Department of History, The University of British Columbia, 2016-17, Term One
H335
FROM SLAVERY TO CITIZENSHIP, ‘JIM CROW’ APARTHEID TO CIVIL RIGHTS – & BEYOND:
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY, 1850-2016
Prof. Paul Krause
Office Phone: 604.822.5168; e-mail: krause at mail dot ubc dot ca
Home Page: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/pkrause/index.html
Lectures (With Discussions): Tues., B215, and Thurs., Math 203
11:00-12:30
Office Hours: Tues., 1:30-3:00, 1122 Buchanan Tower
INTRODUCTION
This course examines a variety of issues in the history of Americans of African ancestry
from the decade before the U.S. Civil War through 2016. A central focus of the course is the
19th Century and the problems of emancipation and Reconstruction, the period immediately
after the war. We concentrate on the 19th Century because three of the most important
questions in African-American History, in U.S. History, in Western History, and indeed in World
History – the meanings of freedom, of democracy, and of race – come into sharp focus in this
period. The definitions that various groups gave or tried to give to these ideas and to practices
of them in the 19th Century continue to shape our world in the 21st, as unfolding political
processes and events in the U.S. remind us on a daily basis.
The other topics that we will consider in H335 are related to the big issues of freedom,
democracy, and race and to various struggles and battles to define them. Among these other
topics: the emergence of the American system of apartheid in the era of “Jim Crow;” the
Harlem Renaissance; the Civil Rights Movement; and the contemporary economic and political
status of Americans of African ancestry.
The readings, drawn from primary and secondary works in history and the social
sciences, as well as from the American literary canon, focus on groups as well as on
representative men and women – some famous, but many who lived at a distance from the
centre stage of history. By examining the lives of selected individuals and groups, this course
asks you to explore the meaning of freedom, democracy, and race in the United States, and, in
particular, to investigate the relationship of freedom and democracy to the question of race
and the problem of racism. As the readings, lectures, and video presentations will suggest, the
inextricably linked question of gender also will be explored carefully – even when our texts may
seem oblivious to it.
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 1
Above all, perhaps, this course asks that you think about the past as a set of problems
and questions, and not merely as a simple narrative of events, and that you extend yourselves
beyond an engagement with various aspects of the history of African Americans to consider
how such history “works” in the present. Accordingly, we will be investigating how parts of the
past seem to have been silenced, and how we might come to “unsilence” them.
We will need to work on unsilencing ourselves, and our lectures and discussions are
intended to help in the effort.
Some of the highlights of this syllabus include:
1.) The opening module of the course on contemporary issues addresses the deaths of
Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Jr., Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Oscar
Grant (whose death is interrogated by the film, “Fruitvale Station”), John Crawford
III, Eric Garner, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile – among other men of color who
have been killed in the recent past. At the beginning of the term, we will read TaNehisi Coates’s new meditation on racialized killing and violence, Between The
World and Me, and study the PBS documentary by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “The Two
Nations of Black America.” This film frames the course, and we will revisit it in
December. The film points to the large issue of racially-inflected wealth inequity that
stands at the centre of contemporary American life.
2.) We will be reading three compelling novels – Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were
Watching God, Richard Wright’s Black Boy/American Hunger, and Toni Morrison’s
Beloved – and also studying Charles Burnett’s masterful film, “Killer of Sheep.” Over
and above the vexing problems of pain and humor, memory, and inequity that these
works explore, they also raise questions about the relationship between history, as a
discipline and as lived experience, and literature and cinema. These questions will be
explicitly addressed at the end of the course in the work of the literary and film
critic, Benjamin DeMott.
3.) Additionally, H335 has been built around a number of award-winning
documentaries, including “Reconstruction: The Second Civil War,” and several
episodes from “Eyes on the Prize,” which stands as the best visual history of the civil
rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s – often referred to as “The Second
Reconstruction.” A compelling one-person performance by Cleavon Little, the star of
Mel Brooks’s disarmingly poignant and singularly obnoxious farce, “Blazing Saddles,
in a theatrical memoir of sharecropping in Alabama, “All God’s Dangers,” may well
prove to be the video highlight of the term.
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 2
READINGS
There is no textbook for H332, but Darlene Clark Hine et al, African Americans: A
Concise History, or other surveys, may prove helpful. They are readily available from used
booksellers, and I have multiple editions that you are free to borrow.
