American studies

The African American Experience

Module code: V3029DM
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Not yet finalised

This module examines the history of African-American political, cultural, and social developments from 1863 to the present. Its principal goal is to familiarize students with the debates that African Americans have had among themselves between emancipation and the present day, thus establishing a deep historical understanding of the ongoing freedom struggle in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It assesses intraracial arguments over the relationship of blacks to the US government in war and peace, over racial and class identities, and over diverse tactics and strategies for the advancement of the race. Although particular attention is given to the longrunning campaign to destroy de jure segregation in the southern states (culminating in the successful nonviolent direct action campaigns of the 1960s), the module is predicated on the demonstrable fact that structural racism and racial prejudice were and are national not regional phenomena. Lectures and seminars interrogate the connections between African American history and culture. Emphasis is given to black leaders like Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Ella Baker, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama as well as lesser known black activists.