Where Am I?
Teaching
Philosophy
The Civil Rights Movement in America Black Studies
4650
30 F Ketchum
Spring, 1998
W, 0900-1130
ABA
William M. King
492-8189; 499-1659
I. Synopsis
Historically, since their arrival in English North America in 1619, black people have been perceived and treated as members of a group rather than as persons. Because of this, their struggle for self determination has focused on civil rights (questions of power) rather than on civil liberties (questions of ethics). This has created an interesting number of conundra in that, individualism is a hallmark political belief in this society. Afroamericans, like Asians, Indians, and Hispanics, have been feared, hated, discriminated against in myriad ways, and murdered with impunity because of differences in their color, language, religion, national origin, and beliefs. Initially, they were brought to the country as an unwilling labor force and put to work clearing the fields and forests to foster economic development in what would become the United States. Today, 361 years after their coming as cargo aboard a Dutch Mann o Warre, they are, positionally, somewhere between the periphery and core of the society that they have helped make although they have received little in the way of return on their investments. What this course is about, then, is an exploration and analysis of those persons and organizations who, since the seventeenth century, have fought to make America live up to its creed of being a democratic society in which all are treated as equals. Because power concedes nothing without a demand, the struggle for civil rights in America begins, so far as this course is concerned, with the first slave petitions to colonial legislatures. For they are symbolic of an outgroup's decision to remain no longer in a position of relative inferiority or subject to the will of powerful ingroups whose authority is often self serving and whose legitimacy is based on limiting the life choices of those unlike themselves. That this struggle still continues is seen in the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1990 which President Bush has promised to veto unless some of its most salient elements are changed in accord with his political vision. This ongoing struggle has brought some progress. As with all things human, however, where there is advance, there is also erosion. Black people are not where they used to be; nor are they where they ought to be. Where they are is a result of their endeavors and the endeavors of others less the backsliding of those who have deemed their concerns more important than the realization of a society where difference is respected and justice a goal.
II. Materials and Methods of Instruction
A. Required Readings
1. Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America
2. William T. Martin Riches, The Civil Rights Movement
3. Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer, Voices of Freedom
B. Supplementary materials as assigned
C. Methods
1. Structurally, the course is a helix. One branch addresses black people as objects--"things" acted upon. The other branch addresses black people as limited access actors in a play not always of their own making. Yet it is in this latter branch that we can see black people beginning to take charge of their own lives in quest of their own destinies.2. Operationally, the course is designed more as forum than lecture. What this means is that you must prepare for each class session as if you were going to offer a major presentation. This design flows from my belief that education is an active, participatory process for whose quality you are the responsible person.
III. Topical Outline of the Course
A. Approaches to the study of the civil rights movement in America.
Because of its character, it is my contention that the Black Civil Rights Movement in America is a kind of domestic war created and sustained by white people (or their surrogates), whose origins may be found in the involuntary transportation of Africans to the New World. War, the dictionary tells us, may be defined as "a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism," or as "a struggle between opposing forces" to realize a particular end. In this case the black end is the right of self-determination which has been resisted at every turn by those in power who fear a loss of identity whenever black people advance to a place they have not been before. It is one of the real tragedies of the history of this land that all too many people believe America began as a white man's country, and that every gain made by the oppressed is a loss for the oppressor. The conclusion to be draw from this fable is that whosoever vests his identity outside himself, risks internalizing a permanent sense of inferiority making all his accomplishments full of sound and fury signifying nothing.B. The Seventeenth Century
1.Durante vita the formalization of the peculiar institution2.Early Negro petitions to colonial legislatures.
C. The Eighteenth Century
1. Slave Rebellions2. Petition, manumission, and protest: the "Revolutionary" period.
3. Early within group organizational efforts to secure educational opportunity, protest against kidnapping and slavery, and advocacy for equitable justice in the courts.
4. Early protests against the poll tax.
D. The Nineteenth Century
1. Petitioning the Congress of the United States2. The Prosser Conspiracy
3. Denouncing the "Myth of Negro Inferiority."
4. "We wish to plead our own cause!"
5. The Negro Convention Movement
6. "that no white man need respect!"
7. "Men Of Color, To Arms!"
