Recent U.S. Urban History:
Race, Space, & Community Activism
TCU – HIST 30803 – Spring 2013 – Dr. Max Krochmal
Course Schedule & Location
Office Hours & Location
Phone
E-mail
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 to 3:20 PM, SCHAR 2011
Wednesdays, 9:00am to 12:00pm, and by appointment, Reed 133
817-257-7315 or 919-564-9129 (cell; texts ok)
m.krochmal@tcu.edu (use phone for timely or complex inquiries)
Course Description: STUDENTS MUST BE ENROLLED IN BOTH THIS COURSE AND HIST
30813, “ORAL HISTORY FIELD RESEARCH SEMINAR.”
Using books, articles, and seminar discussions, students will be introduced to recent U.S. urban
history, with a focus on race and racism as well as theories of community activism and
grassroots social movements. Students will complete weekly reading journals, two synthetic
essays, and a semester-long small-group library and archival research project on urban
community activism. The course fulfills upper-division credit for the History major or minor,
the Urban Studies minor, and the Latina/o Studies minor. It also satisfies Cultural Awareness
(CA) and Citizenship and Social Values (CSV) TCU Core Curriculum requirements.
Learning Outcomes: By taking this course, students will:
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Learn the basics of analyzing community organizing, grassroots social change, and social
movements, including:
o an understanding of theories and practices of leadership
o a capacity for informed participation in civic discourse and decision-making
Demonstrate knowledge of the past and present relationship between geographic space
and race and racism, using the inter-disciplinary approaches of Urban Studies and
American Studies.
Be able to look across their own (typically white) normative biases to analyze:
o the interconnectedness of society, culture and individual identity; and
o diversity within the Mexican American and African American cultures and to
make comparisons between the two groups
Required Books & Readings: All of the texts may be purchased at the TCU Bookstore and copies
of each are available on reserve at the library (I also recommend Amazon Student). Each of the
following texts is required:
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Mike Davis, Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City, new and fully updated
edition (New York: Verso, 2012). ISBN 978-1844672479; List Price $16.95
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond
the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Boston: South End Press, 2007). ISBN 0-89608766-2; $20.00
George Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011).
ISBN 978-1439902561; $26.95
Aaron Schutz with Marie G. Sandy, Collective Action for Social Change: An Introduction
to Community Organizing (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), paperback edition.
ISBN 978-0230111257; $28.00
Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar
Detroit, rev. edition (Princeton University Press, 2005). ISBN 978-0691121864; $29.95
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Assignments & Grading:
 Reading: The written word is the main currency of historical and social scientific
knowledge. Expect several chapters from one of our five primary books as well as one or
two supplemental articles or book chapters per week (approximately 120 pages).
Readings must be completed prior to the date that they appear on the syllabus.
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Weekly Blog Posts (20% of final grade): Each Tuesday, you will be required to write a
blog post on the previous two days’ readings for the class Wordpress website. In
addition to writing your personal response to the text, you must include and annotate at
least two key quotations from the week’s readings and pose a question for discussion in
class. Your weekly posts are due by 11:59pm on the Monday evening before class. You
must also comment upon at least one of your fellow students’ blog posts prior to arriving
in class on Tuesday. The blog is intended to be useful to you—it is a tool to help you get
the most out of the readings and to make a quickly accessible, permanent record of your
thoughts related to the texts—in conversation with your classmates. There are 14 classes
in which reading assignments will be due. You get two “freebies” if for some reason you
cannot complete the assignment for a given class. After the freebies, you’ll get a zero. You
may complete more than the 12 required reading assignments for extra credit.
There are two types of assignments, as follows:
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Participation (20%): You are expected to be an active and engaged participant in all class
discussions and to complete informal in-class writing and oral assignments to the best of
your ability, every time. Participation grades often seem arbitrary; to minimize this, I
use numerous in-class activities and small, informal writing assignments (including little
homework assignments that do not appear elsewhere on the syllabus). I also require you
to turn in your notes on selected lectures, film screenings, and other activities. You may
also boost your participation grade by visiting with me during office hours.
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Synthetic Essays (20%): You will write two 5-page essays that synthesize the class
readings. The first will take up the themes of urban history and race relations; the
second will address theories of community activism and social movements.
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Final Research Project (40%): Over the course of the semester, you will work in small
groups to conduct library, newspaper, and archival research on a topic of your own
choosing. These assignments are done on-campus and build upon the texts that we read
and analyze as a group in this class. This library research will complement the
interviews you conduct in “Oral History Field Research Seminar.” The first two
assignments are geared toward helping you develop a plan for the larger multi-modal
research project, while the final three assignments will specifically help you better
understand the scholarly work and written (or textual) evidence surrounding your topic.
o Mini-Prospectus (1-2 pages; 2.5%): An outline for a possible research project on
race, space, and community activism, including a list of possible sources.
o Group NEH Mock Grant Application (5-7 pages; 10%): In small groups, write a
mock application to secure funding for your project. It will include an
introduction, a background section, a list of the questions that will guide your
research, a detailed plan for conducting field research, a section on staffing, a
conclusion, and an appendix composed of a short bibliography and budget (not
included in the page count).
o Initial Research File and Annotations (7-10 pages; 10%): You will be required to
go to the library to conduct both primary and secondary source research.
