HIS 257 - African-American History

Credits: 3
Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 0
Practicum Hours: 0
Work Experience: 0
Course Type: Core

A survey of the history of the African-American community with emphasis on the role of individuals, institutions and ideas in the development of the community from its origins in West Africa to the present.
Competencies

Summarize the timeframe, culture, and effects of Ancient Egyptian culture on other African cultures, especially West African cultures
1. Explain the religion of Ancient Egypt
2. Discuss the political structure of Ancient Egypt
3. Describe the economy of Ancient Egypt, especially the significance of slavery
4. Evaluate the intellectual development of Ancient Egypt, particularly geometry and its relationship to architecture and construction
5. Assess and appreciate Egyptian art
Summarize the timeframe, culture, and impact of the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, and the Congo on West African tribes from Senegal to Angola
1. Explain the animist and Muslim religious traditions of the West African coast
2. Describe the family-centered, predominately patriarchal political system
3. Describe the predominantly agricultural and artisan economy of West Africa
4. Evaluate the intellectual development of the West African kingdoms, particularly the University of Sankore in Timbuctu
5. Identify the distinctive artistic styles of the Bambera, Akan, Senufo, Benin, Fang, and Congo cultures
Summarize the causes, timeframe, operation, and effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
1. Explain the relationship between the rise of Islam, the closure of European trade with the Middle East and Far East, the development of European navigation, the circumnavigation of Africa, and the European discovery of the Americas
2. Discuss the epidemiological impact of European diseases on native Americans vis a vis Africans
3. Assess the economic impact of European discovery of Mexican gold and Peruvian silver.
4. Evaluate the participation of African coastal tribes in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
5. Describe the African resistance to the trade and the role of abolition societies in the termination of the trade in the early 19th century
Summarize the timeframe, causes, and effects of the change of indentured to enslaved African labor in the British colonies
1. Discuss the legal status of the first twenty Africans brought to Jamestown, VA in 1619, especially that of Anthony Johnston
2. Describe the rise of discriminatory treatment of African servants 1619-1661, particularly the John Punch case of 1640
3. Chronicle the establishment of Slave Codes for Africans in all thirteen of the British colonies, beginning with that of Virginia in 1661 and concluding with that of Georgia in 1750
Assess the role of free and enslaved African Americans in the American Revolution and the issue of slavery
1. Discuss the significance of Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, Salem Poor etal
2. Evaluate Washington’s order excluding African Americans from the Continental Army and Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation
3. Interpret Washington’s inclusion of African Americans in 1777 and the beginning of abolition in northern states beginning with Vermont in 1777 and concluding with New Jersey in 1804
Summarize the development of the Free Antebellum Community 1780-1860
1. Assess the political status of free African Americans from the Quok Walker case (1780) to Dred Scott (1857).
2. Analyze the economic status of free African Americans from Paul Cuffee (Boston shipper) to Joseph Jenkins Roberts (Richmond, VA. merchant) to Jean-Claude Metoyer (Louisiana free black slave-owner).
3. Evaluate the social structure of the free black community including the high percentage of two-parent families, dominance of the father, and significance of church (A.M.E.) and fraternal orders (Masons, Odd Fellows).
4. Describe the literature of Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton, William Wells Brown, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the art of Robert Duncanson, Julien Hudson, and Patrick Reason, and the drama of Ira Aldridge
Summarize the timeframe, geography, politics, economics, sociology, religion, and art of Antebellum slavery
1. Explain the relationship between the development of the United States, the spread of slavery, and the Internal Slave Trade
2. Discuss the centrality of the slavery issue in national politics from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to the Compromises of 1820 and 1850
3. Analyze the various economic theses of slavery from Phillips to Fogel and Engerman
4. Assess the dialectical relationship between “whites” and “blacks” in the Slave Society as described by Genovese, Blassingame, and Levine
5. Discuss the impact of African Americans’ interpretation of Christianity in terms of deliverance on American protestantism
6. Describe the public and private architecture, interior decoration and craft-work (pottery, basketry, weaving, and quilting) of enslaved
Summarize the causes, timeframe, people, events and organizations of the movement to abolish slavery
1. Identify the colonial era/enlightenment era ideas antithetical to enslavement (i.e., unalienable rights to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness), and the Revolutionary era abolition from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania
