Blacks in American Society: Social, Economic, and Political Perspectives

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Critically analyze claims, arguments, artifacts, or information.
• Construct coherent, evidence-based arguments.
• Describe the significant issues and events that have shaped all aspects of African American life since Reconstruction, particularly in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
• Identify leading figures in African American intellectuals, movements, theories, people, periods, and more.
• Critically analyze various sociopolitical, sociocultural, and/or socioeconomic theories and methods used to explain or bring intellectual order to the multitude of forces and processes impacting Black America.
• Construct and develop critically reasoned arguments that explain the nuanced position of Black people in America today.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Exams	60 points
Dialectic assignments	30 points
Attendance and Participation	10 points
Honors Final Presentation	20 points

Grading Scale

Percentage	Letter Grade
94% and above	A
93% - 90%	A-
89% - 87%	B+
86% - 84%	B
83% - 80%	B-
79% - 77%	C+
76% - 74%	C
73% - 70%	C-
69% - 67%	D+
66% - 64%	D
63% - 60%	D-
60% - 00%	F

Attendance/Participation:

Attendance (5 points)

No absences = 6 points

1 absence = 5 points

2 absences = 4 points

3 absences = 3 points

4 absences = 2 points

5absesnces = 1 points

Please note that showing up to class 15 minutes late will result in an absence as well as constant tardiness to class that are below the 15-minute markers.

Participation (5 points)

Rating | Description

Excellent (5) | Always prepared, contributes regularly, respectful, engaged.

Good (4) | Usually prepared and participates frequently.

Satisfactory (3) | Attends regularly but participates occasionally.

Needs Improvement (2) | Rarely participates or is often unprepared.

Unsatisfactory (1) | Rarely attends or participates.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

• Blue Books
• Alridge, D. P., Bynum, C. L., & Stewart, J. B. (Eds.). (2021). The Black intellectual tradition: African American thought in the twentieth century. University of Illinois Press.