HIST 7882: African American Historiography Since 1900
E-Mail: agoudszn@memphis.edu
Phone #: 678-2520
Course Description
This course introduces some of the most recent as well as standard scholarship in the field of African American History from 1865 to the present, with a particular focus upon the twentieth century. Classes will focus on discussion of the assigned core readings and supplemental books. Students will give presentations, write reviews, and compose longer historiographical essays.
Books
· Blair L.M. Kelley, Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson (North Carolina, 2010)
· Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Harvard, 1994)
· Adriane Lentz-Smith, Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I (Harvard, 2009)
· Colin Grant, Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey (Oxford, 2010)
· Suzanne E. Smith, To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death (Harvard, 2010)
· Glenda Gilmore, Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950 (W.W. Norton, 2009)
· J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II (Oxford, 2010)
· Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, 2002)
· Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Random House, 2010)
· John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Illinois, 1995)
· Thomas Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North (Random House, 2009)
· Peniel Joseph, Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama (Basic Civitas, 2010)
All of the books are available in the university bookstore. The schedule also shows a list of supplemental books, which will be the basis for a long review essay and for a class presentation. Students are individually responsible for procuring supplemental books.
Expectations
This class assumes you are already familiar with the basic outlines of African American history since 1865. If you need a refresher, please consider reviewing one of the many textbooks in African American history, such as Clayborne Carson et al, African American Lives; John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom; Darlene Clark Hine et al, The Struggle for Freedom; or Robin D.G. Kelly and Earl Lewis, To Make Our World Anew.
We will divide most class sessions into two parts. In the first part, we will discuss the assigned book. Our discussions will revolve around three questions:
· What is the author’s argument?
· How does the author make this argument?
· Does the author make this argument effectively? Why or why not?
For each class, students will submit a writing assignment that is designated in the class schedule. We will discuss the standards for particular assignments, and I can suggest examples as necessary.
The second part of class will be devoted to presentations by students, followed by questions and discussion. These presentations are based on a group of supplemental books centered on a particular theme. The supplemental books are listed in the schedule in this syllabus. We will assign presentations on the first day of class. Everyone will do one presentation. On the day of each presentation, the student must also submit a historiographical essay (10-15 pages) on those books. This essay should be circulated via e-mail to every student in the class.
Grades are broken down as follows:
· 33%: Class participation
· 33%: Weekly writing assignments
· 33%: Historiographical essay and presentation
The grading scale basically follows the departmental standards for graduate students, with a focus upon those getting or considering getting their doctorate:
· A: Outstanding, excellent work. Approaches professional quality work.
· A-: Very good work. High quality performance, but falls short of excellence.
· B+: Good Work. Solid effort, shows potential for higher achievement.
· B: Needs improvement: Reflects serious effort, but raises doubts about the potential for achieving professional quality, so students should consult with professors about how to improve their work, especially if they are in the Ph.D. program or would like to be.
· B-: Marginal. A few positive qualities, but plagued by serious problems that must be immediately addressed.
· C+ and below: unacceptable.
Please follow professional standards of work and behavior. Arrive in class on time, have your reading completed, have your notes ready to pass in, and participate in discussions. Courteous, professional codes of conduct should govern presentations and discussions.
Academic Dishonesty
The University of Memphis Code of Student Conduct defines academic misconduct as all acts of cheating, plagiarism, forgery and falsification.
The term "cheating" includes, but is not limited to:
· using any unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes or tests
· using sources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems, or carrying out other assignments
The term "plagiarism" includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full or clear acknowledgment. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.
Academic dishonesty also includes:
· furnishing false information to any University official, faculty member or office.
· forgery, alteration, or misuse of any University document, record, or instrument of identification.
Historiographical Essays and Presentations
“Historiography” concerns how historians have interpreted historical subjects. A historiographical review essay summarizes and analyzes major arguments and debates about a given topic. It is not a book report or a number of book reports strung together. Nor does it simply narrate the history of a past event.