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o
o
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Working with a research librarian, you will identify which manuscript collections,
newspapers, government documents, and other sources will aid you in your quest
to understand your topic. This assignment requires that you spend 2-4 hours
reading these primary sources before writing up a 2-page summary of your
findings. You must also read at least 4 books and 2 scholarly articles on your
topic and write one long paragraph annotating each source.
Post-Mortem Research Bibliography (2.5%): Go to the Library and identify
roughly 25 additional secondary sources that will help you make sense of your
interviews from the complementary oral history class. Then choose the 10 best
sources that you will actually read and annotate for the final assignment.
Final Annotated Bibliography (~15 pages; 15%): Using the same format as the
initial research file and annotations, read and annotate the 10 additional books
and articles from your post-mortem secondary source bibliography. Also write
up summaries of your conclusions from an additional 5-10 hours of research in
primary sources. Add revised a versions of your initial file to create a polished
annotated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources.
Attendance is mandatory.
o The university attendance policy states (Faculty / Staff Handbook, p. 51):
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4.
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“Regular and punctual class attendance is essential, and no assigned work is summarily
excused because of absence, no matter what the cause. Records of class attendance are the
responsibility of the faculty, and every course’s syllabus should clearly state the instructor’s
policy on class attendance and how attendance affects a student’s final evaluation in the course.
Students who miss an instructional experience are expected to meet with faculty to discuss
their absence as soon as possible.
“When a student is absent to represent the University (as in athletics, chorus, band, national or
state meetings of organizations represented at TCU), then an Official University Absence may
be granted by the Campus Life Office…
“When a student misses class for any reason other than an Official University Absence, the
student is expected to follow the instructor’s policy as stated in the course syllabus. The student
should contact his/her instructor as soon as possible after he/she knows the absence will occur
or has occurred. If the cause of the absence is a serious illness, catastrophic accident, or
family emergency, each instructor should assist the student to make up any missed work.
Time lost through such absences should not prejudice class standing…
“If the cause of the absence is less compelling (choosing to miss class, oversleeping),
instructors may or may not permit the student to make up missed work, and may or may not
assess a penalty for class absence.”
In addition to these rules, the attendance policy for this class is as follows:
 It is assumed that you will document any cases that fall into paragraph 3
above, and that absences that fall into this category will be limited. A
routine urgent care trip to the health center does not qualify as “serious.”
 All other absences will be considered “less compelling” under paragraph 4
above. Arriving late to class or missing a substantial portion of a class
counts as one-half (½) of an absence.
 You may miss up to three classes without penalty. Each absence beyond
three (3.00) will result in a 2.5% reduction of your final grade.
Grading: My general philosophy is that all students can get A’s. Final grades should
reflect exertion of constant effort and evidence of learning, not capacity for sliding by or
mastery of rote memorization. Learning new skills and making sense of new content
represent long and often frustrating processes, so grades will be based on your work and
participation throughout the course—not just your performance on the big assignments.
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I will use the Gradebook feature on Learning Studio (eCollege) to track and share your
individual assignment grades. The following scale will be used to compute final grades:
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
>95.000
90.00-94.999
88.00-89.999
83.00-87.999
80.00-82.999
78.00-79.999
73.00-77.999
70.00-72.999
68.00-69.999
63.00-67.999
60.00-62.999
<59.999
Other Rules & Regs
 Electronic Devices: No cell phones, computers, or any other gadgets allowed in class
except when I explicitly instruct you to use such devices. If you take out your phone in
class, I will take it and hold onto it like your favorite high school teacher. Students with
disabilities that require accommodation, please see the statement below.
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Disabilities Statement: Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with
disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator
of Student Disabilities Services in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler
Hall, 1010. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the
Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations.
Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box
297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-6567.
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Academic Misconduct: Any act that violates the spirit of the academic conduct policy is
considered academic misconduct. Specific examples include, but are not limited to:
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Cheating: Includes, but is not limited to:
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A. Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer
fi les and listings.
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B. Using in any academic exercise or academic setting, material and/or devices not
authorized by the person in charge of the test.
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C. Collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during an academic exercise
without the permission of the person in charge of the exercise.
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D. Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting
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or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment
unauthorized for release.
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E. Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to substitute for
oneself, in a manner that leads to misrepresentation of either or both students’ work.
Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase or obtaining by any means another’s work, and the
unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for credit.
Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s work without giving credit
therefore.
Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.
Abuse of resource materials: Mutilating, destroying, concealing or stealing such materials.
Computer misuse: Unauthorized or illegal use of computer software or hardware through the TCU
Computer Center or through any programs; terminals; or freestanding computers owned, leased or
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operated by TCU or any of its academic units for the purpose of affecting the academic standing of a
student.
Fabrication and falsification: Unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation
in an academic exercise. Falsification involves altering information for use in any academic
exercise. Fabrication involves inventing or counterfeiting information for use in any academic
exercise.
Multiple submission: The submission by the same individual of substantial portions of the same
academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once in the same or another class
without authorization.
