200

An examination of African-American political activity in the 20th century. African-American participation in the U.S. electoral process and the power structure in African-American communities.

The comparative study of old and new African diasporas in Europe and the Americas emphasizing political movements, leadership and tactics. The roles of educational and religious institutions in developing resistance to doctrines of racial supremacy.

A chronological survey of African-American history from pre-colonial Africa and colonial America through the twentieth century. Focuses on the economic, political, social and cultural context in which a uniquely constituted African-American culture developed in the course of the struggle to achieve human rights.

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition area of the core with a grade of C- or above. We will study the ways in which early African-American literary traditions have been formed not only by slavery, but also by community, geography, politics, and literature itself. Works may include slave narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Keckley, and Harriet Jacobs, as well as 19th century fiction by Harriet Wilson, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Chesnutt. (H2)

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition area of the core with a grade of C- or above. This course explores the influences of blues, jazz, and spirituals; folklore; and socio-economic history on African American literature of the 20th and early 21st centuries. We’ll examine how survival and resistance become art forms in the work of authors like W.E. B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. (H2)

This course will explore the theories, research and practices of African-American psychology. Themes include the definition and development of African-American psychology, identity and personality formation of African-Americans, and historical and current issues affecting the lives of African Americans.

This course is a general topics course in African-American Studies, allowing faculty and students to study particular topics of interest.