Department of History, The University of British Columbia, 2017-18, Term II

H335FROM SLAVERY TO CITIZENSHIP, ‘JIM CROW’ APARTHEID TO CIVIL RIGHTS – & BEYOND:

AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY, 1850-2018

Prof. Paul KrauseOffice 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., Math 104; Thurs., Buchanan D20111:00-12:30

Office Hours: Thurs., 2:00-3:00 pm, 1122 Buchanan Tower

INTRODUCTION

This course interrogates the history of Americans of African ancestry from the decade before the U.S. Civil War through 2018. 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, and beyond, the U.S. remind us daily.

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 some texts may seem oblivious to it.

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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 Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 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 the spring. 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, both 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.” Additionally, we will study a compelling one-person performance by Cleavon Little, the star of “Blazing Saddles, in a theatrical memoir of sharecropping in Alabama, “All God’s Dangers.”

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READINGS

There is no textbook for H335, 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 MeZora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching GodEric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation & ReconstructionRichard 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).

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WHAT ARE THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF H335?

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 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 2018, 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 African-American History, in particular – without engaging and deploying gender as a category of analysis.

GENERAL EXPECTATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR H335

Your success will depend mostly 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.”

Participation in our lecture/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 difficult. No questions will be asked, and perhaps we can find a means of awarding bonus points for you. All those who find a way to speak in public are eligible for a

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maximum of 10 bonus points/marks, but bear in mind that such points/marks will be awarded based on the quality, and not the quantity, of your contributions, and especially on how well you can respond with integrity, courage, and empathy to your colleagues – particularly 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, where all 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.

Lamentably, the issues of workplace safety and of sexual assault and predation continue to be of frightening importance. They require all of us adhere to codes of behavior – in and out of the classroom and wherever we encounter each other – that respect the emotional and physical integrity of all our colleagues, and the well-known, established behavioral boundaries which, as we are reminded on a daily basis, continue to be breached – as they have been at UBC and indeed in the Department of History itself. My expectation is that all will abide by the guidelines for appropriate behavior outlined by UBC, as well as by these more directly stated standards.

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 policies on sexual assault. Check out the updates here: http://equity.ubc.ca/. 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 .

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, and there may be chances to resubmit work with which you may be dissatisfied.

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

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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 an evaluation of your work, and not a comment on your intelligence.

If you experience 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. Drop by early in the term. I always am happy to meet with students. Really.

If you face a learning challenge, such as a diagnosed learning disability, please know that I stand ready to work with you so that you can achieve to the fullest extent of your aspirations. Drop by to discuss the course requirements and whatever accommodations may be helpful to you. If you have fears about speaking in public, please let me know so that we can work out an appropriate, helpful, and non-threatening strategy for equitable evaluation. If you do approach public speech with trepidation – and if you do not – try to assume that you are among friends in H335. My experience suggests that the more of us who proceed from this assumption, the more likely it is to become a demonstrable fact of our shared classroom experience.

What we do in class will help you make sense out of our readings, which are the core of H335. Therefore, attendance at all classes is mandatory. You will lose marks if you are consistently absent, and the role will be taken from time to time to ensure that such losses do not occur.

If you have a valid reason for missing a session, please send me an e-mail. If you become seriously ill or have a crisis that interferes with your work, let me know so that we can discuss strategies for dealing with the situation and possible exceptions to the 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 are confronting a difficult situation; however, if you do not inform me, in advance, you will be expected to complete your work on time.

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: https://www.history.ubc.ca/content/common-questions-about-citations and http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/academic-integrity-pla.... You also may want to check out UBC’s policies on academic misconduct: http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,959.

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As the university has explained, “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes…. Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations.” The official policy of the university also holds that it “accommodates students with disabilities” and accommodates students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations. So, in the immediate days ahead, let me know if you will require any sort of accommodation. And note that students who plan to be absent for varsity athletics, family or work obligations, or other similar commitments, cannot assume that 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.

