Pan African Studies 100
“Introduction to African
American Culture”
Pan African Studies
Department
Fall Semester 2009-20010
MW, 11:00am-12:15pm
Johnie
H. Scott, M.A., M.F.A.
Sierra Hall 287, Ticket #11528 Associate
Professor
GE: F3 – Intra-National Cross
Cultural Studies (818)
677-2289
3.0 Units
Office
Hours: MW, 1:00pm-2:30pm or By Appointment
Home Webpage: "Safe Haven"
Office:
Description:
An overview of the basic areas of African American culture including history, religion, social organization, politics, economics, psychology and creative production with a survey of the key concepts and fundamental literature in each area. Students in this media-intensive section will make extensive use of Information Age technology to include the Internet (i.e., email, WorldWideWeb, etcetera). Available for General Education, Comparative Cultural Studies.
Required
Texts:
1. Hine, Darlene Clark/Hine, William C./Harrold, Stanley, editors, The African American Odyssey/Combined Volume/Fourth Edition/Special Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall Publishers, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 2010; and;
2. Whittaker, Robert, On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation, Crown Publishers, 2008.
Recommended Texts:
Department and Course SLOs and How They
Are Measured:
The Student
Learning Outcomes will be assessed through the production of formal
student essays included in a final student portfolio and a series
of holistically scored timed essay examination.
1)
Department SLO#1 --
Gain an understanding of the political, social, historical, and cultural
perspectives of the African American Experience in
This PAS 100
Introduction to African American Culture course requires students to read and
critically analyze multicultural texts of various genres with an emphasis upon
works written by African American authors addressing the African American Experience
in
2) Department
SLO #2 -- Gain broad knowledge of the cultural, political and historical
contexts in which the African and African American Experience took place.
To
acquire this broad knowledge, students then write formal expository responses and summaries of
those chapters and assigned readings from the course textbook measured on a 4.0
grading scale. In addition, participation in an assigned formal Collaborative Oral Presentation on a
assigned chapter from the course textbook wherein each group is to do so
interactively using Power Point and
preparing formal study guides for the class, with said presentation being made
within a 60-minute time period to include Q&A from the class itself.
Integrated within this pedagogical approach are Midterm and Exit Essay Examinations requiring scholarly, documented
responses to key issues discussed within the class.
3) Department SLO
#3 -- Develop appropriate skills in research
design and methodology used to examine the various interdisciplinary areas of
the PAS curriculum. This includes, but is not limited to, the student having
developed an informed overview of African American culture from varying
perspectives including religion, psychology, social organization, economics and
the Black Aesthetic.
Skills
in research design and methodology are developed as a result of
students writing formal essays in a variety of formats allowing students
to put diverse rhetorical strategies into practice as well as learning to
use of library and online databases, academic journals, and other academic
resources with the purpose of documenting their arguments effectively.
Furthermore, participation in a series of four (4) Internet Discussion Room Forums (i.e., “Let’s Rap”) on various
topics with students doing background reading and also debating with classmates
using logical, well-constructed arguments based upon evidence and sound reasoning
develops those Information competencies. Lastly, there is the research and
writing of a “Capstone” paper based
upon reading Robert Whittaker’s On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919
and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation (2008) with the student
using Modern Language Association guidelines in the writing and formatting of
the paper.
