Honors African-American History I

Catalog description

54 hours lecture per term. This Honors-enhanced course surveys the African American experience in the United States from African origins through the Civil War, highlighting the roles of African Americans in shaping the political, social, and economic development of American society. Students analyze historical themes through foundational African American Studies theories, including Du Bois’s double consciousness and the veil, Crenshaw’s intersectionality, Black feminist thought (Cooper, Truth, hooks, Collins), critical race theory (Bell, Delgado, Crenshaw), the Black radical tradition (Walker, Delany, Douglass, Robinson), Afro-pessimism (Hartman, Wilderson), theories of resistance and agency (Kelley, Scott), and diaspora and Pan-Africanism frameworks. Readings and case studies include The Souls of Black Folk (Du Bois), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Walker’s Appeal, Hartman’s Scenes of Subjection, and speeches by Sojourner Truth and Maria Stewart. Topics include the trans-Atlantic slave trade; settler colonialism and racial capitalism; enslaved life, family, and resistance; gendered and racialized sexuality; free Black communities; abolitionist movements; and African American participation in the Revolution, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Students will examine how African Americans theorized and practiced survival, cultural expression, and liberation as central to struggles for equity, justice, and self-determination. (Degree Credit) (CSU) (UC) AA GE, CSU GE, IGETC, Cal-GETC