In addition to the course pack, which is on sale at the UBC Bookstore, the required texts
are:
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World And Me
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation & Reconstruction
Richard Wright, Black Boy/American Hunger (part one only; part two is optional)
Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality (revised edition)
Toni Morrison, Beloved
The course pack contains the following selections:
1. Benjamin DeMott, "Put on a Happy Face: Masking the differences between
blacks and whites," Harper's Magazine, September 1995.
2. Richard Hofstadter, “Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth,” selection
from The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (1948).
3. Roger B. Taney, “Obiter Dictum,” Scott v. Sandford (1857).
4. Nell Irvin Painter, “Soul Murder & Slavery: Toward a Fully Loaded Cost
Accounting” (2002).
5. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of
History (1997), selections.
6. Alan Brinkley et al, “Reconstructing the Nation,” selection from American
History: A Survey (1991).
7. Eric Foner, “The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation” (1994).
8. An Outline in Maps – African-American History from the Civil War through the
1920s.
9. Ida B. Wells, “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” (1892).
10. Charles Payne, “Men Led, But Women Organized: Movement Participation of
Women in the Mississippi Delta” (1990), and “Ella Baker and Models of
Social Change” (1989).
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 3
WHO CAN TAKE THIS COURSE? ARE THERE ANY PREREQUISITES?
Anyone is welcome to enroll. It is not necessary to have a background in AfricanAmerican History or in the history of the United States. H334 is not a prerequisite for this
course.
WHAT ARE THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF H332?
Students who complete this course successfully will possess an understanding of the
broad outlines of African-American History from the 1850s to the present day. By the end of the
term, students should be able to:
Explain the origins of the U.S. Civil War.
Appraise the root causes and the immediate effects of the abolition of
slavery in the United States.
Discuss and analyze the successes and failures of Reconstruction and
their contemporary significance.
Compare and contrast four magisterial works in imaginative American
and African-American literature and cinema, Black Boy/American
Hunger, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Beloved, and “Killer of
Sheep,” and discuss in an informed way the general relationship
linking fiction and history.
Discuss the origins, workings, and dismantling of American apartheid.
Explain the origins of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the key role
played in it by women, and assess the movement’s lasting impact.
Offer an argument about why, in 2016, racial inequities remain a part of
U.S. society.
Analyze, in general terms, how master historical narratives come to be
created and, with particular reference to African-American History,
how they are created and sometimes challenged.
Assess the possibility of studying history – any history and AfricanAmerican History, in particular – without engaging and deploying
gender as a category of analysis.
HOW CAN I SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE? WHAT WILL BE EXPECTED OF ME, ACADEMICALLY AND
MORE GENERALLY? WHAT ARE THE GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR MARKS?
In the realm of marks, your success will depend upon careful reading and note-taking, a
willingness to take intellectual risks, and a desire to explore what the novelist and critic Ralph
Ellison once labeled the “tradition of forgetfulness…, of denying the past, of converting the
tragic realities of ourselves but most often of others, even if those others are of our own group,
into comedy.”
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 4
Participation in the lectures and discussions is an essential part of your success. What
does participation mean? It means active engagement with your colleagues; it means asking
questions and listening carefully to others; it means trying to answer questions and having the
courage to share your ideas; it means coming to class prepared – that is, coming to class with
having completed the reading. On some days, our discussions will be brief; on other days, we
will collectively dig more expansively into the materials we are studying. If you are shy or
predisposed to maintain silence in a group, you will not be penalized; just drop by my office to
let me know that you find public speaking to be a difficult, if not impossible, task. No questions
will be asked. All those who find a way to speak in public are eligible for a maximum of 10
bonus points/marks, but bear in mind that such points/marks will be awarded on the basis of
the quality, and not quantity, of your contributions, and especially on how well you can respond
with integrity, courage, and empathy to your colleagues – especially when you may disagree
with them.
