HIS 257 - African-American History

1. Evaluate the timeframe, culture, and impact of the African kingdoms
   1. Explain the impact of Ancient Egypt on other African cultures
   2. Describe religious, political, and intellectual elements of the Ghana, Mali, and Songhay empires on West African tribes from Senegal to Angola
   3. Examine the predominantly agricultural and artisan economy of West Africa
2. Summarize the causes, operation, and effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
   1. Explain the relationship between the closure of the European trade with the Middle East and the Far East and the development of European navigation, including the discovery of the Americas
   2. Evaluate the participation of African coastal tribes in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
   3. Describe the African resistance to the trade
3. Analyze the change of indentured to enslaved African labor in the British colonies
   1. Characterize the legal status of the first twenty Africans brought to Jamestown, VA
   2. Compare the rise of discriminatory treatment of African servants 1619-1661
   3. Chronicle the establishment of Slave Codes for Africans in all thirteen of the British colonies
4. Assess the role of free and enslaved African Americans in the American Revolution and the issue of slavery
   1. Discuss the significance of historical figures such as Crispus Attucks
   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
5. Evaluate the development of the Free Antebellum Community 1780-1860
   1. Appraise the political status of free African Americans
   2. Assess the social structure of the free black community including the significance of church (A.M.E.) and fraternal orders (Masons, Odd Fellows)
   3. Discuss international support for free societies and abolitionists
6. Synthesize the 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. Formulate the impact of African Americans’ interpretation of Christianity in terms of deliverance on American Protestantism
   4. Describe the public and private architecture, interior decoration and craft-work (pottery, basketry, weaving, and quilting) of enslaved blacks
7. Analyze the movement to abolish slavery
   1. Identify the colonial era/enlightenment era ideas antithetical to enslavement (i.e., unalienable rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness), and the Revolutionary era abolition from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania
   2. Break down the significance of the successful slave revolt in Haiti (1793-1805) led by Toussaint and Dessalines
   3. Illustrate the role of “black” and “white” abolitionists such as David Walker, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe
8. Evaluate 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. Compare the initial rejection of African American volunteers by the U.S. Army and the eventual admission of them in July 1862
   2. Discuss the participation of about 200,000 African Americans in the Union victory
   3. Interpret the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation on the flight of some 500,000 enslaved persons, and the effects on the economy and society of the Confederacy
   4. Show Europeans’ views of each side of the conflict and role of European “neutrality”
9. Analyze the 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.”
10. Interpret the issues affecting African Americans during the Segregation era
    1. Enumerate the negative ramifications of Jim Crow on African Americans
    2. Outline the various types of segregation laws
    3. Illustrate the various responses by African Americans to segregation including protest, legal suit, migration, and accommodation
    4. Characterize the response of Booker T. Washington to segregation
    5. Interpret the response of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois to segregation
    6. Chart the organized response to segregation, disfranchisement, and lynching by the professional organizations and associations
    7. Review the effectiveness of “The Great Migration” to segregation
11. Evaluate “the New Negro”
    1. Generalize the role of the Gilded Age in shaping conditions leading to the rise of “the New Negro”
    2. Correlate the relationship between the First World War and “the New Negro”
    3. Assess the significance of Marcus Garvey to the New Negro Movement
    4. Relate the significance of the Harlem Renaissance to the New Negro Movement
    5. Identify the key figures of the Harlem Renaissance
12. Analyze issues that impacted the African American community during the Great Depression and New Deal
    1. Differentiate the causes for the change in political allegiance by African Americans from the Republican party to the Democratic party
    2. Classify the significance of the Scottsboro case
    3. Show the significance of Jesse Owens’ four gold medal victories in the Berlin Olympic Games
    4. Report the significance of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s support for the N.A.A.C.P.
13. Critique 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
14. Examine the major events, organizations, and leaders of the Civil Rights
    1. Define the groundwork of the Civil Rights Movement conducted by the N.A.A.C.P. and especially the Brown v. State Board of Education, Topeka decision
    2. Identify the role of the Cold War, television and religion in the Civil Rights Movement
    3. Reinforce the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement
    4. State the actions of S.N.C.C. and C.O.R.E. in the Civil Rights Movement
    5. Describe the effectiveness of the Civil rights Acts of 1957, 1964, 1965, and 1968 in eliminating segregation, disfranchisement, and racist violence against African Americans
    6. Categorize the “militant’ idea and actions of ‘Black Power,” the Black Panthers, the Black Manifesto, and others
15. Evaluate the recent struggle for equality
    1. Judge the political success of Jesse Jackson in the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, and the unofficial campaign of Colin Powell for 1996
    2. Critique the impact of the presidency of Barack Obama
    3. Appraise recent political, religious, and sociological issues impacting the African American community
16. Demonstrate effective communication and critical thinking skills through writing
    1. Define and interpret primary sources
    2. Create a formal research paper with a coherent argument