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 undergraduate colloquium will critically examine the five centuries of African American history in the American West. Most of the course will examine readings that address the emerging historiography of the field as well as the most important texts that explore that history. The last weeks of the seminar will focus on the crafting of individual papers with sessions devoted to critiquing drafts. The goal of this seminar is twofold. First by critically examining major texts in the field we hope to significantly enhance each student’s knowledge of African American history in the region. Secondly, the research papers generated through the seminar should expand that knowledge base for future students of African American history in the West.
READINGS:
Selecting important and yet available books and articles for a colloquium 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 the history of western urban people of color. All of the assigned articles are on electronic reserve through Suzzallo Library. The books are on standard reserve. I would encourage you to purchase used copies to reduce the library demand. Unless otherwise indicated, each book or article that appears on the weekly reading schedule should be read in its entirety.
RESEARCH PAPER:
Each colloquium participant will write a 15-page paper assessing some important figure or episode in the history of African Americans in the West. Your paper should draw on primary and secondary sources but should reflect the development of your own interpretation of the issues and events addressed in your topic.
You should observe the following deadlines for your paper:
Fourth Colloquium Meeting: A Preliminary title and one-page prospectus of your paper.
Sixth Colloquium Meeting: A four page selected annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources to be used in your paper.
Wednesday of Final Exam Week (noon): Your Paper is due in my office.
PARTICIPATION IN COLLOQUIUM:
Each colloquium participant is expected to complete and be prepared to discuss all of each week's assigned reading. Each student will be expected to chair at least one seminar meeting. One's responsibilities as chair include leading the discussion of the week's readings. The student chairing the seminar will be expected to have completed all of the assigned readings, as I expect all of the other participants as well, but she or he, if necessary, should review related readings beyond the colloquium assignment.
GRADING:
Your grade will be based upon three components: the quality of your participation in weekly discussions (20%), your performance as chair of your particular session (30%), and the quality of your research paper, (50%)
Required Textbooks (on library reserve):
Robert Bauman, Race & The War on Poverty: From Watts to East L.A. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008)
Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005)
Scott Kurashige, The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)
Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005)
Quintard Taylor and Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, eds., African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003)
Matthew C. Whitaker, Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005)
READING ASSIGNMENTS
Sept. 30: Introduction: Discussion and Determination of Weekly Assignments
Oct. 7: (No Class Today)
Oct. 14: Earliest Settlement
Dedra S. McDonald, “To Be Black and Female in the Spanish Southwest: Toward a History of African Women on New Spain’s Northern Frontier Jack " in Moore and Taylor, eds., African American Women Confront the West, pp. 31-52
Barbara Y. Welke, “Rights of Passage: Gendered-Rights Consciousness and the Quest for Freedom, San Francisco, California, 1850-1870” in Moore and Taylor, eds., African American Women Confront the West, pp. 73-93.
October 21: The Urban Frontier
Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom, Chapters 1-2, 8
Scott Kurashige, The Shifting Grounds of Race, Chapters 1-2
October 28: World War II and the 1950s
Stuart McElderry, "Building a West Coast Ghetto: African American Housing in Portland, 1910-1960, Pacific Northwest Quarterly 92:3 (Summer 2001):137-148
Scott Kurashige, The Shifting Grounds of Race, Chapter 7
Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace, Chapters 1-2
November 4: Civil Rights/Black Power
Linda Williams Reese, “Clara Luper and the Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma City, 1958-1964,” in Moore and Taylor, eds., African American Women Confront the West, pp. 328-343
Robert Bauman, Race & The War on Poverty, Chapters 1-4
November 18: The Contemporary Black West
Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace, Chapters 5-6, 9
Matthew C. Whittaker, Race Work, Chapter 7
November 25: No Class Meeting, Prepare Research Papers
December 2: No Class Meeting, Prepare Research Papers
December 9:Presentation of Paper Topics