Each of us shares the responsibility for how well H335 will work. Accordingly, we need
to build an environment where everyone feels welcome, and where all of our ideas are
respected and where they can be explored and criticized. This means above all that it is our
shared responsibility to ensure that everyone in the class is comfortable in it, and that no one
feel ill-at-ease for reasons of age or gender, economic standing, political preference, race,
ethnic or religious background, national origin, or sexual orientation. It therefore follows that
jokes at anyone’s expense other than that of the instructor are not permitted. You can always
make fun of me, as I am a willing and easy target, but please refrain from making fun of your
colleagues. What may seem like a harmless joke to you may not be a joke to someone else, and
the results of the unintended but nonetheless real hurt and pain of an alleged joke are almost
always impossible to obliterate. Please be careful.
The issues of workplace safety and of sexual assault and predation are of paramount
importance, and it requires that all of us adhere to codes of behavior – in and out of the
classroom and indeed wherever we encounter each other – that respect the emotional and
physical integrity of all of our colleagues, and the well-known, established behavioral and social
boundaries which, as newspapers and television remind us on a daily basis, all-too-often
continue to be breached – as they have been at UBC and indeed in the Department of History
itself. My expectation is that all of us will abide by the guidelines for appropriate behavior
outlined by UBC, as well as by these more directly stated standards of H335.
I have some understanding of how to negotiate the bureaucracies at UBC; should you
have need of assistance regarding the problem of predation and assault, I stand ready to direct
you to empathic, wise persons on campus who can provide professional support. In this, I can
assure you of utter confidentiality.
UBC has a policy on the matter of respectful environments for students, faculty, and
staff. It is available here: http://www.hr.ubc.ca/respectful-environment/. And you may find
some of UBC’s recent updates on the issue of sexual assault and workplace safety here:
http://www.ubc.ca/staysafe/. The university has stated that it is in the process of revising its
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 5
policies on sexual assault. Check out the updates here: http://equity.ubc.ca/sexual-assaultpolicy-development/. Additional links to recent problems at UBC may be found at this page on
my web site: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/pkrause/page22.html. I will be updating this page, and
others, on a regular basis.
No one likes to deal with marks, but they are a fact of our university lives. In H335, you
will be rewarded for consistently doing your work over the course of the entire term, as your
reader’s reports on our assigned texts will provide you with an opportunity to enhance your
mark – and also will help you prepare for the final written assignment. The details of the
reports and of the final may be found below.
In general, the marking for H335 follows these guidelines: Work that receives an “A” is
inspired: it demonstrates a thorough grasp of the material and an original understanding of it.
Work that receives a “B” means that it constitutes a strong performance and demonstrates a
good understanding of the material. Note that a “C” in this class means that you have done
pretty well and that you have attained an adequate comprehension of the material we cover. In
order to get this mark, you must do all of the work and complete all of the reading. Work that
receives a “D” is inadequate, usually because it contains serious gaps and misunderstandings.
An “F” will be awarded if your work is completely inadequate, that is, if it reveals that you have
no real understanding of the material we have covered.
Remember that marks are merely an evaluation of your work, and not a comment on
your intelligence. They are not an evaluation of you as a person. And they are not a comment
on how hard you have worked. It is possible in this class to work very hard – the hardest you
have ever worked in a class at UBC – and still receive a “B” or a “C.” Curiously, perhaps, the
more you concentrate on marks and on the results, the less well you may do. In learning, it is
the process that matters and, I believe, it is the process which in the end determines the
results. So, work hard, take notes when you read – I can help with strategies about this – and
ask questions. If you can do this, the results should take care of themselves.
If you are experiencing difficulties with the readings, please come see me. We can
discuss the troublesome material or, if you like, some general strategies for doing the work in
H335. Don’t wait until November; drop by early in the term. I always am happy to meet with
students. Really.
WHAT ARE THE GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDANCE, DEADLINES, AND INTEGRITY?
What we do in class will help you make sense out of our readings, which are the core of
this course. Therefore, attendance is mandatory. If you have a valid reason for missing a class,
please let me know in advance by sending an e-mail to me at: krause @ mail dot ubc dot ca. If
you become seriously ill or have any sort of crisis that interferes with your work, please let me
know so that we can discuss strategies for dealing with the situation and possible exceptions to
our regular deadlines. If you do not inform me of the extraordinary circumstances that you may
be facing, all work must be completed on time. You will find me sympathetic and flexible if you
find yourself in a difficult situation; however, if you do not inform me, in advance, you will be
expected to complete your work on time.
