Critical Social Inquiry 0248 - Reading, Writing and Citizenship: African-American Educational Campaigns

Struggles for equity in education have always been central to African-American strategies for advancement. African-American ideas about how to make educational equity a reality, however, have varied greatly over time. This course seeks to examine how various issues in African-American education have evolved throughout the twentieth Century. The class will begin with the dynamic struggle of Boston's African American community to desegregate public education during the pre-civil war decade. We will cover other critical campaigns in the Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Civil Rights/Black Power eras. Students will engage with primary documents throughout the semester, travel to the W.E.B Dubois Archives at UMASS, and develop their own independent research projects. Keywords:African American History, Education Studies, Africana Studies, History The content of this course deals with issues of race and power.

In/Justice Students should expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time