3.00 Credits
Description: This course explores the historical struggle of African Americans to assess their identity in relationship to their legal and social oppression. In reflecting on the work of Audre Lorde, W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Sojourner Truth, Toni Morrison, Edward Said, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Cornell West, Henry Louis Gates, Alice Walker, Bell Hooks, Mark Twain and others, we will angle in on the question of black identity from a variety of perspectives. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between these articulations of "blackness" and the historical and political settings in which they arise. Informed class discussion will be emphasized. Students are expected to write a term paper and to present it to the class. Notes: Cross-listed with AAMS 551. Offered variable times. Prerequisites: HMXP 102, or AAMS 300, or permission of the instructor, or graduate status.