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 6
In the realm of academic integrity, you are expected to refrain from cheating, lying, or
engaging in acts of plagiarism. All written work in H335 should be prepared and completed by
each individual student. If you borrow someone’s words or ideas, they should be cited in the
proper manner. For guidance on writing and on professional integrity, in addition to the web
sites listed on my “writing page”
(http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/pkrause/writing%20links%20and%20tips.html), see the UBC
Calendar. Additionally, the following sites may be helpful:
https://www.history.ubc.ca/content/common-questions-about-citations and
http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/academic-integrity-pla.... You may also want
to check out UBC’s policies on academic misconduct:
http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,959.
As the university has explained, “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their
classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their
academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations.” The official
policy of the university holds that it “accommodates students with disabilities who have
registered with the Disability Resource Centre. The University accommodates students whose
religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or completing scheduled
tests and examinations…. Please let your instructor know in advance, preferably in the first
week of class, if you will require any accommodation on these grounds…. Students who plan to
be absent for varsity athletics, family obligations, or other similar commitments, cannot assume
they will be accommodated….”
For the most up-to-date explanation of the university’s policies regarding academic
concessions, see this page on the web:
http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,48,0,0.
Please understand that the readings must be completed before our class meets on
Tuesdays. By university standards, there is a moderate amount of reading in this course. If you
decide to enroll, be certain that you are prepared to do the reading and to submit your work on
time.
SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR MARKS & REQUIREMENTS
Consistent attendance, conscientious reading, and attentive and civil participation are
essential parts of your work in this course. In this realm, as in all others, strict adherence to the
principles of academic integrity is expected. Plagiarism, in any form, will not be tolerated. For
guidance, in addition to the web sites listed on my “writing page,” see the UBC Calendar.
Additionally, the following sites may be helpful: https://www.history.ubc.ca/content/commonquestions-about-citations and http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/academicintegrity-pla....
Above all, please remember that all authors own their ideas, words, and research; you
therefore must give appropriate credit, typically in the form of quotations and footnotes, when
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 7
using the work of another scholar. Plagiarism, whether or not it is “intentional,” is a serious
violation of UBC’s standards; violations of the standards will be prosecuted. If your work is late,
if you feel under pressure, do anything but cheat, please. Do not jeopardize your career and
your good name for the sake of a mark in H335. It’s just not worth it. If you rely upon the ideas
of another scholar, make certain that you give appropriate credit to the scholar.
Above all, perhaps, take great care when using resources on the Web, as many can
prove helpful; a significant number, however, can be misleading – including, of course,
Wikipedia. Be certain that unattributed sentences gleaned from the Web do not find their way
into your written submissions for H335. Failure to be vigilant about this matter inevitably will
raise questions about academic integrity.
Your final written assignment must be:
1. Prepared only on a typewriter or a computer. Handwritten work is not acceptable.
And faxes or e-mails of your work cannot be accepted by the Department of
History.
2. Double-spaced and formatted in a simple, easy-to-read font, such as Times New
Roman. The size of the font must be 12-point.
3. Set so it has margins of one inch on both sides, and at the top and bottom.
4. Numbered by pages and stapled in the upper left corner. (Do not use paper clips or
creative folding.)
5. Backed-up, always, at regular intervals. (I recommend every three minutes.) Use a
USB mini-drive, an external hard drive, a network storage service, and/or a hard
copy. Computer or printer crashes or problems are not acceptable reasons for
late submissions.
The Faculty of Arts requires that written work conform to accepted standards of English
expression; if writing does not meet such standards, it cannot be evaluated.
Late work cannot be accepted, except under the extraordinary circumstances discussed
above. Regular attendance should put virtually everyone in a position to achieve marks with
which he or she is happy. The key is doing the reading, on time, and coming to class, prepared;
remember that the weekly readings must be completed before the Tuesday lecture. Late work
will not be accepted, except under the circumstances explained above.
Here are the approximate weightings of the requirements for H335:
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 8
Assignment
Date Due
Approximate Weight
Autobiographical statement on your
expectations and on the reasons for
your enrollment in H335.
Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the
beginning of class.
Mandatory, but no mark awarded.
Two percentage points deducted from final
mark if not submitted on time.
1-page maximum.
Brief reading notes on the weekly
assignments. One-page maximum.
Must be typed/printed, and will be
collected at the beginning of class.
Guidelines can be found below.
