African American Studies 411 Black Resistance Movements Fall 2003 Course Description

Movements for African American freedom and for human rights are the core of history and the content of today’s headlines. When studying Frederick Douglass’s work organizing the black anti-slavery movement, Ida B. Wells’ anti-lynching movement, Marcus Garvey’s back to Africa movement, the Nashville sit-ins, the Free South Africa movement, or recent protests against globalization, we are all fascinated – even awed – by the courage these men and women exhibited in their fight for racial justice.

How might we replicate their successes in our own fight for social change and political empowerment? We know that these black resistance movements require commitment and vision, yet these two qualities alone are not enough. To organize a movement, skills as well as technical knowledge are necessary: the ability to bring diverse people and communities together, an understanding of how the political system operates, how to effectively use the media, the talent to develop direct action campaigns, expert negotiation skills, and the capacity for hard, unrelenting, but rewarding, work.

This course on Black Resistance Movements focuses on recent urban protest movements and considers how people organize communities for social change and economic justice in today’s political climate. Our textbooks are hands-on guides written by activists, for activists. We will study strategic thinking methods and tactics utilized in various recent movements and develop our own strategies for other political issues and in other contexts. As a class, we will examine how we might organize a resistance action to fight a contemporary social, political and/or economic problem faced by African Americans. Working in small groups, students will develop “organizing kits” on an issue of their choosing. By keeping up with current events, we can also consider contemporary actions of social change activism.