Course

20803240 African American History
Course Information
Description
Broad introductory survey of significant experiences that have shaped U.S. race relations, beginning with the west coast of Africa during the Middle Ages and moving through the last 30 years of this century in the United States. Special attention is given to slavery, family, politics, education and civil rights.
Total Credits
3
Course Competencies (Course Outcomes)
  1. Describe how aspects of African cultures have survived and changed throughout the centuries
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Analyze the dynamics of how Africanisms morph over time
    Explore the global contributions of Africanisms

  2. Identify ways that African Americans have obtained an education throughout history
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Recognize how African Americans have seen education as progress
    Demonstrate how educational systems have oppressed and liberated African Americans

  3. Discuss the importance of the practice of religion for the African American people
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Acknowledge how religious practices have sustained African Americans
    Describe the relationship between religion and politics in Black communities

  4. Explore how the definition of race has changed and remained consistent over time
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Evaluate sources that describe the fixity and fluidity of race
    Compare ideas about the nature of race from different periods

  5. Analyze the persistent advocacy for human and civil rights by African Americans
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Recognize how Black-led movements have benefitted non-Black communities
    Acknowledge how this advocacy by Afro-America has inspired other movements

  6. Examine the evolution of self-help ideas in African American communities
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Explore how Blacks have engaged in business within their own communities
    Identify Black social movements that have employed the strategy of “for us, by us”

  7. Explain how African-Americans have demonstrated “Americanness” from the seventeenth century to the present
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Trace Black participation in the military
    Evaluate how Blacks have held the United States to its ideals

  8. Write about historical topics
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Use a writing process
    Employ primary and secondary sources
    Present arguments that focus directly on historical issues and topics
    Construct historical arguments supported by appropriate and relevant evidence and examples

  9. Explore research, multiple/conflicting viewpoints, and perspectives about modern American history
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Identify continuities and discontinuities in African American history and explain how they have changed/remained the same over time
    Analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources to better understand their positions and perspective

  10. Develop historical empathy
    Assessment Strategies
    Written product, discussion, and/or exam
    Criteria
    Interpret the African American past in context and analyze the past on its own terms
    Compare past developments in African American history with the present

  11. Collaborate with peers
    Assessment Strategies
    Audio and/or video response
    Criteria
    Show interest in the ideas of others
    Develop useful suggestions
    Create questions related to African American history
    Refer to the specific ideas of peers