Black Arts (US)

A History of African Americans 1950-2020: I Had a Dream - Lisa Veroni-Paccher

Despite the conservative and politically repressive atmosphere of the Cold War period, African Americans became more vocal in their demands for better living conditions. Black and interracial organizations were also created in the 1940s and 1950s, such as CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality (1942), which concentrated on strategies such as sit-ins and picket lines, or the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957). Leaders emerged, some at first advocating nonviolent direct action, such as Martin Luther King, while others went for a more radical approach, such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. Together, the grassroots movements and their leaders would bring about a long Civil Rights and Black Power Movement dedicated to put an end to segregation practices and offer alternate means to achieve somewhat similar ends: the transformation of American democratic institutions. Their struggle made the dream of seeing one day persons of African descent, Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, elected to the White House come true, but it also triggered a violent backlash. This course thus addresses this movement from litigation and nonviolent action to a more radical approach, and later from black power to black politics and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s - Sophie Rachmuhl

The Black Arts Movement was a multifaceted cultural movement, which arose from the Civil Rights struggle and the Black Power movement. It included all the arts – music, literature, theater, dance, the visual arts – and relied on regional cultural infrastructure built after the major riots which erupted during the first half of the 1960s. It was embodied by African American artists and intellectuals, and deeply influenced American culture, in particular the relationship between popular culture and “high” culture, as well as other minority arts in the same period. We will look at its history, its different forms, its sources and its heritage.

Session 1 :

• Étudiants régime général : Contrôle Continu
• Étudiants régime spécial : Écrit 3h questions de cours et/ou étude d’un ou plusieurs documents texte / iconographique

Session 2 (« rattrapage ») :

Étudiants régime général et régime spécial: Oral 15 mn (préparation 30 mn)

Organisation des enseignements

1hCM et 1h30 TD

A History of African Americans 1950-2020: I Had a Dream - Lisa Veroni-Paccher

Bibliography (** compulsory reading and * recommended reading)

**Norton, Mary Beth, David Katzman, David Blight, Howard Chudacoff and Fredrik Logewall.  A People and A Nation. Dolphin Edition-Complete. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Chapters 29 to 33.

General African American History

• Bacharan, Nicole. Les Noirs Américains. Des champs de coton à la Maison Blanche. Perrin, 2010.
• Carson, Clayborne, Emma Lapsansky-Werner, Gary Nash. The Struggle for Freedom. A History of African Americans Vol 2. Penguin, 2011. Chapters 17 to 22.
• *Diallo, David. Histoire des Noirs aux Etats-Unis. Ellipses, 2012.
• Franklin, John Hope, Alfred A. Moss. From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans. McGraw Hill 9/E, 2000. Chapters 22 to 25.
• Hine, Darlene C., William Hine and Stanley Harrold. African Americans. A Concise History. Vol 2. Pearson 4/E. 2012
• Kelley, Robin and Earl Lewis. To Make our World Anew. A History of African Americans since 1880. Oxford UP, 2 Chapters 4 and 5.
• *Lawson, Steven. Running for Freedom. Civil Rights and Black Politics in America since 1941. Wiley Blackwell, 2009.
• N’Diaye, Pap. Les Noirs Américains. En marche pour l’égalité. Gallimard, 2009
• *William, Juan. Eyes on the Prize. America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965. Penguin, 1988.

Famous Authors

• DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folks. Dover Publications, 1994.
• Haley, Alex. Roots. The Saga of an American Family. Dell, 1980.
• *Hamilton, Charles and Stokeley Carmichael . Black Power. Vintage Books, 1992.
• *Luther King, Martin. Where do we go from here? Chaos or Community. Boston: Beacon Press, 2010.
• Obama, Barack. Dreams from my Father. A Story of Race and Inheritance. Three Rivers Press, 2004.
• X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Bentam Double Day, 1998.
• African American History Websites:
• Black Past: http://blackpast.org/
• Amistad Resource: http://www.amistadresource.org/
• African American Odyssey: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html

The Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s - Sophie Rachmuhl

• Boyd, Melba Joyce. Wrestling with the Muse – Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
• Bracey, John H. Jr., Sonia Sanchez and James Smethurst, eds. SOS – Calling All Black People, A Black Arts Movement Reader. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014.
• Isoardi, Steven L. The Dark Tree, Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006.
• Jones, LeRoi, and Larry Neal, eds. Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing. New York: Morrow, 1968.
• Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Drama Review: TDR4 (Summer 1968): 28-39.
• Rambsy II, Howard. The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.
• Smethurst, James Edward. The Black Arts Movement : Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005.