8. Reconstruction, Redemption, Peonage and Poverty
9. The Rise of American Imperialism
E. The Twentieth Century
1. The challenge to accommodation2. The Niagra Movement, the NAACP, and the NUL
3. Challenging "Birth of a Nation" and the "Grandfather" clause.
4. The American Negro and the World War.
5. Battling Segregation and Discrimination
6. Going back to court: the predecessors of Brown
7. World War II and the Rising Tide of Color
8. Eyes on the Prize
F. "A Luta Continua!": Since The Voting Rights Act of 1965
G. Course Summary
IV. Measures and Methods of Performance Evaluation
There will be three measures of performance evaluation used in this course this term. Two are written, one is observational. The first (counting for 40 percent of your final grade), is a five (5) to seven (7) page double-spaced, typewritten response to the following:
Using whatever illustrative material you feel is necessary, address my contention that the Black Civil Rights Movement in America can be characterized as a domestic war. Hint: pick some concrete event and expand your argument outward to examine the concept of war its aims, tactics, material, personnel, etc.Your second written measure (worth 45 percent of your final grade), requires you to address in five (5) to seven (7) double-spaced typewritten pages theCONVERSE OF THE POSITION you took in your first paper. In both cases you will want to include sufficient illustrative material to buttress whatever position you take.
The third measure (worth 15 percent of final grade) is class participation. This measure is entirely subjective and impressionistic. To be successful here requires prior preparation. When you arrive in class, it means you are paying attention and contributing where warranted.
Item 1 is due in my box (30 Ketchum) not later than 1700, Friday, 6 March 1998. Item 2 is due in the same not later than 1700, Friday, 1 May 1998.
V. Criteria for the evaluation of written work
A.THE DAY MY EVALUATION OF YOUR WORK TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE PROCESSES OF ITS CREATION IN IMPORTANCE, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. NOT ONLY IS GRADING NOT FAIR AND NOT OBJECTIVE, IT HAS VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH EDUCATION. PURELY AND SIMPLY IT IS THE EXERCISE OF POWER THROUGH THE AUTHORITY OF THE TEACHER.ITS END IS PURPOSELY POLITICAL: TO LIMIT ACCESS TO SMALLER AND MORE ELITE GROUPS AS A MEANS OF PRESERVING THE STATUS QUO.
B. All work submitted must be an original copy. Reproductions (xerox, mimeo, ditto, etc) submitted in lieu of original copies will earn penalties MAKE SURE YOU KEEP A COPY FOR YOUR OWN FILES.
C. ALL WORK MUST BE SUBMITTED ON OR BEFORE THE PUBLISHED DUE DATE. NOTE WELL, LATE SUBMISSIONS REQUIRE LATE FEES
D. Since each of us has a different image of what a specific grade means, I offer herewith what they mean for me. DO NOT, WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR PAPERS, ATTEMPT TO WRITE TO THESE CRITERIA. THEY ARE ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY. WRITE FIRST TO EXPRESS YOURSELF, EXPLAIN YOURSELF AND THE POSITIONS YOU TAKE AND, TO PLEASE YOURSELF WITH WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN.
1. "A."Easily evident mastery of the subject and its supporting materials. A neat, solid, tightly organized presentation in which youmake your case with authority.
2. "B."A solid work but unimaginative in character. Covers all the bases but rarely transcends them to express new insights or understandings.
3. "C."Competent. Follows the letter not the spirit of the assignment. Lacks substance, effort, care and concern.
4. "D."A weak and ineffectual presentation. A thoroughly disorganized endeavor from start to finish with no evident craftsmanship whatever.
E. GRADES SHALL BE ASSIGNED ON THE BASIS OF HOW EFFECTIVELY YOU ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS IN YOUR WORK.
1. Appropriate evidence of a thorough review of the pertinent resources. This will be shown by the identification, assembly and organization of those materials that help to establish context for your presentation. 15 percent of grade.2. Demonstrated understanding of your project, its supporting materials and its relations to the larger subject of which it is a part. The emphasis here is on analysis, synthesis and interpretation of those materials. This will be reflected in the thought, detail, and examination of issues (indicators of rigor, discipline and skill) which appear in your paper. In short, how completely you have developed the character of your presentation. 35 percent of grade
3. Effective transmission of the meanings you have made of your labors. This will be reflected in the organization of the work (form) and the manner (style) with which they are communicated. To achieve maximum impact and effectiveness, purpose, direction, focus and objective must be clear. Coherence is your main goal here. 35 percent of grade.
4. Errors in composition. Here I am concerned with appearance of the final copy, spelling, syntax, grammar, typing and verb/subject agreements. 15 percent of grade.