Instead, it takes a theme, problem, or issue and analyzes the evolution of historical interpretations offered by various historians. It focuses on the major schools of thought, conflicting interpretations, and new directions for research. A good essay often asks what common questions the historians under review are asking, and then it compares and contrasts their approaches to answering that question. It may analyze how historians’ approaches have evolved over time, or consider major debates in the current state of the field, or some combination of these approaches.
A historiographical essay makes an argument. It places the books in dialogue with one another, and it may suggest new directions for the topic.
As you make your argument, you also provide a brief synopsis of each book’s argument, methodology, sources, and analysis. You further critique the author’s work, though you must accept the book on its own terms. Analyze the authors’ interpretations, comparing and contrasting their approaches, theories, and findings. Historians write in conversation with the scholarship that has come before, and your essay should recognize that dialogue. What unites these books? What divides them?
Your essays should not entirely focus on style issues. Avoid prolonged comments on the style of the book. However, one can note whether a book is well-written or incoherent, and one can even quote a sentence to illustrate an author’s style. Quote judiciously. The author’s prose may spice up your review, and it may deliver an idea more sharply than you can through paraphrasing. But it is your job to analyze the book, and you shirk that duty if you include too many long quotations. Finally, avoid such generalizations as, “the book is very interesting.” A good review would make that clear, and your focus is on analyzing the historiography.
In your essays, you may refer to other books, journal articles, or book reviews. But cite any outside material and be careful to avoid plagiarism.
Please try consulting me before passing in your essays. You can bounce ideas off me, and perhaps I can help you clarify an organizational logic.
Please pass in a hard copy of your essay during the appropriate class session. Before then, by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of class, please also e-mail me a copy of the essay. I will circulate the electronic copy to your classmates in advance of class.
On the day that your essay is due, you will present your interpretations to the class. Your presentation should last approximately fifteen minutes, not including questions and class discussion. It should be professional, thorough, well-organized, and clear to your audience. You will stand at a podium in front of the class. Do not read from your paper. Also, do not speak off the cuff. I strongly encourage you to prepare speaking notes and to rehearse your presentation beforehand. Your audience should come away with a firm grasp upon not only the arguments of each book under review, but also your argument for how these books work together.
Schedule
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Kelley, Right to Ride
Assignment: Write a one-paragraph summary of Kelley’s overall argument. Also outline the book, chapter-by-chapter, focusing on the argument of each chapter and explaining the evidence used to supplement that argument.
Making Jim Crow
C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913
Grace Elizabeth Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940
Stephen Kantrowitz, Ben Tillman & the Reconstruction of White Supremacy
Michael Perman, Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South
History from Below
Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness
Hosea Hudson and Nell Irvin Painter, The Narrative of Hosea Hudson
Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw
Steven Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration
Week 3: Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent
Assignment: Write a one-paragraph summary of Higginbotham’s overall argument. Also outline the book, chapter-by-chapter, focusing on the argument of each chapter and explaining the evidence used to supplement that argument.
Understanding Racial Violence
Stewart Tolnay and E.M. Beck, A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of the Lynching of African Americans in the American South, 1882-1930
Fitzhugh Brundage, Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930
David S. Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson, Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy
David Fort Godshalk, Veiled Visions: The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot and the Reshaping of American Race Relations
The Black Church
Wallace Best, Passionate No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago
Nick Salvatore, Singing in a Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America
Barbara Diane Savage, Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
Milton Sernett, Bound For the Promised Land: African American Religion and the Great Migration
Week 4: Lentz-Smith, Freedom Struggles
Assignment: Write a one-paragraph summary of Lentz-Smith’s overall argument. Also outline the book, chapter-by-chapter, focusing on the argument of each chapter and explaining the evidence used to supplement that argument.
The Political Lives of Women
Tera Hunter, To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War
Jacqueline Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present
Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920
Ula Yvette Taylor, The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey
Leadership and History
Robert J. Norrell, Up From History: The Life of Booker T. Washington
David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. DuBois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919
David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963
Paula J. Giddings, Ida: A Sword Among Lions
Week 5: Grant, Negro with a Hat
Assignment: In 500-600 words, discuss Grant’s use of biography. What does a biographical focus add to our historical understanding of African American history in this period? What are the limitations of this biographical approach?
