Time and Location
Tuesdays 1:55pm-2:45pm and Thursdays 1:55pm-3:50pm in Little Hall room 109
Description and Goals
This course will examine the political behavior of African Americans in the United States from the era of disfranchisement to the current era of the first black president. We will begin the semester with a discussion of the denial of “universal freedom” to African Americans during the 1800s. We will then discuss the civil rights and political gains African Americans experienced during the modern civil rights and black power movements in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Our course will then compare and contrast the events of the current justice and political movements to those of the past. This is a very exciting time for African American politics. We elected a Black president for two terms and now have nominated the first African American/Caribbean/Asian American female vice president. In addition, African Americans have made strong bids in gubernatorial elections (including Andrew Gillum in Florida) and political novices have won elections in many states. However, the police killings of black men and women have continued in recent years. Recently, we witnessed the beginning of a significant movement for racial justice that was rooted in a movement founded by three African American women – the Black Lives Matter Movement. In recent years, women of all races have protested gender harassment, violence and discrimination in another movement founded by a Black woman (Tarana Burke)-the #MeToo Movement. We will discuss all of these issues and many more this semester. I welcome your feedback on the course if you have any questions or problems.
Course Objectives
The learning objectives for the course are:
- Trace the history of major actors, developments, and political movements in African Americans politics since the modern civil rights movement.
- Distinguish the ideological and other differences between Democratic and Republican candidates.
- Explain the campaign tactics that African Americans used to win local, state, and national political offices.
- Determine whether African American women have been disadvantaged by both their race and gender when running for and serving in political offices.
- Detail the impact of public policies, such as affirmative action, on African Americans.
Required Textbooks and Readings
American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom. Eighth Edition. Hanes Walton Jr., Robert C. Smith, and Sherri L. Wallace (New York: Routledge, 2017).
My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. Clarence Thomas (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007).
The Loneliness of the Black Republican. Leah Wright Rigueur (Princeton University Press, 2015).
Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America. Keisha N. Blain. (New York: Beacon Press, 2021).
There are also some required readings on the course reserves page.
Grading Information and Scale
Your Grade will be Based on:
1) Class Participation (10%): Class participation and attendance are extremely important in this seminar. Each student is expected to read the assigned materials before class and participate in class discussions. After three unexcused classes are missed, you will not receive the percentage points for class participation. It is your responsibility to sign an attendance roster that will be given out at the beginning of each class session. If you forget to, sign it during the next class. Also, try to get to class on time.
2) Class Material Papers (40% or 20% each): You must write an approximately eight-page paper on the topics listed on canvas. This paper will require an analysis of the assigned readings, lectures, and other class materials on this topic and answer the questions that are listed on canvas. Please don’t forget to include citations in your paper. Use parenthetical citations in the paper that include the person’s last name, year of publication, and page number-i.e., (Wright, 2020, 20). Then, include a Bibliography page at the end of the paper that lists your sources. The sources can be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, M.L.A., or the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.) format. See the sources in the textbooks for examples. These papers are due on: February 3rd and February 24th.
3) Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas Paper 20% (due on March 17th): You must write an eight-page, typed, double-spaced papers examining the major themes and arguments in the My Grandfather’s Son book and in the American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom book (and power point presentation given in class) that examines Thurgood Marshall.
4) Congress, the Presidency, and Gubernatorial Campaigns 20% (Due on April 12th): This eight-page paper must examine the presidency of Barack Obama and the vice presidency of Kamala Harris as well as the gubernatorial campaigns of Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams.
5) Presentation Paper 10% (Due April 18th): Each graduate student in our course will give a presentation that examines an African American political issue or person of their choice. All students must take notes during each of these presentations so that you will have a deeper understanding of these issues/persons. Your analysis must answer the following questions for each graduate presentation: Why are these issues/persons important for our understanding of black politics? What did you learn from the presentation(s) about this issue/person? The analysis should be approximately five pages (not including a bibliography) and follow rubric included on canvas.
