UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Department of History
Autumn, 2009
Professor Quintard Taylor Office: 316A Smith Hall
Email: qtaylor
u [dot] washington [dot] edu Phone: 206 543-5698
Website 1: http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/ Office Hours: 3:30-5:30 MW
Website 2: www.blackpast.org
History 540
AFRICAN AMERICAN URBAN HISTORY
1800-2009
INTRODUCTION:
This field course examines the growth and evolution of African American urban communities from 1800 to the 21st Century. The seminar's goal is twofold: first, to introduce the historiography and methodology of black urban history; and second, to determine the manner in which the urban experience of African Americans shaped the contemporary world of black people in the United States and of all urbanites.
In addition we hope the various histories discussed over the quarter, and our critical scrutiny of the texts will encourage you to engage in fresh perspectives and creative approaches to the reconstruction of African American urban history. Although our knowledge of that history has risen dramatically in the past three decades, we still know woefully little about black urbanization in certain regions, most notably the American West, and we have yet to learn much about the impact of gender and class on the shaping of contemporary black urban communities. We should use this seminar, and particularly the papers that will come from it, as the opportunity to expand our knowledge of those and other specific areas of the urban past.
SEMINAR READINGS:
Selecting important and yet available books and articles for a seminar is always a daunting task. I have tried, within the limits of our institutional and personal resources, to include the best of the methodologically and theoretically critical works now extant in African American urban history. All of the assigned book chapters and articles are on electronic reserve through the UW Libraries but given their widespread availability and affordable prices through Amazon.com and other outlets, I recommend that you purchase used copies whenever possible. You may also journal articles directly from the periodicals in the general collection. Unless otherwise indicated, each book or article that appears on the weekly reading schedule should be read in its entirety.
GRADING:
Your seminar grade will be based upon three components: your leadership of your assigned seminar (30%) the quality of your participation in weekly discussions (20%) and the quality of your research paper (50%).
Required Books (on Library Reserve)
Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003)
Matthew J. Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006)
W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1899)
Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005)
Laurie B. Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007)
Kenneth W. Goings and Raymond A. Mohl, eds., The New African American Urban History (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1996)
James Gregory, The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005)
Leslie M. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003)
Tera Hunter, To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997)
Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005)
Kimberley L. Phillips, AlabamaNorth: African American Migrants, Community, and Working-Class Activism in Cleveland, 1915-45 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999)
Bernard E. Powers, Jr., Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994)
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003)
Allan H. Spear, Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967)
Matthew C. Whitaker, Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005)
Andrew Wiese, Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)
WEEKLY READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Oct. 5: INTRODUCTION: DISCUSSION AND DETERMINATION OF THE WEEKLY SEMINAR ASSIGNMENTS
NOTE: Please read the volume introduction to each of the works assigned below as well as the chapters listed.
Oct. 12: A THEORY OF RACE IN URBAN BLACK AMERICA
Joe W. Trotter, "African Americans in the City: The Industrial Era, 1900-1950," in Goings & Mohl, The New African American Urban History, pp. 299-319
W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, Chapters 2, 5, 7
Allan H. Spear, Black Chicago, Chapters 7-8, 11
Oct. 19: THE 19th CENTURY
Bernard E. Powers, Jr., Black Charlestonians, Chapters 1-2
Leslie Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, Chapters 3-4, 8
Tera Hunter, To 'Joy My Freedom, Chapters 2-4
Oct. 26: THE GREAT MIGRATION: 1915-1940
James Gregory, The Southern Diaspora, Chapter 4
Kimberley Phillips, AlabamaNorth, Chapters 1, 5
Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom, Chapters 1-2, 8
Nov. 2: WORLD WAR II AND THE 1950s
Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight, Chapters 4, 6
Matthew Countryman, Up South, Chapter 2
Nov. 9: CIVIL RIGHTS, BLACK POWER & URBAN AMERICA
Laurie B. Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality, Chapters 7-8
Matthew Countryman, Up South, Chapters 3, 5, 7
Robert Self, American Babylon, Chapters 6-8
Nov. 16: URBAN BLACK AMERICA IN A CONSERVATIVE ERA
Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace, Chapters 5-6, 9
Andrew Wiese, Places of Their Own, Chapters 8-9
Matthew Whitaker, Race Work, Chapter 7
Nov. 23: No Class Meeting, Prepare Research Papers
Nov. 30: No Class Meeting, Prepare Research Papers
Dec. 7: Final Meeting, Discuss Research & Writing Progress