Requirements:
The students enrolled in this course have the following as primary factors in grading requirements:
Ø Let's Rap (WebCT Discussion Forum): For each week of the course up through “Review Week,” students will have the opportunity to “rap” with one another in this setting which is much like a Chat Room. The instructor will post one topic session taken from today’s headlines where Black America is concerned for dialogue that the students in the course can respond directly to every 5-7 days during this 6-week summer. There are four (4) such “Let's Rap” forums during the semester. Each “Let's Rap” provides the student with an opportunity to post a first response to a discussion prompt provided by the course instructor. This first posting to in response to the instructor’s query is valued at up to 2.0 points. The student then receives up to 1.0 points per reply to the postings made on the same prompt by two other students for a total of 2.0 points -- and a cumulative 4.0 points per “Let's Rap forum.” As noted earlier, students have 3 days in which to make that initial posting and the remaining 2-4 days to reply to the postings made by others in the class. The four Let's Rap forums are then averaged together in comprising the first primary grade component in the course;
Ø Black Culture Midterm and Final Course Examinations: These examinations are based upon those lectures, presentations, films, readings and other course-related activities. They are both essay examinations. The Midterm Examination employs a “Take-Home” format and is due as noted by the course instructor. The examinations are averaged together in forming the second primary grade requirement for the course. These examinations are written using large (i.e., 8 ½”x11”) Blue Books. No student will receive a grade higher than “B” who fails to take either of these examinations and, under no circumstances, shall any student receive a grade of “C” or higher who misses and fails to makeup up both examinations (No exceptions!);
Ø
African American Collaborative
Culture Presentations: Each student is assigned to a group which
makes a formal, 60-minute oral class presentation based upon one of the
chapters from the course textbook The African American Odyssey. That
presentation is to include a formal Study Guide of the assigned chapter for
each member of the class. These groups are expected to make use of Power Point with the
presentation. They may also bring in video, film and other media as part of the
overall presentation. The Culture Presentation constitutes the third primary
grade component. No student will receive a grade higher than “B” who fails
to participate in the assigned African American Culture Presentation (No
exceptions!);
Paul Robeson, “The Black Colossus”
Ø African American Culture Film Evaluations: There will be a total of nine (9) formal written evaluations of films screened and/or assigned in the class. These evaluations must be written according to the format described by the course instructor. They must be submitted via email on the date and time assigned. No “late” film evaluations will be accepted for grading. These film evaluations represent the fourth primary grade component for the class and are graded on a 4.0 scale. In order to qualify for an “Honor Grade” of “B” or higher in this course, students must maintain a grade point average of 2.30 (i.e., “C+”) or higher on the film evaluations (No exception!);
Ø African American Odyssey Chapter Reviews: There will be a total of ten (10) formal chapter reviews (i.e., based upon the Reviews Questions at the end of each chapter) done by students enrolled in this course. These Chapter Reviews, all coming from The African American Odyssey required textbook, must be submitted via email on the date and time assigned. No “late” reviews will be accepted for grading for these Chapter Reviews which represent the fifth primary grade requirement. In order to qualify for an “Honor Grade” of “B” or higher in this course, students must maintain a grade point average of 2.30 (i.e., “C+”) or higher on the chapter reviews (No exception!);
From Gov. Charles Brough Scrapbook,
The “Elaine Riot” killed 4 whites and well over 100
blacks. The defendants above were sentenced to die in trials lasting as little
as an hour. All of this is part of what makes On the Laps of Gods: The Red
Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation the core
work that it is in this Introduction to Black Culture course.
Ø African American Culture Research Paper: Each student is to prepare a critical analysis of Robert Whittaker’s On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation for this course as the capstone “Term Paper” requirement. That paper is to be written according to MLA guidelines. The paper must be at least seven (7) typewritten, double-spaced pages with no less than (1) 1,500 words, (2) no less than twelve (12) formal citations, and (3) no less than three citations taken from sources other than the assigned On the Laps of Gods itself. Capstone papers that fall short in measuring up to these “minimum” requirements will automatically be judged as “Fail.” The Capstone Paper constitutes the seventh and final primary grade factor for this PAS 100 Introduction to Black Culture course. No student will receive a grade higher than “B” who fails to meet this core requirement.
Grading
Scale:
The grading for this course is done on a “Plus/Minus” basis according to the system and scale described in the CSUN Undergraduate Catalogue 2000/2002. Each of the primary grade factors is averaged as a single component by computer, with the Bonus points as an extra factor. The cumulative grade point average is then as follows:
“A” = 3.7 – above
“A-“= 3.5–3.69;
“B+” = 3.3 - 3.49;
“B” = 3.0 - 3.29;
“B-“= 2.7 – 2.99;
“C+” = 2.3 – 2.69;
“C” = 2.0 – 2.29;
“C-“= 1.7 – 1.99;
“D+” = 1.3 – 1.69;
“D” = 1.0 – 1.29;
D-“= .7 - .99;
And
“Fail” = 0.0 - .69
African American Odyssey Cultural Bonuses: Students are able to supplement and enhance their grade standing in the class in a number of ways. Those students with perfect course attendance (i.e., no absences and no tardies) will receive .25 bonus points at the end of term; students who do not miss submitting a single assignment (i.e., film evaluations and chapter reviews) on time as noted will receive .25 bonus points at end of term; students whose Culture Group Presentations make use of Power Point will receive .25 bonus points at the time of presentation; and students who commit to memory and then present to the class any one of the following poems from African American culture shall receive bonuses at the time of presentation – Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” (1.5 bonus points); Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego-Tripping” (1.5 bonus points); Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1.0 bonus points); Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” (1.5 bonus points); and Margaret Walker’s epic “For My People” (2.0 bonus points).