Consistent attendance, conscientious reading, and attentive and civil participation are essential parts of your work in this course. Again, strict adherence to the principles of academic integrity is expected in all matters. Plagiarism, in any form, will not be tolerated. 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 using the work of another scholar. Plagiarism, whether it is “intentional” or somehow not, 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 is just not worth it.

Take great care when using resources on the Web. Many sites can prove helpful, but a considerable number can be misleading – including, of course, Wikipedia. Be certain that unattributed sentences gleaned from the Web do not find their way into your submissions for H335. Failure to be vigilant about this matter inevitably will raise questions about academic integrity.

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.

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SCHEDULE, JAN.-APR. 2018

Week 1, Jan. 1-5: Begin reading Coates

Tuesday, Jan. 2: UBC closed, no class.

Thursday, Jan. 4: Introduction to H335

Week 2, Jan. 8-12 Finish Coates. Prompt: What is Coates’s argument? Does he ignore issues of gender, economic injustice, and U.S. imperial interests? See the web-based articles by Cornell West and Jelani Cobb.

Tuesday, Jan. 9: Video, “Two Nations of Black America” / Reading response on Coates due.

Thursday, Jan. 11: Conclude “Two Nations.” Discussion: Coates, Gates, Class, Race, and Gender. Autobiographies due.

Week 3, Jan. 15-19 Read Hofstadter, Taney, and ch. 1 of Foner’s book. Prompt for the reading response: What is Hofstadter’s argument?

Tuesday, Jan. 16: Lecture on the coming of the Civil War

Thursday, Jan. 18: Mini-lecture on the problem of Lincoln and master narratives of war and emancipation. Discussion to follow. Read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, available on-line. Response on Hofstadter due.

Week 4, Jan. 22-26 Read Brinkley, in the course pack. Chapters in Foner’s book, to be assigned.

Tuesday, Jan. 23: Video – “Reconstruction, The Second Civil War”

Thursday, Jan. 25: Conclude “Reconstruction”

Week 5, Jan. 29-Feb. 2 Read Foner, chapters and reading prompt to be assigned.

Tuesday, Jan. 30: Reconstruction: Trying to Put It Altogether, or Who Did What to Whom – and Why, How, and When?

Thursday, Feb. 1: Reconstruction and the Meanings of Freedom. Reading response on Foner due.

Week 6, Feb. 5-9 Read Ida Wells, in the course pack.

Tuesday, Feb. 6: Documentary on The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow / The problem of lynching; “Without Sanctuary”

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Thursday, Feb. 8: Excerpts from “All God’s Dangers.” Discussion on the “Redeemed” South and racist terrorism, 1865-1920.

Week 7, Feb. 12-16 Read Black Boy/American Hunger. Part 2 is optional. Prompt to be announced.

Tuesday, Feb. 13 Documentary on Wright.

Thursday, Feb. 15 Discussion of Black Boy, Richard Wright, and American Apartheid. Reading response on Wright due.

Mid-term break, Feb. 19-23

Week 8, Feb. 26-Mar. 2 Read Painter, “Soul Murder,” in the course pack. Read Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Prompt, choose one: What argument does Hurston or Painter put forward? This week, you are required to write a two-page response.

Tuesday, Feb. 27: Racialized Violence and Soul Murder – Contemporary Echoes from the ‘Long Ago’

Thursday, Mar. 1: Oprah, A Special Edition, with Hurston, Painter, Wright, and Coates as Guests. Reading response on Painter or Hurston due.

Week 9, Mar. 5-9 Read Beloved

Tuesday, Mar. 6: Fiction and History, Gender and Race, Forgetting and Remembering

Thursday, Mar. 8: Discussion of Beloved

Week 10, Mar. 12-16 Read Sitkoff, chapters to be assigned.

Tuesday, Mar. 13: Civil Rights Film Festival / “Eyes on the Prize”

Thursday, Mar. 15: Civil Rights Film Festival / “Eyes on the Prize”

Week 11, Mar. 19-23 Finish Sitkoff, chapters to be announced. Read Payne, in the course pack. Reading prompt to be announced.

