Study the Black Experience

This course chronologically explores the Black experience from a number of perspectives. Students study the progression of Black political and social thought, engagement and protest, and the struggle to enact change. Students gain a comprehensive introduction to the social, political, legal, and economic roots of the contemporary challenges faced by Blacks, with applications to the lives of other racial and ethnic groups in the United States and in other societies.

This course examines African American History from its West African origins to the end of Reconstruction. Special focus is placed on the Transatlantic slave trade, a comparative exploration of American slavery in the North and South, and an examination of such issues as the Black family and community, culture, and slave resistance. Other issues of note include the importance of Black participation in the American Revolution, the increased growth of slavery in the South after the war, free Blacks in urban cities who were impoverished and denied equal rights but influenced the culture, politics, and economics of the nation, the rise of abolitionism in the north, and how slavery’s expansion to the west became the pivotal issue just before the Civil War. The course concludes with an examination of the Reconstruction period that shaped the freedom experiences of the newly freed. Please note: HIST 145 and 146 may be taken in either order.

Prerequisites: ENGL 092 Preparing for College Reading II and ENGL 099 Introductory Writing; or waiver by placement testing results.

This course examines films from history to our present and the changing images of Blacks in film. This course focuses on the evolution and development of African-American characters as they have been represented in theatrical, screen, and television presentations.

Prerequisites: ENGL 092 Preparing for College Reading II and ENGL 099 Introductory Writing.

This course examines the works of African-American writers and performers from the periods of colonization and slavery through the Harlem Renaissance. Emphasis is placed on political, historical, and cultural contexts of the readings, with particular focus on contributions and challenges to Euro-American culture and to simultaneous developments internationally among peoples of African descent. Since the course is based on time periods and major authors, African-American Literature I does not have to be taken before African-American Literature II.

Prerequisite: ENGL 102 English Composition II.