Haverford College

Department of History

History 243b: African American Political and Social Thought

The development of a modern African American intellectual and cultural tradition--in the context of a changing political economy and our national coming of age, 1895-1945.

Information

Time & Place: Monday, Wednesday 12:30-2:00 pm, Stokes 225.
Office Hours: 1 College Lane Apt. 1, by appointment.
Phone/Email: [610] 649-7841; pjeffers@haverford.edu

1) Close reading and careful discussion of the assigned texts.

2) A mid-term hour examination on February 23rd.

3) A short essay [5-7 pp.] due April 3rd on a topic to be assigned.

4) A self-scheduled 3 hour final examination, or a substantial term paper [12-15 pp.] on a topic to be negotiated.

5) Common sense and good citizenship.

Core Texts

1) W.E.B. Du Bois, The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois (1968)

2) John Hope Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (1965)

3) John B. Kirby, Black Americans in the Roosevelt Era (1980)

4) David Levering Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue (1981; 1982)

5) David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995)

6) Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro (1925; 1968)

7) Richard Wright, Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (1945; 1966)

NB: Texts which are *ed* are on reserve at the Library. Texts which are #ed# will be supplied in class.

Calendar of Readings

JANUARY 17. Opening Remarks.

JANUARY 19. Up from Slavery.

Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery [1901]), pp. 29-123.

JANUARY 24. Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are.

Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery [1901]), pp. 124-205.

JANUARY 26. A Revisionist [Dated?] Perspective on Booker T. Washington.

#Robert L. Factor, "Booker T. Washington and the Transformation of the Black Belt Negro: Disorganization and Social Change," in Jerry Israel, ed., Building an Organizational Society (1972), pp. 103-124.#

FEBRUARY 2. CLASS EXERCISE: How to Read and Contextualize a Text.

#William H. Baldwin, "The Present Problem of Negro Education," Journal of Social Science, 37 (December 1899): 52-63.#

FEBRUARY 4. The Making of a Model Black Intellectual.

Du Bois, Autobiography [1968], pp. 61-193.

FEBRUARY 9. Present at the Creation: Inventing African American Studies.

Du Bois, Autobiography [1968], pp. 194-235.

#Du Bois, “The Study of the Negro Problems,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 11 (January 1898), pp. 1-23.#

FEBRUARY 11. Present at the Creation: Rethinking the Concept of Race.

Du Bois, “The Conservation of Races” [1898]; and “The First Universal Races Congress” [1911]; in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), 20-27, 44-47.

FEBRUARY 16. A Fork in the Road: Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others.

Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk[1903]), pp. 213-221; 240-252.

FEBRUARY 21. From the Niagara Movement to the NAACP.

Du Bois, Autobiography pp. 236-276.

Du Bois, “The Niagara Movement: Address to the Country” [1906]; “NAACP” [1910]; and “The Amenia Conference” [1925]; in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 367-371, 380-387.

#”Second Annual Report, NAAC.P” [1912], in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, 1910-1932 (1973), pp. 36-40.#

FEBRUARY 23. HOUR EXAM

FEBRUARY 28. Rereading Reconstruction: Revisionism to Radicalism, 1910/1935.

Du Bois, “Reconstruction and Its Benefits” [1910]; and “The Propaganda of History” [1935]; in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 174-192, 201-214.

MARCH 1. Marcus Garvey versus Du Bois: Post-War Black Nationalism.

Du Bois, “Back to Africa” [1923], in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 333-339.

#Claude McKay, “Garvey as a Negro Moses”[1922]; and Marcus Garvey, “The Negro’s Greatest Enemy” [1923]; in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, 1910-1932 (1973), pp. 366-370; 393-411.#

Spring Vacation

MARCH 13. W.E.B. Du Bois and Pan Africanism.

Du Bois, “The Negro Mind Reaches Out,” in Locke, ed., New Negro (1925), pp. 385-414.

Du Bois, “A Second Journey to Pan-Africa” [1921]; and “The Pan-African Congresses: The Story of a Growing Movement” [1927]; in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 662-667, 670-675.

#”On the Pan-African Congress, 1919;” “The Pan-African Congress of 1921;” and “The Third Pan-African Congress” [1923]; in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, 1910-1932 (1973), pp. 248-252; 335-342; 430-432.#

MARCH 15. Setting the Scene: Toward the Harlem Renaissance.

Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue, pp. 3-118.

MARCH 20. Annus Mirabilis, 1925: Announcing the New Negro.

Locke, ed., New Negro (1925), pp. xv-xvii; 3-16.

Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue, pp. 119-155.

MARCH 22. The Politics of Culture: Who Speaks for the Black Folk?

Locke, ed., New Negro (1925), pp. 19-25; 47-53; 199-210.

Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue, pp. 156-197.

MARCH 27. The Politics of Culture: Du Bois as Cultural Conservative?

Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue, pp. 198-239.

Du Bois, “Criteria of Negro Art” [1926]; and “On Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven” [1926]; in David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 509-518

MARCH 29. When the Bough Breaks: The Political-Economy of Patronage.

Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue, pp. 240-307.

APRIL 3. ESSAY DUE

APRIL 5. Toward a New Deal for Negroes.

John B. Kirby, Black Americans in the Roosevelt Era (1980), pp. 97-105, 13-47.

APRIL 10. Debating Black Development.

Du Bois, Autobiography [1968], pp. 289-325.

David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995)

John B. Kirby, Black Americans in the Roosevelt Era (1980), pp. 187-217.

APRIL 12. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I.

Richard Wright, Black Boy [1945], pp. 9-112.

APRIL 17. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, II.

Wright, Black Boy [1945], pp. 113-187.

APRIL 19. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, III.

Wright, Black Boy [1945], pp. 188-285.

APRIL 24. Social Science and the Negro Problem, 1917-1930.

#Charles S. Johnson, The Negro in American Civilization (1930), pp. v-xi; 16-28; 355-373; 377-382.#

APRIL 26. Social Science and the Negro Problem, 1937-1944.

#Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (1944), I, pp. ix-xx; xli-lv; II, pp. 997-1024.#

MAY 1. Alternative Perspectives on An American Dilemma.

#W.T. Couch, "Publisher's Introduction," in Rayford W. Logan, ed., What the Negro Wants (1944), pp. ix-xxiii.#

#Ralph Ellison, "An American Dilemma: A Review," in Shadow and Act (1964), pp. 303-317.#

MAY 3. Looking Forward, Looking Backward.

John B. Kirby, Black Americans in the Roosevelt Era (1980), pp. 218-235.

David Levering Lewis, ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader (1995), pp. 610-618.

TERM PAPER OPTION

Papers due 12 noon, Friday May 12, 2000

[Papers for seniors by 5 pm, Saturday May 6, 2000]