Topic: Race and American Political Development

Catalog description

This course will look at the politics of race in America as it has developed over most of its history. It will seek to understand how the issue of race has impacted upon the various institutions of American government, how individuals and governmental institutions have responded (or have not responded) to racial conflict, what solutions to the problem of racial conflict were proposed and settled upon at certain points in U.S. history, and what its legacy has been as America enters the 21st century. The goal of the course will be to keep a larger question in mind – namely, what the politics of race at its core says about an American Contract that is premised on freedom and equality.