. Wahneema Lubiano
Wed. April 12: Blackboard Cornel West, Nihilism in Black America
Fri. April 14: Blackboard Patricia Hill Collins, Why We Can’t Wait: Black Sexual Politics and the
Challenge of HIV/AIDS from “Black Sexual Politics”
Mon. April 17: Blackboard My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew, James Baldwin (The Fire
Next Time) & Text Coates, Between the World and Me Chapter I
Wed. April 19: Text Coates, Between the World and Me Chapter II
Fri. April 21: Blackboard Down at the Cross, James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
Mon. April 24: Blackboard
Wed. April 26: (TBD)
Fri. April 28: Last Day of Class
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