Complicity in academic misconduct: Helping another to commit an act of academic misconduct.
Bearing false witness: Knowingly and falsely accusing another student of academic misconduct.
Course Schedule: (readings marked W are available on the course Wordpress website)
Week 1 / Introductions
 Jan. 15 / Welcome
o Watch film (in-class): Bob Hercules and Bruce Orenstein, The Democratic
Promise: Saul Alinsky & His Legacy (57 mins)
 Jan. 17
o Reading (be ready to discuss in class): George Lipsitz, “The Possessive
Investment in Whiteness,” chapter 1 in The Possessive Investment in Whiteness
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998) W
Week 2 / Community Organizing, Law, and Civil Rights
 Monday, January 21 – MLK Day – You must attend either the MLK Day of Service
sponsored by TCU’s Center for Community-Involvement and Service-Learning OR the
Fort Worth MLK Day Parade AND a campus event TBA
 Jan. 22 / First Blog Post Due! (on Schutz and Lipsitz, Ch. 1)
o Aaron Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Introduction and Part 1
 Jan. 24
o Lipsitz, “Law and Order: Civil Rights Laws and White Privilege,” chapter 2 in The
Possessive Investment in Whiteness W
Week 3 / Creating Organized Chaos
 Jan. 29 /Blog Post Due (on Sugrue and Lipsitz, Ch. 2)
o Thomas Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Introduction and Part 1
 Jan. 31
o Lawrence C. Goodwyn, “Introduction” to The Populist Moment: A Short History
of Agrarian Revolt in America, pp. vii-xxiv W
Week 4 / Social Movements and Urban Decline
 Feb. 5 / Blog Post Due
o Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Part II
 Feb. 7
o Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Chapter 3
o Mini-Prospectus Due
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Week 5 / “Urban Disorders” and Organizing in Postindustrial America
 Feb. 12 / Blog Post Due
o Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Part III and Conclusion
 Feb. 14
o Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Chapter 4
Week 6 / Spatial Imaginaries
 Feb. 19 / Blog Post Due
o Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place, Introduction and Part 1
 Feb. 21
o Davis, Magical Urbanism, Chapters 1 and 2
o Group NEH Mock Grant Application Due
Week 7 / Resistance and the Social Scientists’ Gaze
 Feb. 26 / Blog Post Due
o Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place, Chapter 3 OR Chapter 4 (to be divided in
class) AND “A Bridge for This Book: Weapons of the Weak and Weapons of the
Strong.”
o James C. Scott, Introduction to Domination and the Arts of Resistance W
 Feb. 28
o Mike Davis, Magical Urbanism, Chapters 3 and 4
Week 8 / Race and Place Today
 March 5 / Blog Post Due
o Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place, Chapters 6, 10, and one additional chapter (to
be assigned in class)
 March 7
o Davis, Magical Urbanism, Chapters 5 and 6
o Initial Research File and Annotations Due
Week 9 / Spring Break – No Class on March 12 & 14
Week 10 / Latinos, the U.S. City, & Mass Incarceration
 March 19 / Blog Post Due
o Davis, Magical Urbanism, Chapters 7-15 (finish book)
o Michelle Alexander, “Introduction” to The New Jim Crow W
 March 21
o Heather Ann Thompson, “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis,
Decline and Transformation in Postwar American History,” Journal of American
History (December, 2010) W
 Saturday, March 23, 11:59pm / First Synthetic Essay Due!
Week 11 / Community Organizing Case Studies
 March 26 / Blog Post Due
o Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Part 3
 March 28
o Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Coalition Politics: Turning the Century” in Barbara
Smith, ed., Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, pp. 343-355 W
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Week 12 / Key Concepts in the Organizing Tradition
 April 2 / Blog Post Due
o Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Chapters 9-11
o Sheldon Wolin, “Introduction” to Presence of the Past W
 April 4
o Charles M. Payne, “Give Light and the People Will Find a Way: The Roots of An
Organizing Tradition,” Ch. 3 in I’ve Got the Light of Freedom, accessed via
NetLibrary, through TCU Library’s online catalog
Week 13 / Getting Your Hands Dirty
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April 9 / Blog Post Due
o Schutz, Collective Action for Social Change, Chapters 12-15
April 11
o Charles M. Payne, “Slow and Respectful Work: Organizers and Organizing,” Ch. 8
in I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi
Freedom Struggle, accessed via NetLibrary
Week 14 / Follow the Money
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April 16 / Blog Post Due
o The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, Introduction and one chapter from Part 1 (to
be divided in class)
April 18
o The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, “Social Service or Social Change” and one
additional chapter from Part 2 (to be divided in class)
Week 15 / Conclusions
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April 23 / Blog Post Due
o Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida, “Radical Social Change: Searching for a New
Foundation” and Eric Tang, “Non-Profits and the Autonomous Grassroots,” both
in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded
April 25
o Second Synthetic Essay Due!
o No additional readings
o Library work session
Saturday, April 27, 11:59pm / Post-Mortem Research Bibliography Due
Week 16
 April 30 / Last Day of Class
o No additional readings
o Library work session
Final Exam Period
 Final Annotated Bibliography Due
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