INTRODUCTION
The African-American experience spans four hundred years, from the
initial settlement of the American continent by Europeans and the establishment
of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and down through the present day.
Throughout their sufferings and ordeals, the people of African descent
who were brought involuntarily to this country found the courage and
creativity to "make themselves." They constructed their own
unique rituals, traditions and symbols; a distinct spirituality, music,
art, dance and folklore; a rich cultural heritage, kinship and community;
and a complex body ofpolitical and social ideas about the contradictory
nature of American democracy and the position of black people
within it. In effect, black Americans made their own history, although
not always in the manner in which they chose, because they were encumbered
by the constraints of institutional racism and white privilege.
This introductory course in the African-American experience is largely
constructed around the voices and language used by black people themselves.
The course is organized chronologically, with an emphasis on the ideas
of black social thought, political protest and efforts to create social
change. About one half of the course covers the historical foundations
and background to the modern black experience, from the struggle against
slavery to the Harlem Renaissance. The second half of the course focuses
on the past seventy years, from the Great Depression to the twenty-first
century.
During our course, we will talk about a wide spectrum of African-American
leaders, intellectuals, organizations and institutions. Some have focused
their energies primarily in finding ways for the black community to
survive discrimination and oppression. Through the development of their
unique cultural and social traditions, and the establishment of African-American
organizations, black people have managed to sustain themselves in the
face of almost constant adversity. Other African Americans have advocated
strategies of collective political change, challenging the barriers
of inequality in white America. And still others have resorted to more
radical means, from the slave rebellions of the nineteenth century to
the ghetto uprisings of the late twentieth century, to improve the conditions
of the black people. Despite these differences, what brings together
nearly all representatives of the black experience are the common efforts
to achieve the same goals: the elimination of racism, the realization
of democratic rights and greater social fairness within a racially pluralistic
society, and achievement of cultural integrity of the black community.
Through the course lectures, required readings and discussions, hopefully
students will acquire a fuller understanding about the historical development
and social construction of black America: what African Americans have
thought about themselves and the larger society, how they have evolved
as a community with a distinct culture from slavery to the twenty-first
century, and where they may be going as a people.
