Dr. Zaphon R. Wilson Office Hours:
224 University Hall MWF -TBA
921-5938 TR - TBA
Wilsonza@mail.armstrong.edu

This course focuses on the role and participation of African - Americans in United States government and politics. It will emphasize how the continuing struggle for African -American political empowerment and "universal freedom" has helped to shape the current American political environment as well as the social and economic conditions of the African- American community. The central purpose of the course is to interpret the political behavior and activities of African - Americans as they interact with others in the political system and with institutions that formulate and implement public policy.

Course Objectives

Listed below are the key objectives of the course:

· To provide the student with a definition of African-American politics.
· To create an understanding of the development of African-American politics as a field of study, approaches to the study of African-American politics and the different methods taken to achieve African-American Liberation.
· To explain to the student key forces and determinates in African -American political behavior.
· To explain to the student the role, significance and impact of African-American elected officials and African-American political organizations.

The course will be taught in a lecture format. However, students are encouraged to participate in class discussions. Attendance is required. All reading assignments are to be read before class. The professor reserves the right to add or delete from the reading list and to institute pop quizzes.

Final Grades will be determined by the following calculation:
1. Three (3) in class exams - 25% each 75%
2. Book Review - (5 page maximum) 25%
All students are required to take the exams on the scheduled date unless he/she provides a written, university - approved excuse. All other written assignments must be turned in on time. No Exceptions.

Required Texts

· Locke and Wilson, (eds). African American Politics: The Struggle for Liberation. (Tapestry Press, 1997)
· Barker, Jones and Tate. African Americans and the American Political System. (Prentice Hall 1999)

Suggested Texts

· Carol Swain, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans Interests in Congress (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993)
· Hanes Walton and Robert Smith, American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom. (Addison Wesley Longman Press 2000)

Topical Outline and Reading Assignments

Listed below is an overview of the course schedule. Please use it as a guide, rather than a legal contract. We will most certainly vary from this plan. All journal articles, papers and book chapters are available on reserve at the University Library.

I. Introduction to the Course - Theoretical Framework

A. What is African American Politics?
B. Framework for Analysis
Readings:
Locke and Wilson Z. (eds.) Hill, "The Study of Black Politics: Notes on Rethinking the Paradigm", pp 3-9
Locke and Wilson Z. (eds.), Smith, " Ideology as the enduring Dilemma of Black Politics" pp 21-31

II. Political Science and African - American Politics

Reading:
Barker, et al. Black America and the Political System: The Politics of Uncertainty, pp. 1-26
Locke and Wilson (eds.), "The Right to Criticize American Institutions" Frederick Douglass pp 9-11
Film Presentation, Eyes On the Prize; Episode 1 "Awakenings, 1954-1956"

2

III. American Democracy and African American Subordination

Readings:
Barker et al, The Nature of the Problem pp 32-53
Locke and Wilson (eds.), "The Atlanta Exposition Speech" Booker T. Washington pp 45-48

IV. Reconstruction and the Politics of African - American
Disenfranchisement
Readings:
V.O. Key Jr. Southern politics in State and Nation 1949 -Chapters 26-29 (reserve)
Walton, "Black Political Leadership Behavior" in Invisible Politics (Reserve) pp.231-240

Exam I

V. Civil Rights and the Struggle for African - American Universal
Freedom
Readings:
Walton and Smith, Chapter 7 (reserve)
Locke and Wilson (eds.), Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" pp 80-88
Locke and Wilson (eds), William Tucker, "For a Twentieth of the Cost: Francis Galton and The Origin of Eugenics"
Film Presentation, Eyes on the Prize; Episode 2, "Fighting Back 1957-1962"

VI. African - American Interest Group Politics
Readings:
Barker et al, Chapter 7
Locke and Wilson (eds)., Glenn Loury, "The Struggle to Return to Self -
Help" pp182

VII. African -American Voting Behavior
Readings:
Barker, et al, Chapter 9 " Black Voters and Electoral Politics"pp 234-250
Walton and Smith, Chapter 5
Film Presentation, Eyes on the Prize; "Ain't Scared of No Jails 1960- 1961"
3

VIII. African - Americans and the U.S. Presidency
Readings:
Barker, et al, Chapter11, "The Presidency and the Policy Process: The Poverty of Black Politics" pp 303-335
Film Presentation, Eyes on the Prize; "No Easy walk 1962-1963"

IX. African -Americans and the U.S. Congress
Readings:
Barker, et al, Chapter10 " African Americans and the Congressional Arena" pp 254-294
Suggested:
Carol Swain, Black Faces, Black Interests

X. African-Americans and the Supreme Court
Readings:
Barker, et al, Chapter 5 and 6
Locke and Wilson (eds.), Higginbotham, Jr, " An Open Letter to Justice Clarence Thomas from a Federal Judge"pp153-165
Film Presentation, Eyes on the Prize; "Mississippi: Is this America 1962-1963"

Exam II

X. African - Americans and Urban Politics
Readings:
Chuck Stone, "Urban Regimes and the Capacity to Govern: A political Economy Approach". Journal of Urban Affairs, 15(1), pp1-28
Cynthia Horan, "Racializing Regime Politics". Journal of Urban Affairs 24 (1) 2002 pp19-33

XI. Black Nationalism
Readings:
Locke and Wilson (eds). John McCartney, "Marcus Garvey and the Resurgence of Black Nationalism" pp 48-59
Locke and Wilson, James Cone, "Two Roads to Freedom" pp 60-79

4

XII. African - American Conservatives
Readings:
John McWhorter, Authentically Black: Essays from the Black Silent Majority (2003) Chapter 1 and 9 (reserve)
Locke and Wilson (eds), Steven Lawson, " The New Black Politicians: From Protest to Empowerment" pp105-129

XIII. The Future of African- American Politics
Readings:
Barker, et al. Chapter 12 "The Author's Speak Out" pp 340-359
Film Presentation, Eyes on the Prize; "Bridge to Freedom 1965"

XIV. The Wrap up and Overview
Book Review Essay Due

XV. TBA Final Examination

* Acceptable Books for Review

McWhorter, Authentically Black, 2003
________, Losing the Race: Self- Sabotage in Black America, 2002
Robinson, Quitting America, 2004
Hacker, Two Nations: Black and White, Hostile, Separate and Unequal, 2003
Walters, White Nationalism, Black Interests: Conservative Policy and the Black Community, 2003
Collins, Black Feminists Thought, 2000
Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Marin Luther King, Jr., 2003

Dyson, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?
Collier-Thomas, Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 2001
Smith, We Have No Leaders, 1996
Wilson, When Work Disappears, 1996
Bell, Faces at the Bottom of the Well, 1993
____, And We Are Not Saved, 1989
Carter, Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, 1992
Reed, The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon, 1986

Classics

Cox, Caste, Class and Race, 1970
Cruse, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, 1984
Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie,
DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, 1899
Higginbotham, In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal System, 1978
____________, Shades of Freedom, 1996
* You may select a book on your own with the approval of the instructor, but these
are a few of my favorites.