Application for Pathways to Knowledge, Social, Cultural and historical Understanding Designation
History 141 (African American History 1877-present)
RESUBMISSION
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Date of Application: 9-28-12
Name/Department of Proposer: Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, History
Name of Department Housing Course: History
Name of Chair: Myrna Santiago
How Often is the Course Taught: every other year
Course Prerequisites: None
Unit Value of Course: 1
Normal Class Size: 25
Number of Sections Expected Fall 2013: 0
Number of Sections Expected Spring of 2014: 1
Is the course appropriate for first year students : no, but it is appropriate for sophomores
Relevant learning goals: Social, Cultural and Historical understanding
Chair will oversee submission of student work: yes
Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming/asst.: yes
Teaching: Learning Outcome #1 Social, Cultural and Historical Understanding courses is to
“examine human activity from a . . . historical perspective.” This course concentrates on African
American history from post-Civil War Reconstruction to the present. At the beginning of the
period the nation’s black population was predominantly rural, southern, and poor. However, as
the twentieth century unfolded African Americans left farms and fields for urban industrial
centers throughout the country. In the process of exploring this transition, we analyze the
origins and elaboration of segregation, daily life in the Jim Crow South, migration to the urban
north and west, the evolution of the civil rights movement, the transition to black power, and
contemporary issues and problems confronting individuals and communities. Class readings,
films, debates, role playing exercises, discussions, and lectures not only examine the black
experience in historical context, they link that experience to broader cultural, political, and
economic developments and explore it from multiple perspectives. In keeping with Learning
Outcome #2 students tackle multiple and conflicting interpretations of the past, analyze events
within their period-appropriate context, and employ the concepts of causation, contingency,
and agency to historical issues and problems. At four separate intervals in the course, students
must locate (with assistance from Susan Birkenseer, our department’s library specialist)
primary source documents that relate to specific course themes and topics. For example, as
we discuss segregation and disfranchisement during the post-Reconstruction era, students
must locate a legal statute that pertains to those topics, write a two-page analysis of the
document (identifying it’s explicit and implicit intent and describing its collective and
individual repercussions for African Americans in the Jim Crow South), and present their
findings to the class. Similarly, during our segment on the Harlem Renaissance, students
(again using library collections) must locate a cultural product from that period (poem, essay,
photograph, work of art), write a two-page analyses of how it reflects the broader themes of
the era, and present their findings to the class. These assignments, in keeping with Learning
Outcome #3, not only build skills in data collection and interpretation, they bring course
content to the level of direct human experience. In addition to these structured exercises,
students engage--on an almost daily bases--in guided analysis of primary sources, close reading
of historical monographs, and critical evaluation of documentary film footage and photographs.
16. Learning: Social, Cultural and Historical learning goals are assessed in several ways. Essay exams
(midterm and final) ask students to provide an in-depth analysis of each major turning point in
African American history. For example, one midterm question asks students to describe how
white southerners reasserted control over black citizens following the Compromise of 1877, and
how African Americans resisted the restoration of white “rule.” In doing so they must examine
the economic political, social, and ideological contours of racial subordination, and all forms of
resistance: collective, individual, cultural, political, economic, formal, and informal. On the final,
one question asks students to describe how World War Two and the immediate postwar period
set the stage for the second Reconstruction. In their response, they must examine a series of
complex and interrelated developments (the profound contradiction between democratic ideals
and practice, the new militancy that emerged from this contradiction, black migration out of the
South, increasing significance of the black vote, liberalization of the Supreme Court, the black
baby boom, postwar prosperity and rising expectations, the Cold War struggle for the “hearts
and minds” of newly independent, non-aligned African nations, and the rise of televised national
news media). Three thesis and interpretation papers, focusing on monographs that explore the
Age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, and World War II-era black migration and protest, ask
students to identify the authors’ thesis, evaluate sources, and assess the validity of their
arguments. The theses are complex, pushing students beyond superficial generalizations about a
period, and requiring a thoughtful analysis of the interplay among personal and impersonal
forces, individuals and broader society, race, class and gender constructs, and political,
economic, and cultural developments. Student ability to collect and interpret sources is
assessed through their written and oral analyses of primary documents that they, themselves,
have located by accessing our library’s collections. Assigned at four intervals in the course (see
above), and vetted before the entire class, these assignments are designed to complement
almost daily analyses of primary sources contained in course texts. Finally, a ten page
interpretive essay asks students to apply all of the evidence in their readings to a critical analysis
of white supremacy and black resistance from 1877-present. Here they must detail what the
sources reveal about the dynamics and expression of white racism, and modes of black
resistance: political, religious, intellectual, cultural, economic, individual, collective, class-based,
gender-based, etc.
17. Syllabus:
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo
History 141
Office: G310, X 4593
TTh 11:20-12:50
Office Hours: TTh : 9:45-11:15
e-mail: glemke@stmarys-ca.edu
African American History From 1877
Disability Policy
Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, that take into account the context of the course and
its essential elements, for individuals with qualifying disabilities, are extended through the office of
Student Disability Services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student
Disability Services Coordinator at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss
accommodation guidelines and available services.
