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General
Course Information
Course
Description:
An examination of the
historical, economic, social, political, and cultural experiences of
Africans in America. The course emphasizes the diverse nature of
those experiences and the different ways they have been interpreted.
Instructor:
Anthony A.
Ball, (203) 332-5170,
Housatonic Office A-211. Send e-mail to TonyBall96@aol.com
or click the envelope icon below, left.
Class Meetings:
Tuesdays 6:45-9:30 p.m.,
Room C112f.
Office Hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays,
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Thursdays, 9:00-11:00 a.m.,
or by appointment.
Readings:
We will be reading from several different texts throughout the
course. These include:
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James
E. Blackwell, The Black Community: Diversity and Unity
3rd ed., (Allyn & Bacon, 1991).
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Ellis
Cose, Color-Blind (Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed
World (Harper Collins, 1997). |
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Harlon
L. Dalton, Racial Healing (Anchor Books, 1995). |
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Joe
R. Feagin and Clairece Booher Feagin, Racial and Ethnic
Relations 5th ed., (Prentice Hall, 1996). |
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John
Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to
Freedom: A History of African Americans 8th ed., (McGraw
Hill, 2000). |
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Henry
Louis Gates, Jr., ed., Bearing Witness: Selections from
African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century
(Pantheon, 1991). |
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Andrew
Hacker, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile,
Unequal (Ballantine, 1992). |
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Darlene
Clark Hine, et al., The African-American Odyssey
(Prentice Hall, 2000). |
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Darlene
Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson, A Shining Thread of Hope:
The History of Black Women in America (Broadway Books,
1998). |
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S.T.
Joshi, ed., Documents of American Prejudice (Basic Books,
1999). |
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Joyce
A. Ladner, The Death of White Sociology (Random House,
1973). |
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National
Urban League, The State of Black America 1999: The Impact of
Color-consciousness in the United States (National Urban
League, 1999). |
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Orlando
Patterson, The Ordeal of Integration (Civitas, 1998). |
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Alphonso
Pinkney, Black Americans 5th ed., (Prentice Hall, 2000). |
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Kathy
Russell, et al., The Color Complex: The Politics of
Skin Color Among African Americans (Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1992). |
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Arthur
M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections
on a Multicultural Society (W.W. Norton & Co., 1998). |
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David
K. Shipler, A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in
America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997). |
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Thomas
Sowell, Race and Culture: A World View (Basic Books,
1994). |
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Robert
Staples and Leanor Boulin Johnson, Black Families at the
Crossroads (Jossey-Bass, 1993). |
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Shelby
Steele, The Content of Our Character (St. Martin's Press,
1990). |
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Stephan
Thernstrom & Abigail Thernstrom, America in Black and
White: One Nation, Indivisible (Simon & Schuster, 1997). |
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Copies of all the
assigned readings will be placed on reserve in the Library.
Additionally, most assigned readings will be distributed in class.
The list above and the assigned readings below are by no means
exhaustive; I will be adding additional reading materials as the course
progresses. If you ever miss a class, and you never should,
please check the web site Calendar immediately to determine whether additional
readings were distributed.
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Course
Requirements:
25%
Course Attendance and Participation. This
grade is based on four factors: (1) actual attendance; (2) demonstrated preparedness; (3)
meaningful contributions to class discussions; (4) meaningful contributions to the on-line discussion
forum.
25%
Five Reaction Pieces. These are 2-3 page (TYPED, DOUBLE-SPACED,
NORMAL MARGINS AND FONTS) to the asterisked (*) readings listed on the Schedule. In these short essays, you should critique the assigned
article (DON'T JUST SUMMARIZE IT; YOU WON'T RECEIVE CREDIT FOR THAT),
relating the positions stated by the author to your own experience and
knowledge, and to the broader subjects raised in the course. You
are not required to do additional research for these assignments.
25%
A Mid-Term Examination, scheduled for March 13, and covering all
material in the course up to that date. The examination will
consist of short essay questions. The
examination will be open book/open note; the emphasis is on CRITICAL
THINKING and ANALYSIS, not memorization. Absent extraordinary
circumstances (serious illness or other emergency), I do NOT provide
makeup examinations in this course.
25%
A Final Examination, scheduled for May 15, 7:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.
The final will be cumulative, meaning it will cover all material
presented in the course. The final will also be open book/open
note.
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