Students are to make special note that final cumulative grade point averages are not “rounded off.” The final gpa, which is the mean average of the seven primary grade factors and the earned bonus points, is what the student developed as his/her body of work in the course and is that grade the student will receive. The grade of “Incomplete” will only be awarded to those students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher who, due to unforeseen and fully verifiable circumstances, are unable to complete one or more of the final course requirements (i.e., the Term Paper and/or Final Course Examination).
“HEREIN lie buried many things which if
read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the
dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you,
Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the
color-line.
I
pray you, then. receive my little book in all charity, studying my words with
me, forgiving mistake and foible for sake of the faith and passion that is in
me, and seeking the grain of truth hidden there.” – W.E.B. DuBois, from “The
Forethought,” The Souls of Black Folk
“One feels his
two-ness – an American, a Negro, two souls,
two thoughts,
two unreconciled strivings, two warring
ideals in one dark body.”
-- W. E. B. DuBois
-- The Souls of
Black Folks (1897)
o Theme: “The African Diaspora: "I've Known Rivers"”
o Course Orientation (Monday): “Challenge to Excellence”
o Presentation/Discussion (Wednesday): African American Culture Presentation Assignments (Based upon the following chapters from The African American: Chapter 6, “Life in the Cotton Kingdom;” Chapter 9, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance Be Resistance, 1833-1850;” Chapter 13, “The Meaning of Freedom: The Failure of Reconstruction, 1865-1868;” Chapter 15, “Black Southerners Challenge White Supremacy, 1867-1917;” Chapter 18, “Black Protest, The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1920-1941;” Chapter 21, “The Freedom Movement, 1954-1965;” and Chapter 24, “African Americans at the Dawn of a New Millennium.”
o Lecture/Discussion (Wednesday): “Writing the Film Evaluation”
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o Email Assignment: To send Course Check-In via Email with preferred email address (Due by or before Friday, August 28th)
o
o Black Culture HW#1: MyHistoryLab Review Questions 1-5 from The African American, pgs. 24-25.
o
Living Word CD: “
“They felt the
sea-wind tying them into one nation
of eyes and
shadows and groans, in the one pain
that is inconsolable, the loss of one’s shore.”
-- Omeros
“Maafa” is a Kiswahili word used to
describe tremendous calamity, catastrophe, tragedy or disaster. Dr. Marimba Ani
introduced it into contemporary African-American scholarship as a preferred
reference to the period in world history, identified as the Middle Passage or
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
o Theme: “The Door of No Return”
o BCHW#1 Due -- Chapter 1 Review (Via email as of 10:00am, September 2nd)
o BCFE#1 Due (Via email as of 8:00pm, Friday, September 4th)
· Course Lecture (Monday, August 31st)): Rap Time Discussion Forum with Special Guest, Ms. Kate Berggren, Coordinator, CSUN Office of On-Line Instruction
o Special Presentation (Wednesday, September 2nd)): “Research Navigator and MyHistoryLab” (Kristina Gong, Guest Lecturer)
o Screening
(Note: All films on reserve at the
o
· Black Culture HW #2: MyHistoryLab Review Questions 1-5 from The African American, pg. 50.
