NIGHT section March 14: Africans in America Part 1

Hank Williams

Image: Building More Stately Mansions. By Jacob Lawrence. 1944. Oil on Canvas, Fisk University Libraries, Nashville TN.

Announcements:

 

Quick highlights from March 7 class:

  • Began class with a quiz on chapters 1-2. (There are no make-ups: do not ask.)
  • Reviewed Chapter 3 from Introduction to Black Studies
  • See the Lecture Notes page for a PDF of the slide deck presented in class
  • Musical selection: Pharaoh Sanders’s “Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.”

DO THIS for Tuesday March 14:

  • Read: the first half of Chapter 4 (Africans in America) in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies (Sections 4.1-4.9 only; pages 105-147: up to “Black Science and Invention”–approx 42 pages)
    • Pay special attention to the subsections on The Holocaust of Enslavement, System of Enslavement, Reconstruction, Booker T. Washington, WEB DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells
    • Pay special attention to Critical Thinking questions 1 and 3 on p. 185, especially the comparisons between the people named above
  • Review the sections of chapters 2-3 for the quiz (see specific topics in the announcement above)
  • Watch the embedded video on the beginning of Reconstruction in the Civil War (approx. 8 minutes)

ATTEND class on Tuesday: you must be present–mentally and physically–to fully grasp the material and be prepared for quizzes/exams! Do not skip class or cut corners on reading and then complain that the assessments are too difficult.

General reading strategies:

  • Underline/highlight key points in the text
  • Use the reading questions at the back of chapters to focus you: read those first
  • Try to understand the definitions of the key concepts listed at the back of the chapter
  • Make a note to ask the instructor to clarify anything you don’t understand
  • Note key issues, approaches, and dilemmas/challenges Dr. Karenga outlines

Key points to understand

  • How does Dr. Karenga think we should approach the study/understanding of history?
  • How does the defeat of Reconstruction shape the lives of Black people in the US?
  • What forms of resistance do Black people in the US engage in?
  • What organizations do Black people form for advancement and resistance?
  • What differences and similarities do you see between DuBois, Washington, Garvey, and Wells-Barnett?

What’s Next?

Chapter 4, second half in Introduction to Black Studies: “Black History: Africans in America”