HST 258 African American History

Lecture Hours: 4
Credits: 4

Recounts and explains experiences which lie at the heart of America’s struggle to deal with its racial composition. Examines historical forces which denied African Americans the opportunity to secure meaningful first-class citizenship. Focuses on the political and social lives of African Americans. Additionally, examines the decisions and social institutions that determined public policy regarding Americans of African descent.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 (or higher) with a grade of C or better; or consent of instructor.
Student Learning Outcomes:

Describe the major political, social, economic, and cultural transformations in African American history from pre-history to the present.
Analyze the ways in which an unequal distribution of economic and political power has shaped the African American experience.
Describe the problems that minority groups face in American society currently.
Analyze how other historical issues and ideas have also affected the development of African American life and culture.
Prepare a written analysis of historical documents, issues or ideas.
Analyze primary and secondary historical documents.
Evaluate historians’ arguments and different methods of historical inquiry about an issue or time period. ‘

Statewide General Education Outcomes:

Apply analytical skills to social phenomena in order to understand human behavior.
Apply knowledge and experience to foster personal growth and better appreciate the diverse social world in which we live.

Cultural Literacy Outcomes:

Identify and analyze complex practices, values, and beliefs and the culturally and historically defined meanings of difference.

Content Outline

Becoming African American
- Ancient Africa
- Africa and the Atlantic world
- Colonies and the revolutionary era: blacks and the revolution
Slavery, Abolition, and the Quest for Freedom
- After the revolution
- African Americans in the antebellum period
The Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction
- Civil War
- Reconstruction
Searching for Safe Spaces: Post Reconstruction Era
- The triumph of white supremacy
- Blacks in the progressive era
- World War I and the new Negro
The Great Depression and the New Deal
- New deal politics and African Americans
- African Americans and World War II
The Black Revolution
- The Freedom Movement
- Black power and Black Nationalism
- Resistance, repression, and retrenchment
The Search for New Directions
- Blacks during a conservative era
- Continuing struggles over rights and identity
- Political action and the presidency