Participation in lectures and
discussions. Please note that, as
explained above, in this realm it is
quality and not quantity that
matters.
Final Paper. See the sample
questions below. They will help
focus your reading, and the actual
questions will doubtless be
modeled on these samples, with
changes that reflect the interests
and questions of our class, this year.
I will direct your attention to these
sample questions, and how you
might answer them, throughout the
term.
Throughout the term. Only
5 will be marked, on a
scale of 0-10, and the
submission with the lowest
mark will not be counted.
Throughout the term
40%. Each marked assignment therefore
carries with it a weight of 10% of the final
grade.
During Exam Period, date
TDB.
The actual questions will
be distributed well in
advance, and there will be
ample opportunity to
discuss them with your
colleagues and with me,
publicly and privately.
60%
10% bonus.
No one will be penalized if she or he finds it
difficult to speak.
READING NOTES
These one-page assignments are due each Tuesday. If there is more than one reading,
do a one-page response for each text that you have read. The reading notes are intended to
assist you in mastering and evaluating what you have read, and they also should help our
discussions. Additionally, your notes will help you understand the larger patterns that inform
the course of African-American History, and therefore your notes will help you prepare for the
final written exercise in December. Do not use any outside sources in writing these notes. They
are your notes, and only your words and thoughts belong in these notes.
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 9
Each reading response should be:
1. Printed on one side of a standard 8”x11” piece of paper.
2. Headed by the name of the author and an abbreviated title on the left side, and by
your name on the right side.
3. Divided into two sections:
A.) A statement of the thesis or argument of the book, article, or primary source.
B.) A critical assessment of the reading, including an evaluation of the argument,
of the quality and use of evidence, and of any questions that the reading
suggests. You might also consider the following: What does the text tell
you that is surprising or unexpected about history, politics, and/or
culture? What was the author’s intent in writing it? What did she or he
want you to learn from what you have read?
Again, only five sets of the reading notes will be marked, and the submission with the
lowest score will not be counted.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR THE FINAL WRITTEN EXERCISE – DUE DATE TBD
I cannot overemphasize the importance of the following: In answering, assume that
your readers are as intelligent as you but have no prior knowledge of the subject matter. Do not
write for the instructor or for anyone who has specialized knowledge of African-American
History. Do not be afraid to take a firm position; be certain to defend it with hard evidence that
has been gleaned from the texts we have read, the videos we have watched, and our
discussions and lectures.
1. Frederick Douglass summed up the results of Reconstruction by asking this question
of the federal government: “You say you have emancipated us. You have; and I thank you for it.
But what is your emancipation?” A few years later, he answered by saying that AfricanAmericans were only “half-free,” and stood in the “twilight of American liberty.” Explain
Douglass’s question and his answer. (Hint: do not rely on the speeches from which I have lifted
Douglass’s quotations.)
2. The historian W.E.B. DuBois offered the following skeletal assessment of
Reconstruction: “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again
toward slavery.” Explain these comments by way of constructing an interpretative narrative of
the Reconstruction years.
3. The historian Alan Brinkley has written: “A profound respect for private property and
free enterprise prevented any real assault on economic privilege in the South, ensuring that
blacks would not win title to the land and wealth they believed they deserved. Above all,
perhaps, a pervasive belief among many of even the most liberal whites that the black race was
inherently inferior served as an obstacle to the full equality of the freedmen. Given the context
within which Americans of the 1860s and 1870s were working, what is surprising, perhaps, is
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 10
not that Reconstruction did so little, but that it did even as much as it did.” With particular
reference to the problems of class and race, in what ways do you agree and/or disagree with
Brinkley’s remarks? Why? In answering, be certain not to invoke the abstraction,
“Reconstruction,” in the way that Brinkley does. In other words, make real people the subjects
of your sentences – and of your essay.
4.) Eric Foner, in “The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation,” argues that the
formal emancipation of American slaves in 1865 “settled for all time” the fundamental paradox
of the American Republic: the simultaneous rise of freedom and slavery. But also argues that
emancipation opened another paradox: “the coexistence of political democracy and economic
dependence.” In a carefully constructed and well-reasoned essay, explain Foner’s formulation,
taking care to present your answer in a way that non-specialists can understand. (What will this
require you to know and to do? What questions will you need to answer before you begin to
write? What will you need to tell your readers so that they will understand you?) Above all,
remember that superior writing ought to be crafted as a response to a problem or a question.