Academic Honesty Policy
Any work that a student undertakes as part of the progress toward a degree or certification must be
the student’s own, unless the instructor specifies otherwise. That work may include examinations,
whether written or oral, oral presentations, laboratory exercises, papers, reports and other written
assignments. In written work other than examinations, students must clearly indicate the sources of
information, ideas, opinions and quotations that are not their own. Under the Academic Honor
Code, a student takes responsibility for the correctness and authenticity of all work submitted by that
student. Detailed regulations concerning the Academic Honor Code and the penalties for breach of
academic honesty are published in full in the Student Handbook. Each student is held responsible
for being acquainted with these regulations.
Learning Outcomes
A solid chronological and thematic grasp of African American History, 1877-present
An understanding of how race, class, gender have shaped the African American experience
Familiarity with the vocabulary and terminology of African American history
Ability to identify the major cultural, political, economic, and social developments associated with this
period of African American history
Ability to identify influential individuals and movements that shaped this period of African American
history
Ability to critically evaluate historical sources, and use historical evidence to craft an analytic essay on
the theme of black resistance and white supremacy
Readings
Palmer, Passageways, Vol. II, 1863-1965
Litwack, Trouble in Mind
Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue
Lemke-Santangelo, Abiding Courage
Sitkoff, Struggle for Black Equality
Grading
Class Participation and Attendance
15%
Thesis/Interpretation Papers
10%
Primary Source Assignments
10%
Midterm
20%
Final
20%
Interpretive Essay
25%
Schedule of Classes
Tu. Feb. 9
Introduction
Begin Trouble in Mind
Th. Feb. 11
Reconstruction
Passageways, pp. 1-32
Tu. Feb. 16
The Collapse of Reconstruction
Passageways, pp. 33-45
Th. Feb. 18
Disfranchisement, Segregation, Debt Peonage, and Education
Primary Source analysis due
Tu. Feb. 23
Film: Ethnic Notions
Th. Feb. 25
Resisting Jim Crow: Washington, Du Bois, Racial Uplift, and
Institution-Building
Passageways, pp. 47-81
Tu. March 2
World War I and the First Great Migration
Passageways, pp. 82-105
Th. March 4
Discuss Trouble in Mind/Thesis and Interpretation Papers Due
Begin When Harlem Was in Vogue
Tu. March 9
White Backlash and Black Resistance
Passageways, pp. 106-129
Th. March 11
Film: The Killing Floor (daily life and labor in the urban north)
Tu. March 16
The Harlem Renaissance
Passageways, pp. 130-155
Primary Source analysis due
Th. March 18
Discuss When Harlem Was in Vogue/Thesis and Interpretation Papers Due
Begin Abiding Courage
Tu. March 23
The Great Depression
Passageways, pp. 184-201
Th. March 25
Midterm
Tu. April 6
World War II: The Double “V” and Second Great Migration
Passageways, pp. 202-218
Th. April 8
World War II Continued
Tu. April 13
Discuss Abiding Courage/Thesis and Interpretation Papers Due
Th. April 15
Roots of the Second Reconstruction
Passageways, pp. 219-237; Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 3-36
Tu. April 20
Film; Simple Justice (Brown v. Board of Education)
Th. April 22
Film: Simple Justice
Tu. April 27
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Passageways, pp. 239-260; Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 37-60
Th. April 29
Student Sit-In Movement and Freedom Rides
Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 61-117
Primary Source analysis due
Tu. May 4
Birmingham and the March on Washington
Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 118-154
Th. May 6
Freedom Summer
Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 155-183
Film: Freedom on my Mind
Tu. May 11
From Civil Rights to Black Power
Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 184-209
Primary Source analysis due
Th. May 13
Legacy of the Movement
Struggle for Black Equality, pp. 210-235
Interpretive Essays Due
Interpretive Essay: The interpretive essay consists of a typed, double-spaced, ten page paper that
discusses and links together Trouble in Mind, When Harlem Was in Vogue, Abiding Courage, and the
Struggle for Black Equality. This is where you demonstrate that you have read and thought about each
book (do not use outside sources or lecture/discussion notes). Organize your essay around the theme of
white supremacy and black resistance. Discuss what each book reveals about the dynamics and
expression of white racism during the time period under consideration. Then describe what each book
reveals about African American resistance. Be certain to consider all forms of resistance: institution
building, self-help, migration, culture (literature, music, art, dance, etc.), economic independence, civil
disobedience, education, etc. If you quote from the books, please cite page numbers. No late papers will
be accepted.
Exams: The midterm and final will be essay exams. Please bring bluebooks and at least two dark pencils
or pens to class on the day of the exams. Study questions, from which the exams will be drawn, will be
handed out in class one week prior to the test dates. The final will not be comprehensive. Make-up
exams will be administered only in cases of illness (with a doctor’s excuse), or other documented
emergencies.
Thesis and Interpretation Papers: In two pages, please summarize the author’s thesis, provide an
overview of his/her sources, and assess the validity of her/his argument.
Primary Source Collection and Analysis: For this assignment you must—using our library collection—
locate a primary source document, and craft a two page analysis that situates the document within its
period-appropriate context, and discusses how it enlarges our understanding of individual and collective
experience.