2. Assess the significance of the successful slave revolt in Haiti (1793-1805) led by Toussaint and Dessalines
3. Evaluate the role of “black” and “white” abolitionists such as David Walker, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe
Assess the role of African Americans and the issue of slavery in the victory of the United States over the Confederate States in the Civil War 1861-65
1. Evaluate the initial rejection of African American volunteers by the U.S. Army in 1861, the admission of them in July 1862, and the eventual participation of about 200,000 African Americans to the Union victory
2. Assess the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation on the flight of some 500,000 enslaved persons, the loss of that labor to the Confederate economy, and to the neutrality of European nations
3. Analyze the impact of heroic service of African Americans, including fourteen Medal of Honor winners, in the U.S. Army on the African American community
Summarize the timeframe, geography, and political, economic and social issues of the Reconstruction era
1. Distinguish between Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction
2. Identify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
3. Compare “Radical” Republicans, “Black” Republicans, “Scalawags,” and “Carpetbaggers.”
Summarize the timeframe, geography, and political, economic, and social issues of the Segregation era
1. Identify segregation, disfranchisement, and lynching and their relationship to Social Darwinism, white racism, and imperialism of the late 19th century
2. Describe the various types of segregation laws
3. Discuss the various responses of African Americans to segregation including protest, legal suit, migration, emigration, and accommodation
4. Assess the response of Booker T. Washington to segregation, etc
5. Assess the response of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois to segregation, etc
6. Evaluate the organized response to segregation, disfranchisement, and lynching by the Afro-American League, the Niagara Movement, the N.A.A.C.P., the National Urban League, the American Negro Academy, and the Association for the Study of African American
7. Evaluate the effectiveness of “The Great Migration” to segregation, etc
Summarize the timeframe, geography, causes, ideas, institutions, and leaders of “The New Negro
1. Describe the relationship between W.W. I and “the New Negro.”
2. Assess the significance of Marcus Garvey to the New Negro Movement
3. Evaluate the significance of the Harlem Renaissance to the New Negro Movement
4. Identify the key figures of the Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Zora Neal Hurston, “Duke” Ellington, “Ma” Rainey, “Bessie” Smith, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, and Aaron Douglas
Summarize the timeframe geography, and political, economic, social and religious changes that occurred in the African American community during the Great Depression and New Deal
1. Describe the causes for the change in political allegiance by African Americans from the Republican party to the Democratic party
2. Discuss the reasons for African American support of the C.I.O. and the significance of their membership in the U.S.W., U.M.W., and U.A.W
3. Assess the significance of the Scottsboro case
4. Evaluate the significance of Jesse Owens’ four gold medal victories in the Berlin Olympic Games
5. Evaluate Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s support for the N.A.A.C.P. and particularly for Marion Anderson’s concert
Summarize the chronology, issues, and results of World War II
1. Discuss the “Double V” Campaign of the African American press
2. Describe the March on Washington, D.C., Movement of A. Philip Randolph and Executive Order 8802
3. Chronicle the breakdown of discrimination against African Americans in the armed forces during WW II.
4. Assess the impact of the Second Great Migration during WW II
5. Evaluate the significance of Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma (1944) to the end of segregation, etc
Summarize the timeframe, causes, major events, organizations, and leaders of the Civil Rights movement
1. Discuss the groundwork of the Civil Rights Movement conducted by the N.A.A.C.P. and especially Charles H. Houston to the Brown v. State Board of Education, Topeka decision
2. Evaluate the role of the Cold War, television and religion in the Civil Rights Movement
3. Assess the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement
4. Describe the actions of S.N.C.C. and C.O.R.E. in the Civil Rights Movement
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the Civil rights Acts of 1957, 1964, 1965, and 1968 in eliminating segregation, disfranchisement, and racist violence against African Americans
6. Discuss the “militant’ idea and actions of ‘Black Power,” the Black Panthers, the Black Manifesto, and others
Summarize the chronology, issues, and leadership in the Struggle for Equality
1. Assess the political success of Jesse Jackson in the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, and the unofficial campaign of Colin Powell for 1996
2. Describe the central ideas of Afrocentrism as advocated by Dr. Mokefi Asanti and others

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