— Long Ride to Freedom:Plessy's

Catalog description

Plessy's Legacy and the Black Freedom Struggle in New Orleans and Beyond. This course starts from the idea that the condition of the Americas is grounded in histories of profound un-freedom, and in histories of struggle to achieve freedom; these struggles are then grounded not only in an analysis of what the problems are but also in visions for what a better future might look like. Our task in this course is to chart out an understanding of what Robin D.G. Kelley calls the "freedom dreams" that have been guiding Black Americans' struggles from the beginning of their presence in the Americas to the present, as well as the conditions that have necessitated these efforts, and our study will revolve around a particular local site and the multiple ways in which it is situated in these larger histories and power relationships.