Tuesday, Mar. 20: “Freedom Riders”

Thursday, Mar. 22: Documentary on Malcolm X. Reading response on Payne due.

Week 12, Mar 26-30 Read DeMott and Trouillot, in the course pack. Prompts to be announced.

Tuesday, Mar. 27: Silencing and Unsilencing the Past

Thursday, Mar. 29: Revisiting “The Two nations of Black America.” Reading response on Trouillot and DeMott due. Two-page responses are required for this assignment.

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Week 13, Apr. 2-6 Review for Final Written Exercise; Read Foner’s article on the meaning of freedom.

Tuesday, Apr. 3: “Killer of Sheep”

Thursday, Apr. 5 Discussion on Foner, DeMott, Trouillot, and “Killer of Sheep”

Exam Period: Apr. 10-25. The final written exercise will be due. The date will be set later in the term. There will be no extensions.

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OVERVIEW OF ASSIGNMENTS

Assignment Date Due Approximate Weight

Autobiographical statement on your expectations and on the reasons for your enrollment in H335.

1-page maximum.

Tuesday, Jan. 11, at the beginning of class.

Mandatory, but no mark awarded.

Two percentage points deducted from final mark if not submitted on time.

Brief reading notes on the weekly assignments. One-page maximum for most assignments. Must be typed/printed, and will be collected at the beginning of class. Guidelines can be found below.

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.

40%. Each marked assignment therefore carries with it a weight of 10% of the final grade.

Participation in lectures and discussions. Please note that, as explained above, in this realm it is quality and not quantity that matters.

Throughout the term 10% bonus.No one will be penalized if she or he finds it difficult to speak.

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.

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. See the sample questions below.

60%

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 prepare for the final written exercise. Do not use any outside sources in writing these notes. They are your notes, and only your words and thoughts belong in these notes.

Each reading response should be:H335, African-American History, 2018, pg. 11

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 response with the lowest mark will not be counted. To achieve a high mark on each response, you will need to demonstrate that you have actively engaged the text. In doing this, do not shy away from being creative. But be certain that you clarify the argument of the text. In other words, as you read each text, ask yourself what it is that the author is trying to prove or argue? How does she or he try to do this? What does he or she want me to learn from reading his or her text? How does the author challenge my thinking?

WRITING

Writing is fundamental to learning in the liberal arts and humanities. If we do not write about what we read and study, it becomes virtually impossible to understand what we read and study. Flannery O’Connor, a gifted American writer, put it more or less like this: “I don’t know what I think until I see what I write – and then I have to write it again.” (E.M. Forster’s version may be better: “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”)

O’Connor meant that she could not know her own thinking until she wrote down her thoughts, and then, to achieve a clearer understanding, she would have to rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite. O’Connor, like most writers, understood that writing is not really about writing – it is about rewriting. To succeed in writing, it usually is necessary to follow O’Connor’s sage advice. More concretely, it also is necessary to avoid the problems that habitually appear in many papers, among them:

* Paragraphs that lack topic sentences, ramble or contain more than one main idea, or are not logically connected.

* Sentences that are not logically connected.* Assuming that your reader understands what you are writing about.* Failure to “set-up” and introduce quotations – and then explain them.* Failure to answer or confront the question. (To answer the question, you have to read

it carefully. Then, you need to ask yourself: what questions do I have to answer in order to answer the question? In other words, what do I need to know to answer the question? Also, and possibly most important: what does my reader need to know to understand what I am saying and arguing?)

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Please consider the following writing tips from the writer and critic George Orwell that are lifted from his essay, “Politics and the English Language:” (also available here or here)

* Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

* Never use a long word where a short one will do. * If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. * Never use the passive where you can use the active. (Why?)* Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an

everyday English equivalent.

Finally, here are some “Elementary Principles of Composition” (From The Elements of Style):

* Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic. Ordinarily… a subject requires subdivision into topics, each of which should be made the subject of a paragraph. The object of treating each topic in a paragraph by itself is, of course, to aid the reader. The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to him (or her) that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached.