Grading Scale:
94-100 A 90-93 A- 87-89 B+ 84-86 B 80-83 B- 77-79 C+
74-76 C 70-73 C- 67-69 D+ 64-66 D 60-63 D- Below 60 E
A C- will not be a qualifying grade for major, minor, Gen Ed, Gordon Rule or College Basic Distribution credit.
Class Schedule
Universal Freedom: Declared and Denied
1-6 Introduction
1-11 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 1 Universal Freedom Declared, Universal Freedom Denied
1-13 NO CLASS (Southern Political Science Association Meeting)
1-18 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 2 Federalism
1-20 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 6 Social Movements
Film: Eyes on the Prize: Bridge to Freedom (50 minutes) discusses the protests that resulted in the ratification of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1-25 Textbook Reading: Loneliness of the Black Republican, chapter 1 Running with Hares and Hunting with Hounds
1-27 *At 3pm, we will watch a zoom discussion of the book African American Studies: 50 Years at the University of Florida.
Textbook Readings: Until I Am Free, introduction, chapters 1 and 6
Film: Mississippi: Is This America? (50 minutes) discusses the activities that took place during Freedom Summer 1964.
2-1 Textbook Reading: Loneliness of the Black Republican, chapter 2 A Thorn in the Flesh of the GOP
The Black Power Movement
2-3 First Class Material Paper Due (Covers Materials Covered in January 2022)
Textbook Reading: Loneliness of the Black Republican, chapter 3 The Challenge of Change
Film: Nation of Law (55 minutes) examines the 1968 murders of two members of the Illinois Black Panther Party Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
2-8 Reserve Reading: Did Black Lives Matter Pick Up Where the Black Panthers Left Off?
Textbook Readings: Until I Am Free, chapters 2 and 3
Celebrity Activism, The Media, and Conservative Activism
2-10 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 5 The Media; Until I Am Free, chapters 4 and 5
Reserve Readings: Shut Up and Play; The NFL, Activism, and #BlackLivesMatter
2-15 Textbook Readings: American Politics, chapters 4 and 12
2-17 Reserve Readings: Regents of the U of California v. Bakke; Gratz v. Bollinger; The One Florida Plan Executive Summary
Textbook Readings: Until I Am Free, chapters 4 and 5
Film: A Question of Fairness (45 minutes) examines the lawsuits challenging admissions processes at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2-22 Reserve Reading: Fisher v. University of Texas
2-24 Second Paper Due (Examines Materials Covered in February, Excluding Material Listed on February 22nd)
Textbook Readings: My Grandfathers Son, chapters 1-5
Film: The Justice Nobody Knows (30 minutes) is a 60 Minutes interview with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
3-1 Textbook Reading: My Grandfather’s Son, chapters 6-10
Political Parties, The Judiciary, and the American Presidency
3-3 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 11 The Presidency, Bureaucracy and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom
3-8 NO CLASS (Spring Break)
3-10 NO CLASS (Spring Break)
3-15 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 8 Political Parties
3-17 Third Paper Due (My Grandfather’s Son Book and Thurgood Marshall)
Textbook Reading: Loneliness of the Black Republican, Chapter 7 The Time of the Black Elephant
3-22 Textbook Reading: Loneliness of the Black Republican, Chapter 4 Richard Nixon’s Black Cabinet
Reserve Reading: Exploring the Oral Histories of African Americans Who Support Donald Trump
3-24 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 9 Voting Behavior and Elections
3-29 Reserve Readings: Joe Biden’s Long Complicated Civil Rights History; Kamala Harris Was Not a Progressive Prosecutor
Congress and Gubernatorial Campaigns
3-31 American Politics, chapter 3 Political Culture and Socialization
4-5 Textbook Reading: American Politics, chapter 10 Congress and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom
Reserve Reading: How Can a Black Woman Be a Republican?
4-7 Reserve Reading: Contemporary Black Populism and the Development of Multiracial Electoral Coalitions:
4-12 Fourth Class Material Paper Due (Examines the Presidency, Congress, and Gubernatorial Campaigns)
Graduate Student Presentations
4-14 Graduate Student Presentations
Presentation Paper is due on April 18th.