Popular Culture: Stereotypes and Meanings
David Krasner, Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theater
Karen Satiropoulos, Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn-of-the-Century America
Mel Watkins, Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry
Melvin Patrick Ely, Amos and Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon
Week 6: Smith, To Serve the Living
Assignment: Write a 500-word review of To Serve the Living that is suitable for publication in the Journal of African American History.
Reform Strategies
Ralph E. Luker, The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885-1912
Martin Summers, Manliness and Its Discontents: The Black Middle Class and the Transformation of Masculinity, 1900-1930
Jonathan Scott Holloway, Confronting the Veil: Abram Harris Jr., E. Franklin Frazier, and Ralph Bunche, 1919-1941
Kevin Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Work, Migration, and Politics
Eric Arnesen, Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality
Beth Tompkins Bates, Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America
Joe William Trotter,
Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915-45
Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the
Jazz Age
Week 7: Gilmore, Defying Dixie
Assignment: In 600-700 words, discuss whether or not Gilmore’s book should force us to reconsider our prevailing definitions of the civil rights movement.
The Long Civil Rights Movement
Nan Woodruff, American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta
John Egerton, Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South
Nikhil Pal Singh, Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy
Cornelius A. Bynum, A. Philip Randolph and the Struggle for Civil Rights
The Politics of Culture
David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue
Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff, Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era
Anastasia Curwood, Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars
Robin D.G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class
Week 8: Moye, Freedom Flyers
Assignment: Discuss Moye’s use of oral history sources in 500-600 words. Providing specific examples, analyze the strengths of this approach and consider its possible limitations.
Depression Politics
Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression
James Goodman, Stories of Scottsboro
Cheryl Greenberg, "Or Does It Explode?": Black Harlem in the Great Depression
Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era
Nancy Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR
Week 9: Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights
Assignment: Write a 500-word book review of Cold War Civil Rights that is suitable for publication in the Journal of African American History.
African Americans and Global Issues
Carol Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Freedom
Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955
Gayle Plummer, Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960
James H. Meriwether, Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans and Africa, 1935-1961
Kevin Gaines, African Americans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era
Organizations and the Movement
Manfred Berg. "The Ticket to Freedom": The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration
Nancy Weiss, Whitney M. Young Jr. and the Struggle for Civil Rights
Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement
Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Week 10: Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns
Assignment: Wilkerson’s book has received exceptional praise for the quality of its writing. What makes this a well-written book? Analyze its techniques in 500-600 words, providing specific examples.
Migrations, Cities, and Politics
Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Migration and How It Changed America
Arnold Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960
Adam Green, Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955
James Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration
Challenging Traditional Narratives
Charles Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
Timothy Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power
Lance Hill, The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement
Christopher B. Strain, Pure Fire: Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era
Week 11: Dittmer, Local People
Assignment: Write a 600-700 word reaction paper to Local People. You have freedom to take it in any direction, but ground your thoughts in specific examples from the book.
Local Movements
William Chafe, Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom
Emilye Crosby, A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi
Charles McKinney, Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina
Hasan Jeffries, Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt
Gender and the Movement
Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Steve Estes, I Am A Man!: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement
Herman Graham III, The Brothers’ Vietnam War
Week 12: Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty
Assignment: Write a 600-700 word reaction paper to Sweet Land of Liberty. You have freedom to take it in any direction, but ground your thoughts in specific examples from the book.
Race and the Urban North
Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Robert Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland
Matthew Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia
Patrick D. Jones, The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee
The Nation of Islam
Edward E. Curtis IV, Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975
Claude Andrew Clegg, An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad
Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Black Power
Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Week 13: Joseph, Dark Days, Bright Nights
Assignment: Write a 600-700 word review of Dark Days, Bright Nights suitable for publication in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Directions of Black Power
Peniel Joseph, Waiting Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
Scot Brown, Fighting For US: Maulana Karenga, the US Organization, and Black Cultural Nationalism
Donna Murch, Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California
Devin Fergus, Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980