· Let's Rap No. 1: “What Was I Taught About Black Culture in High School?” (Opens for posting on Wednesday, September 2nd with responses to writing prompt due by 8:00pm Thursday, September 10th. Subsequent postings to classmates to be made up through 8:00pm, Wednesday, September 23rd)
o Living Word CD: “Bars Fight” (poem by Lucy Terry; read by Arna Bontemps) and “Go Down Moses” (sung by Bill McAdoo)
Week 3 (September 5th-11th) Maafa: The African Holocaust
“Anytime,
anytime while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom
had been
offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the
end of that
minute, I would have taken it – just to stand one
minute on God’s earth a free woman – I would..”
n Elizabeth
Freeman
o
Theme: “The Rape of
o Presentation (Wednesday, September 9th): “Writing the Film Evaluation”
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o BCHW#2: Chapter 2 Review Due (Via email as of 10:00am, Wednesday, September 9th)
o Black Culture FE#2 Due – Ethnic Notions: Profiles in Prejudice (Via email as of 8:00pm, Friday, September 11th)
o
o Black Culture HW #3: Chapter 4, Review Questions 1-5 from The African American, pg. 102.
o Living Word CD: “Bars Fight” (poem by Lucy Terry; read by Arna Bontemps) and “Go Down Moses” (sung by Bill McAdoo)
Note: Monday is official national
holiday – LABOR DAY. Campus is closed with no classes.
“My feet have
felt the sands
of many
nations,
I have drunk
the water
Of many
springs.
I am old.
Older than the
pyramids,
I am older than
the race
That oppresses
me,
I will live on…
I will out-live
oppression.
I will out-live
oppressors.”
-- John Henrik Clarke
--
“Determination,” July 16, 1998
o
Theme: “Death or
o Guest Presentation (Monday, September 14th): “For My People” (Guest Speaker, Ms. Rachael Johnson)
o Lecture/Discussion (Monday, September 14th): “Dominant Images of the Black Community: Black Men, Black Women and Black Children”
o Course Lecture (Wednesday, September 16th)): “The Door of No Return: The Transatlantic Slave Trade”
o Black Culture HW#3 -- Chapter 4 -- Due (Via email as of 10:00am, Monday, September 14th)
o Black Culture FE#3 -- Amistad -- Due (Via email as of 8:00pm, Wednesday, September 16th)
o
o Black Culture HW #4: Chapter 5, Review Questions 1-5 from The African American, pg. 130
o Living Word CD: “Remembering Slavery”: Interviews 1-2.
Marlon Riggs’ documentary Ethnic
Notions is Emmy Award-winning documentary tracing for the
First time the deep-rooted
stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice.
“The beginning
of Wisdom is knowing who you are.
Draw near and
listen.”
-- Swahili Proverb
“When the
European emerged in the world in the 15th and 16th
centuries,
for the second
time, they not only colonized most of the world, they
colonized
information about the world, and they also colonized images,
including the
image of God, thereby putting us into a trap, for we are
the only people
who worship a God whose image we did not choose!”
--
John Henrik Clarke
o Theme: “Behind the Cotton Curtain”
o Chapter 4 Review Due (Via email as of 10:00am, Monday, September 21st)
o Lecture/Discussion: “Of Uncle Toms, Mammies and Coons” (Monday, September 21st)
o
African American Culture Presentation
Group #1: “Life in the
o Black Culture HW#4 Due (Via email as of 10:00am, Monday)
o
o Black Culture HW #5: MyHistoryLab Review Questions 1-5 from The African American, pg. 190;
o Let's Rap #2: “The Legacy of Michael Jackson: The Moonwalker’s Contribution to Black Culture” (Opens as of 8:00pm, Wednesday, September 23rd and students have through Wednesday, September 30th in which to respond to original Writing Prompt. This second Let’s Rap closes Monday, October 12th )
o Living Word CD: “What If I Am a Woman” (speech by Maria W. Stewart; read by Ruby Dee”) and “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress” (excerpt; speech by Frederick Douglass, read by Ossie Davis).
“It is in your
power to torment the God-cursed slaveholders, that they
would be glad
to let you go free…But you are a patient people. You
act as though
you were made for the special use of these devils.
You act as though
your daughters were born to pamper the lusts
Of your masters
and overseers. And worse than all, you tamely submit,
While your
lords tear your wives from your embraces, and defile them
Before your
eyes. In the name of God we ask, are you men?…
Heaven, as with
a voice of thunder, calls on you to arise from
The dust. Let
your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE!