What, then, is the problem or question that you are trying to resolve or to answer?
5.) “I don’t see any American dream,” Malcolm X said, “I see an American nightmare.” In
surveying the course of African-American History from Reconstruction to the present day, do
you see a dream or a nightmare for Americans of African ancestry? Base your answer, which
should take the form of an interpretive narrative, on concrete evidence.
6.) By examining the lives of selected individuals and groups, H335 has asked you to
explore the meaning of democracy in the United States, and, in particular, to investigate the
relationship of democracy to the question of race and the problem of racism. Taking into
account the lives and thinking of eight of the following persons, and with an eye aimed at
offering your definition of American democracy, assess the evolving relationship of democracy
and race from 1865 to the present day. (Hint: In formulating your answer, remember that
individuals alone do not make history: their lives invariably point to larger forces and questions.
It is these forces and questions that ought to be of paramount concern to you.)
Abraham Lincoln or Andrew Johnson
Thaddeus Stevens or Garrison Frazier
Ida B. Wells or Richard Wright
Ella Baker or Septima Clark
Nate Shaw/Ned Cobb
Zora Neale Hurston or Toni Morrison
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Tunis Campbell
Malcolm X or Barack Obama
Ta-Nehesi Coates
Marcus Garvey
Stan, the protagonist of “Killer of Sheep”
7.) “The facts of history… do not speak for themselves,” according to Harvard Sitkoff, the
author of The Struggle for Black Equality. “Any effort to describe and explain requires
judgment; and no historian can entirely escape his basic beliefs. Honesty, however, dictates
that a historian consider and test all the evidence according to the canons of the craft, guard
against personal biases, avoid forcing the past into preconceived notions, and inform the reader
of the author’s viewpoint.”
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 11
This course has asked you to describe and explain, and therefore to judge, many events,
as well as the individuals and groups who made them happen and who, in turn, were “remade”
by particular events. In so doing, many of you have confronted certain “basic beliefs” and
“personal biases” – all part of our effort to make sense out of the African-American past. Of the
many events, individuals, and groups that you have considered in your encounters with AfricanAmerican History from the Era of Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement, which
have forced you to think most carefully and creatively about your beliefs and biases? How and
why has your thinking changed? Explain by way of making an argument that is based on
concrete evidence.
8.) “None of us understands fully how to use what we know of the past to shape a more
just present, but we can be sure that social analysis which does not somehow make it clear that
ordinary, flawed, everyday sorts of human beings frequently manage to make extraordinary
contributions to social change, social analysis which does not make it easier for people to see in
themselves and in those around them the potential for controlling their own lives, takes us in
the wrong direction.” With reference to your understanding of African-American History,
explain this observation of the historian and sociologist Charles Payne. Take care to discuss the
argument suggested by Payne’s comments and by the articles of his that you have read. And be
certain to assess whatever relevance his thinking may hold for other historians and social
scientists. Base your answer on concrete evidence.
9. Some of you have read Ida Well's anti-lynching tract, Southern Horrors, which
explores the conditions that Americans of African ancestry confronted in early years of the
“nadir.” How do you explain the reasons why such conditions prevailed? How did AfricanAmericans deal with these conditions? How do you account for their responses, and what
significance do you attach to them, especially in light of the recent killings of persons of color,
many of these deaths attributable to law enforcement authorities?
10.) From the time of Frederick Douglass to that of Martin Luther King, Jr., some African
Americans have argued that the racism and injustice they have encountered is an aberration of
“the American Creed,” while others have argued that racism and injustice themselves
constitute this creed. King, in his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, called the
promises of the Declaration of Independence “a sacred obligation” which, until that time, had
proved to be a bad check for blacks, “a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’.”
But, King continued, “we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.” In light of your
understanding of African-American History up to the March on Washington, was King justified
in believing in his “dream” – a dream, he said, which was “deeply rooted in the American
dream?” In light of the evidence presented in “The Two Nations of Black America,” and in other
sources you have engaged, particularly Coates’s Between the World and Me, have
developments since 1963 confirmed or refuted King’s abiding faith in the promise of America?