* As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning. Again, the object is to aid the reader. The practice here recommended enables him (or her) to discover the purpose of each paragraph as he begins to read it, and to retain the purpose in mind as he (or she) ends it. For this reason, the most generally useful kind of paragraph, particularly in exposition and argument, is that in which:

* The topic sentence comes at or near the beginning;* The succeeding sentences explain or establish or develop the statement made in the

topic sentence; and,* The final sentence either emphasizes the thought of the topic sentence or states some

important consequence. (Ending with a digression, or with an unimportant detail, is particularly to be avoided.)

You may find that many of these suggestions will lead you away from paths that you ordinarily follow when writing, and that the new paths can prove to be quite difficult and downright painful. Writing can be rewarding, but it is not always fun. As the journalist Gene Fowler, with characteristic sarcasm, once remarked, “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” The great German writer Thomas Mann, with (characteristically enough) less humor, offered this somber assessment of those who write: “A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

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The written assignments for H335 are based upon an understanding of how difficult it is to write, and therefore of how important it is to begin with the basics. In the effort to understand and master them, you may sweat blood and experience some difficulties, but you also may come to know more clearly what you think and therefore who you are. Start early; do not wait until the exam period to begin your final essay. You will have the questions well in advance, and there will be ample time to discuss them with your colleagues and with the instructor.

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.

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 African-Americans 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

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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 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 Martin Luther King, Jr., Thaddeus Stevens or Garrison FrazierIda B. Wells or Richard Wright

Tunis CampbellMalcolm X or Barack Obama

Ella Baker or Septima Clark Ta-Nehesi Coates Nate Shaw/Ned Cobb Marcus Garvey

H335, African-American History, 2018, pg. 15

Zora Neale Hurston or Toni Morrison 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.”

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 African-American 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. 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 African-Americans 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 whom were killed by 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

H335, African-American History, 2018, pg. 16

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 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 , Beloved, 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.

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EVALUATIONS OF FINAL ESSAYS

Essays will be evaluated based on 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.

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.)

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A MORE PRECISE MARKING RUBRIC

Argument Evidence Mechanics

Excellent

A to A+

A clear, original, persuasive, and sophisticated argument with a provocative thesis which takes a clearly defined position relating to the topic.

Makes excellent use of evidence; interprets and uses evidence with sensitivity to the nature of the text(s) and of historical contexts.

Well-written, elegant and clear with appropriate documentation. No spelling errors or punctuation errors, including apostrophes.

Very Good

B+ to A-

Well-organized, with a clear and coherent thesis statement and argument; may need to pursue more difficult questions.

Very good use of evidence with clear understanding of the nature of the evidence and its historical context.

Well-written, on the whole, though there may be some passages that are unclear or require further explication; good use of citations, etc.

Good

B- to B

A clear thesis and argument, though not necessarily a particularly original or creative one; some attempt to synthesize or draw conclusions.

Good use of evidence, clear understanding of the basic elements of the texts under discussion and their uses; no major problems of interpretation.

Some problems of spelling, grammar, word choice, or style, though not sufficient to entirely obscure the points being made; basic scholarly apparatus intact.

Fair

C- to C+

Some effort to develop a basic argument, though it may be unevenly or inadequately developed; inadequate or banal approach to the question at hand.

Some use of evidence; some problems of understanding or interpretation.

Confusing or vague, requiring a real effort on the part of the reader to guess at the arguments being made or their implications; problems with spelling, grammar, word choice, and style.

Poor

D or Fail

No clear thesis or argument; purely descriptive; argument is a-historical and/or polemical.

Failure to use evidence from the text adequately or competently; inappropriate or misunderstood examples; significant problems of understanding or interpretation.

Poorly written, troubling problems with grammar and word choice; difficult to understand or follow basic claims; failure to properly identify or cite passages that are quoted – if texts are even referenced..

H335, African-American History, 2018, pg. 19

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, 2018, pg. 20