No oppressed
people have ever secured their
--
“Address to the Slaves of the
o Theme: “There Is No Freedom Without Struggle”
o Black Culture HW#5 Due (Via email by or before 10:00am, Monday)
o Course Lecture/Discussion: “Voices of Freedom” (Monday)
o African American Culture Presentation Group #2: “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” Chapter 9 from The African American, Wednesday, September 30th, 2008.
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o
o Black Culture HW #6: Review Questions 1-9 from The African American, pg. 320
o Living Word CD: “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” (traditional: sung by Paul Robeson).
“And their
deeds shall find a record
In the registry
of Fame;
For their blood
has cleansed completely
Every blot of
Slavery’s shame.
So all honor
and all glory
To those noble
sons of Ham –
The gallant
colored soldiers
Who fought for
Uncle Sam!”
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar
from “The Colored Soldiers,” 1895
This portrait of Dred Scott,
painted by Louis Schultze, was commissioned by a "group of Negro
citizens" and presented to the Missouri Historical Society,
o Theme: “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand” (Abraham Lincoln)
o Black Culture HW#6 Due (Via email by or before 10:00am, Monday)
o Library Study/Research Question (Monday, October 5th, 2009): “The Dred Scott Decision” (Chapter 10, African American Odyssey, pgs. 248-249)
o African American Culture Presentation Group #3: “The Meaning of Freedom: The Failure of Reconstruction, 1868-1877,” Chapter 13 from The African American, Wednesday, October 7th, 2009.
o Black Culture FE #4 Due – Sankofa (Via email by or before 8:00pm, Wednesday)
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o Black Culture Bonus Film Evaluation #1 – Good Hair (2009)
o
o Living Word CD: “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” (traditional: sung by Paul Robeson).
“As the great
day drew nearer, there was more singing in the
slave quarters
than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and
lasted
later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation
songs
had some references to freedom. True, they had sung these
same
verses before, but they had been careful to explain that
‘freedom’ in these songs referred to the next word, and had
no
connections
with life in this world. Now they gradually threw
off
the mask, and were not afraid to let it be known that ‘freedom’
in
their songs meant freedom of the body in this world.”
-- Booker T. Washington
Up From Slavery
Photograph of African
American troops during American Civil War
o Theme: “The Civil War as a Cleansing of the American Soul”
o African American Culture Midterm Examination: (Take-Home, Instructions to be read and Exam disseminated on Monday, October 12th, with Due Date two weeks hence on Monday, October 26th, at start of class)
o African American Culture Presentation Group #4: “White Supremacy Triumphant: African Americans in the South in the Late Nineteenth Century, 1875-1900,” Chapter 14,Wednesday, October 14th, 2009..
o Black Culture Film Evaluation #5 Due – Glory (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by or before 8:00pm Wednesday, October 14th, 2009)
o
o
Living Word CD: “Address at the
“The arm of the
Federal government is long, but it is far too short
to
protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States.
They must have
the power to protect themselves, or they will go
Unprotected,
spite of all the laws the Federal government can put
Upon
the national statute-book.”
-- Frederick Douglass
“Reconstruction,” 2nd Session
of the 39th Congress
“The supremacy
of the white race of the South must be maintained forever,
and
the domination of the Negro race resisted at all points and at all
hazards
– because the white race is the superior race. It has abided forever
in
the marrow of our bones, and shall run forever with the blood that feeds
Anglo-Saxon
hearts.”
n Henry
Grady, Editor of the
o Theme: “Black Reparations: ‘I Want My 40 Acres and My Mule!’”
o Black Culture Bonus Film Evaluation #1 Due – Good Hair (2009) via email by 6:00pm Saturday, October 17th
o
Screening (Monday, October 19th,
2009): Ida
B. Wells – A Passion for Justice (Note: Students to view film at the
o Peer Critiques and Discussion (Wednesday, October 21st): Selected Rap Time Postings
o Black Culture Film Evaluation #6 Due – A Passion for Justice (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by or before 8:00pm Wednesday, October 21st, 2009)
o Living Word CD: “Crisis Magazine” (W.E.B. DuBois) and “The Creation” (poem by James Weldon Johnson; read by Arna Bontemps).