11.) Ralph Ellison, the novelist and literary critic who was a close friend of Richard
Wright, wrote that great fiction must “recognize the interconnections between” lived
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 12
experience and national ideals. In an essay called “The Novel as a Function of American
Democracy,” Ellison went on to argue that the best fiction “has always been tied up with the
idea of nationhood.” All great novels, he wrote, ask the following questions: “What are we?
Who are we? What has the experience of the particular group been? How did it become this
way? What is it that stopped us from attaining the ideal?” The obligation of the novelist, Ellison
contended, is “to describe, with eloquence and imagination, life as it appears from wherever he
finds his being” – an obligation that is difficult to fulfill in the United States because of its
“tradition of forgetfulness…, of denying the past, of converting the tragic realities of ourselves
but most often of others, even if those others are of our own group, into comedy.” To what
extent do Black Boy/American Hunger, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and “Killer of Sheep”
measure up to Ellison’s criteria and thereby challenge the American “tradition of
forgetfulness?”
12.) Many historians have argued that the Civil Rights Movement was a “Second
Reconstruction,” and that it completed the “First Reconstruction” of the 19th Century. In what
ways do you agree or disagree with this view? In what ways were the two reconstructions
alike? In what ways were they different? Please be certain to evaluate the “Second
Reconstruction” in light of the issues and questions facing many African Americans in
contemporary America.
13.) In 1968, the last year of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr., vowed to keep trying “to
redeem the soul of America.” He insisted that “the black revolution is much more than the
struggle for the rights of Negroes.” It is, he said, “forcing America to face all its interrelated
flaws – racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply
in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and
suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.” In light of your
understanding of African-American History, offer a critical interpretation of King’s remarks –
one which elaborates and explains the argument embedded in them.
EVALUATIONS OF FINAL ESSAYS
Essays will be evaluated on the basis of three broad categories:
1. Argument and structure – 50%: Essays should present an argument, and they should be
structured in a way that allows the reader to follow the developing lines of the
argument. Therefore, essays should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. The
introduction should be concise and should put forth a thesis statement. An important
part of the assignment is to define a question or problem and try to answer it. The
answer effectively constitutes the argument, and it forms the body. The body should be
well-organized and built upon logically connected paragraphs, each of which has a topic
sentence and a “punch line.” The conclusion should recapitulate the thesis statement or
main point, and make it clear to the reader why what you have written is important.
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 13
2. Content and Evidence – 25%: The best essays utilize evidence in creative ways and
integrate the evidence into the logical presentation of the argument. And the best
essays demonstrate original and critical thinking. Your main points should be supported
by direct reference to a text, and evidence always is required to corroborate the main
points of your argument. Simple assertions of your opinions will not do. Sometimes you
will need to paraphrase a text. Why? Because you are writing for an audience which is
as clever as you but which has no knowledge of the texts you are engaging. (Writing in
such a way ensures that you will not overlook logical and evidentiary connections.)
3. Style, presentation, and use of language – 25%: Is your writing precise and engaging? Is
it grammatical? Inappropriate usage, awkward syntax, and wordiness can hurt.
Remember what Abraham Lincoln wrote about the connections between clear writing
and clear thinking: weakness in writing typically indicates feebleness in thought. (Here,
Lincoln was not criticizing another person; rather he was commenting on his own
rhetorical struggles.)
What appears real and objective from TV or the newspaper is the
result … of choices, of constructions, of a great deal of hiding of other
realities. Walter Benjamin says every document of civilization is also a
document of barbarism. What we see as real immediately is only a fraction
of the truth. It is the role of the intellect not just to amass expert
information, but much more basically, to question and, yes, to challenge
the framework of knowledge – to ask about the hidden costs or barbarism,
to ask for whom is this knowledge useful and why is it set up this way, for
whom does this objective news, as it's sometimes called, serve as a reality,
for what end, ethical or unethical, is a war declared, a missile deployed, a
distant people punished, and so on. The greatest danger to the educated
mind is that it should be made silent or stilled in its restlessness, its
volatility, its need to ask provocative questions that challenge authority….
Most of what is presented as reality is the result of constructions and
representations that I believe have to be looked at as having a history
which is very often either forgotten, or hidden or distorted.
— Edward Said, Commencement Remarks, Haverford College, 2000
H335, African-American History, 2016, pg. 14