Chabot College
Fall 2004
Course Outline for History 21
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE RECONSTRUCTION
Catalog Description:
21 – African-American History Since Reconstruction
3 units
Survey of the major themes and issues of the history of African Americans.
Emancipation and African American attempts to assert and define their freedom. Themes
that define the African-American experience after slavery. Freedom and Reconstruction,
the imposition of Jim Crow, African-American modern political organization and cultural
movements, migration and urbanization, African-American participation in foreign
conflicts, the Civil Rights movement and its aftermath. 3 hours.
Prerequisite Skills:
None.
Expected Outcome for Students:
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
identify the origins of African-American history as a field of academic
investigation and study;
compare and analyze both presidential and congressional Reconstruction and the
political, economic and social consequences of their missions;
trace the development of white, southern response to Reconstruction, including
the organization of white racial violence;
evaluate the development of the sharecropping system as both a means by
African-Americans to establish some economic independence and by southern
whites to re-establish economic servitude;
analyze both the short-term and long-term consequences of Reconstruction policy
and their impact on African-American lives;
evaluate the decline of race relations in the South after Reconstruction
explain the origins of the modern black literary tradition;
describe the evolution of modern black political organization at the end of the
nineteenth century;
trace the process of and African-American reaction to disfranchisement in the
South;
identify and analyze the rise of scientific racism and its relationship to the
emergence of mass culture in the beginning of the twentieth century;
explain the causes, pattern and consequences of the mass migration of AfricanAmericans from the southern states to cities of the North;
describe African-American participation in World War I;
evaluate the social implications and cultural legacy of the Harlem Renaissance;
analyze the effects of the Great Depression upon African-American communities
in the nation;
trace the connection between World War II and the beginning of the Civil Rights
Movement;
Chabot College
Course Outline for History 21, Page 2
Fall 2004
16.
17.
18.
19.
discuss the development of tactics and strategies in the social movement for civil
rights;
explain the radicalization of the movement and the emergence of the Black Power
movement;
describe the class and cultural politics that emerge during the seventies;
identify the modern politics of race and affirmative action.
Course Content:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Introduction to study of African-American history as a field of study and its
evolution.
African-American efforts to shape their economic, political and social freedom
under Reconstruction.
The rise of white political and violent resistance to African-American uplift.
African-American political and literary response to the decline in race relations in
the post-Reconstruction era.
The formation of African-American modern political organization and black
political leadership.
Migration and urbanization in the African-American experience.
African-American participation in and reaction to the nation at war.
The Harlem Renaissance and the vogue of the new Negro.
Economic depression and the particular condition of African-American
communities.
The legal and moral strategies of the Civil Rights Movement.
Political divisions within the social movement and the emergence of black
radicalism.
Black political progress and economic decline in urban communities.
Affirmative action and the racial politics of social and cultural diversity.
Methods of Presentation:
1.
2.
Lecture and discussion
Audio-visual aids
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
1.
Typical Assignments:
a. Write weekly comments and questions, based upon an analysis of the weekly
reading assignments; for example, generate questions and comments on the
rise of Jim Crow and the racial laws and etiquette it imposes based upon their
reading of a chapter discussed in the classroom
b. Write a short review and analysis of a film; for example, an analysis of the
film Birth of A Nation focusing on such issues as race relations,
disfranchisement, lynching and popular culture
c. Write an analysis of primary documents presented in class; for example, read
and interpret a selection of readings from the Harlem Renaissance period to
confront such issues as migration, class differences in African American
communities and the role of gender in growing urban communities of blacks
Chabot College
Course Outline for History 21, Page 3
Fall 2004
2.
Methods of Evaluating Student Progress
a. Essays
b. Midterm and final examinations
c. Attendance and participation in class and discussions
Textbooks (typical):
The African-American Odyssey, Darlene Clark Hine, et al., Volume II, Prentice Hall
Publishing Company,2002, or latest edition.
From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, John Hope Franklin, et al.,
Volume II, Knopf Publishing Company, 2000, or latest edition
The African American Experience, Joe William Trotter, Jr., Volume II, Houghton
Mifflin Publishing Company, 2001, or latest edition
To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans, Robin D.G. Kelley and Earl
Lewis, eds., Oxford University Press, 2000, or latest edition.
Special Student Materials:
None.
tf:/Word/Hist. 21.doc
Revised: 11-11-03