“The wisest of
my race understand that the agitation of questions
of
social equality is of the extremest folly…”
-- Booker T. Washington
“
“Mr. Washington
distinctly asks that black people give up,
at
least for the present three things, --
First,
political power,
Second,
insistence on civil rights,
Third, higher
education of Negro youth…”
--W.
E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks, 1903
o
Theme: “The Road to
o African American Culture Midterm Examinations Due (At start of class on Monday, October 26th, as noted by instructor – no “late” exams will be accepted)
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o Black Culture Bonus Film Evaluation #2 – Storm at Valley State (Available on reserve at Oviatt Media Library)
o
o BCHW #6: MyHistoryLab Review Questions 1-8 from The African American, pg. 408 (Due via email as of Friday, October 30th, 2009, at 7:30pm)
o Living Word CD: “If We Must Die” (poem and reading by Claude McKay)
Mary McLeod Bethune, “From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.”
o Theme: “The New Negro” (Term first developed by Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar)
o BCFE #7 Due – Rosewood (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by or before 7:00pm Monday, November 2nd, 2009)
o
BCFE Bonus #2 Due
– Storm at
o African American Culture Presentation Group #5: "Conciliation, Agitation, and Migration: African Americans in the Early Twentieth Century," Chapter 16 from The African American, Wednesday, November 4th, 2009.
o
o Let's Rap #3: "Commentary: Of Hip Hop and Its Influence on Black Culture vs. Black Street Culture" (Opens as of 4:00pm, Friday, November 6th with students having through 10:00pm Friday, November 13th, in which to post response to original writing prompt. Students then have up through 10:00pm, Friday, November 27th, in which to respond to postings made by any two other classmates)
o Living Word CD: “I’ve Known Rivers” (poem and reading by Langston Hughes) and “I, Too” (poem and reading by Langston Hughes).
“I have sown
beside all waters in my day.
I planted deep,
within my heart the fear
That wind or
fowl would take the grain away.
I planted safe
against this stark, lean year.
I scattered
seed enough to plant the land
In rows from
But for my
reaping only the hand
Can hold at
once is all that I can show.
Yet what I
sowed and what the orchard yields
My brother’s
sons are gathering stalk and root,
Small wonder
then my children glean infields
They have not
sown, and feed on bitter fruit.”
-- Arna Bontemps
“A Black Man Talks of Reaping,” Crisis
Magazine 1st Prize Winner, 1927
Paul Robeson (1898-1976):
American actor, singer and social activist.
o Theme: “Black Culture and Society in the 1930s and 1940s”
o Presentation (Monday, November 9th): The Black Colossus
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o
o BCHW#7: MyHistoryLab Review Questions 1-6, pg. 506 from The African American (Due via email on Friday,November 13th, 2009, as of 7:30pm)
o Living Word CD: “Song of the Front Yard” (poem and reading by Gwendolyn Brooks) and “I Sing Because I’m Happy” (sung by Mahalia Jackson).
Note: Wednesday, November 11th, Veterans Day,
is a legal holiday. No classes scheduled. Campus is closed.
“And as we
walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march
ahead.
We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking
the
devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We
can
never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable
horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied
as
long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot
gain
lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of
the
cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic
mobility
is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one…No, no
we
are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice
rolls
down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I Have a Dream,” 1963
It
has been said that the ultimate sacrifice paid by these four little girls while
attending
Sunday School spelled the end of Jim
Crow terrorism.
o Theme: “The Civil Rights Movement: the 3rd American Revolution”
o Black Culture Film Evaluation #8 Due – The Tallest Tree in the Forest (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by or before 9:00pm Monday, November 16th, 2009)
o African American Culture Midterm Examinations Report (Monday, November 16th): Midterm Examination Review with selected student readings
o
Screening (Note: All films on reserve at the
o
BCFE Bonus #3: The
Angry Voices of Watts (1966) (On reserve at the
o Special Guest Lecture: "Reflections: A Look at the Steps Hollywood Has Taken to Advance the Black Image on the Silver Screen" (Guest Lecturer: Mr. Wendell Younkins, Vice President, NBC Universal Pictures and Chief Financial Officer, Geneon Universal Entertainment,Wednesday, November 18th):
o
o BCHW#8: Review Questions 1-5, pg. 602 from The African American (Due via email on Friday, November 20th, 2009, as of 7:30pm)
o Living Word CD: “Mass Meeting” (speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.).
