DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
SEMINAR
PROFESSOR MACEO CRENSHAW DAILEY, JR., PH. D
HISTORY 6300
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
Wednesday, 6-8:20 P.M.
LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING, ROOM 401
LART 302
E-MAIL: mdailey@utep.edu
TELEPHONE 747-8650
SPRING 2010
SYLLABUS
SEMINAR TOPIC: BLACKS ALONG THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER
During the African American History Month celebration some two years ago in El Paso, Professor
Quintard Taylor, the distinguished historian of the Black experience in the Southwest, gave a lecture
titled “When Africans Were Spanish” in which the scholar chronicled the known, and identified the yet
to be explored, history of those of African descent on both sides of the now United States/Mexico
border. Moving from the personal to the public, Professor Taylor gave a mesmerizing discourse into
the mysteries of Esteban to the marvels of the small black community of present-day El Paso.
In this seminar, we will take the broad framework of Dr. Taylor and attempt to provide more
specificity in terms of content and conceptualization. We have the distinct advantage of living in one
“Border Black Community,” and being educated in a recently established Ph. D. Borderlands History
Graduate Program making headway in the subject matter—from exploring heretofore unexamined
archival records to interviewing present day individuals who can shed light on the issues of the minority
Black communities evolving in the regions of the U.S./Mexico borderlands. In our review of the extant
literature on the subject matter, we will gather the empirical information/data, test suppositions,
critique paradigms and conceptual frameworks, and, hopefully, produce seminal seminar papers on the
range of topics centering on the history and experiences of Blacks in southwestern borderland regions—
viz., the African heritage, slavery, gender, nationality, economic dislocation, race, ethnicity, and
language, mutatis mutandis.
The paucity of secondary monographs and literature on Blacks in borderland regions is of initial
concern, but we will wend our way through the most impressive scholarship and follow our historical
compass accordingly by identifying the topics of interest and conducting historical research. Each week,
we will review a major tome on the general subject and extract from it the necessary information
leading to a more systematic course of study and setting the parameters to explore behavior, historical
causality and phenomenology, and how we, as scholars, approach places where people have lived and
continue to do so as time evolves and attitudes change. At the end of nine weeks, we should be poised
to talk more comprehensively and, perhaps, cogently on the general issues pertaining to the history of
Blacks along the U.S./Mexico border. The next five weeks will be set aside for individual research on a
selected topic, completion of a seminar paper, and return to class for a detailed and vigorous review and
critique of each student’s paper. The format for the general review of literature as well as the student’s
paper is:
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
F)
G)
H)
Biographical overview of the scholar
Why the scholar turned to the particular topic
Assumptions of the scholar
Thesis
Evidence on which the thesis based
Critical questions left unanswered by the scholar
The scholar’s success as detective and interpreter of the subject matter
A related historiography that we should know about to contextualize the scholar’s work
At the graduate level, scholarly comportment is expected at all times, so one does not need to spellout
the particulars. One word of caution, however, is vital pertaining to plagiarism. All submitted work
should be in your language and reflect your synthesis. When drawing on language or thoughts of other
scholars and individuals, be certain to give them credit in the acknowledgments or with the use of
quotation marks. Grading will be based equally (50%-50%) on your classroom verbal
participation/presentations and the seminar paper.
Required books for the course:
Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran, La Problacion Negra de Mexico
Conrey Bryson, Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and the White Primary
Bruce A. Glasrud and James M. Smallwood, The African American Experience in Texas
Gerald Horne, Black and Brown: African Americans and the Mexican Revolution, 1919-1920
James Leiker, Racial Borders: Black Soldiers Along The Rio Grande
21 January
INTRODUCTION
Discussion of assignments and requirements
Ivan Karp et. al, Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture, pp.506-92
Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown, Major Problems In African American History
pp. 1-34
Ramon A. Gutierrez, “Borderlands,” Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual
History, edited by Mary Cayton and Peter Williams, pp. 541-46
Beverly Daniel Tatum, “Talking About Race, Learning About Racism,” The Black Studies
Reader, edited by Jacqueline Bobo et. al., pp. 389-413.
28 January
The Distant Past
Rayford Logan, “Estevanico: Negro Discoverer of the Southwest, A Critical
Reexamination,” Phylon, Fourth Quarter, l940, Vol. I, No. 4
Ivan Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus (All)
Colin Palmer, Slaves of the White God (All)
Benjamin Vincent, Blacks in His Majesty’s Army (All)
Sagrario Cruz-Carretero, La presencia Africana en Mexico, pp. 14-60
Henry Flipper, “Early History of El Paso,”pp. 88-95 (handout)
4 February
The Recent Past
Barbara Krairthama, Blacks on the Border: African Americans’ Transition From
Slavery To Freedom In Texas and Indian Territory, l8361907
Bruce A. Glasrud and James M. Smallwood, The African American Experience in Texas (All)
Maceo Crenshaw Dailey, Jr., “Border Black: The El Paso Story,” Digame, edited by
Christine Brenner et. al, pp. 307-25
Minority Rights Group, No Longer Invisible, pp. 163-81
11 February
The In Between In Mexico
The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga To The Present (Mexican Fine Arts
Center)
Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran, La Problacion Negra de Mexico (All)
18 February The In Between In the United States
Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier
Harry Lawson, The History of African Americans in Tucson (All)
Geta LeSeur, Not all Okies are White: The Lives of Black Cotton Pickers in Arizona (All)
James Leiker, Racial Borders: Black Soldiers Along The Rio Grande (All)
Gerald Horne, Black and Brown: African Americans and the Mexican Revolution (All)
Arnoldo De Leon, Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western
America, 1848-1890 (All)
25 February
Border Realities and Race
Maceo Crenshaw Dailey, I’m Building Me A Home (All)
Conrey Bryson, Dr. L. A. Nixon and The White Primary (All)
John Collyns Fullmore, “The Dragon: History of Douglass School,” (All)
Jane Eppinga, Henry Ossian Flipper
Charles M. Robinson, The Court Martial of Lt. Henry Flipper
Valerie Abel-Coindoz, “Attitudes envers les Afro-americains a El Paso a travers
Les editions du El Paso Times entre 1945 et 1978,” (handout)
John David Marquez, “From Bebop to Hip Hop: A Comparative Analysis of Cultural
Resistance in Mexican American and African American
Communities, l940-l996,” M.A. Thesis, UTEP, l996
4 March
Border Realities and Gender
Maceo Crenshaw Dailey and Kristine Navarro, Wheresoever My People Chance To
Dwell, (All)
Bernice Love Wiggins, Tuneful Tales (edited by Maceo Dailey and Ruthe Winegarten)
(All)
Susan Pratt, We Are Here: Activism Among Black El Paso Women, l955-l965 M. A. Thesis
11 March
Border Realities and Nationality
George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America, l800-2000 (All)
Kevin Mulroy, Freedom On The Border (All)
Rosalie Schwartz, “Across The Rio To Freedom” (All)
25 March
Intersections and Interactions With The “Other”
Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections And
The Myth of Cultural Purity (All)
Martha Menchaca, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black
And White Roots of Mexican Americans.
Benjamin Vincent, A Tuskegee Airman In Mexico
Shelley Hatfield, Chasing Shadow Indians Along the U.S.-Mexico Border
Ellwyn R. Stoddard, The U.S.-Mexico Borderland As a Multicultural Region