This course explores the history of African Americans from the abolition of chattel slavery to the present. In addition to examining Black people’s centuries-long striving for “community,” identity, and solidarity across local, national, and global contexts, we pay special attention to differences and diversity, particularly gender distinctions within African American communities.

We will consider the contours of Black life, thought, and resistance in the late 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries, including the ways African American communities have confronted and resisted state-sanctioned policing and violence. Students will gain new insights into relationships between lynch victims and lynch mobs, working people and employers, and the rich and the poor. More importantly, students will come to understand how these relationships are interconnected with U.S. culture, the economy, politics, power, and tradition.

Our intention, therefore, is not to add more color to the painting, but to revise the painting altogether.