Actual cover of Time Magazine from August, 1967
“You said that
your people
Never knew the
full spirit of
Western
Civilization.
To be born
unnoticed
Is to be born
black,
And
left out of the grand adventure.
Miseducation,
denial,
Are
lost in the cruelty of oppression.
And the faint cool kiss of sensuality
Lingers
on our cheeks.
The quiet
terror brings on silent night.
They are driving
us crazy. And our father’s
Religion warps
his life.
To live day by
day
Is
not to live at all.”
-- Conrad Kent Rivers
“To Richard Wright”
o Theme: “From Black Power to Black Studies to the ‘Cities of Destruction’”
o Final BCFE #9 Due – 4 Little Girls (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by or before 7:00pm Monday, November 23rd, 2009)
o African American Culture Presentation Group #6: "African Americans and the 1920s," Chapter 17 from The African American, Monday, November 23rd, 2009.
o African American Culture Presentation Group #7: "Meanings of Freedom, Culture and Society in the 1930s and 1940s," Chapter 19 from The African American, Wednesday, November 25th, 2008.
o Rap Time #3 Closes (As of 10:00pm, Friday, November 28th)
o
Final Let's Rap #4: "Barack Obama:
o BCFE Bonus #3 Due – The Angry Voices of Watts (Via email as Microsoft Word attachment by 3:00pm Wednesday, November 25th)
o
o Final BCHW#9: Review Questions 1-7, pg. 694 from The African American Odyssey (Due via email on Monday, November 30th, as of 7:30pm)
o Living Word CD: Angela Davis; “liberation/poem” (poem and reading by Sonia Sanchez).
Note: Thursday, November 26th,
Thanksgiving Day and Friday, November 27th, Admissions Day, are both
legal holidays. No classes scheduled. Campus is closed.
“And by
examining (rap culture’s) weaknesses and blindnesses,
we
are encouraged to critically confront our similar shortcomings,
which
do not often receive the controversial media coverage
given
to rap culture. In so doing, we may discover that many
of
the values that are openly despised in rap culture are more
deeply
rooted and widely shared than most of us would
care
to admit.”
-- Michael Eric Dyson
“Rap, Church,
and the American Society,” from
o
Theme: “The Voices of Young Black
o African American Culture Presentation Group #8: "The Struggle Continues, 1965-1980" Chapter 22 from The African American, Monday, November 30th.
o African American Culture Presentation Group #9: “African Americans at the Dawn of a New Millennium,” Chapter 24 from The African American Odyssey, Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009.
o
o Living Word CD: “Woman” (poem and reading by Nikki Giovanni).
Of many
nations,
I have drunk
the water
Of many springs.
I am old.
Older than the
pyramids,
I am older than
the race
That oppresses
me,
I will live on…
I will out-live
oppression.
I will out-live
oppressors.”
-- John Henrik Clarke
“Determination,” July 16, 1998
o Theme: “To Out-live Oppression and Oppressors: Moving Forward into the 21st Century and Beyond”
o Guest Lecture: "Hip Hop and the Future of Black Culture in the 21st Century (Guest Lecturer, Dr. Anthony Ratcliff, Assistant Professor of Pan African Studies, CSU Northridge, Monday, December 7th): Selected Rap Time Postings and Film Evaluations
o "Writing the Capstone Paper; Guidelines and Further Notes" (Wednesday, December 9th)
o Final Rap Time #4 Closes (As of 4:00pm, Friday, December 11th)
o Final Examinations (Wednesday, December 16th, 2009, from 10:15am-12:15pm, Large Green Book Required)
o Return of Black Culture Portfolio (i.e., Midterm Examination, African American Culture Journal, etcetera, Wednesday, December 16th, 2009)
o African American Culture Term Paper Due (Via email as a Microsoft Word attachment as of Wednesday, December 16th, 6:00pm – No “Late” papers accepted!)
Final Notes