Spring 2005 | University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Prof. Watson Jennison | Email: wwjennis@uncg.edu | Office: McIver 208 | Phone: 336-334-5488

Office Hours: Mondays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 

HIS 520: The New South, 1875 - 1925
Course Syllabus

 

This course will consist of two papers worth 30%, participation in class discussions worth 20%, and in class assignments worth 20%.  Graduate students will be assigned three papers worth 20% each with the same requirements on participation and class assignments.  The assigned books are Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901), Grace E. Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 (1998), Eric Arnesen, ed, Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Documents (2003), and William Faulkner, Light in August (1932).  You may purchase these books at the university bookstore. 

 

Attendance and Late Policy:  You are allowed three excused absences.  In addition, students will be dropped from the class for excessive absences.  Assignments that are not completed will receive zeroes.  Papers submitted in class are due at the beginning of the class period.  Students who submit papers after the deadline will be penalized with a grade deduction based on the lateness of the paper.  No papers will be accepted one week after the due date.  If a student leaves a paper in the professor’s mailbox, it is the student’s responsibility to check that the professor has received the paper. 

 

Plagiarism Policy:  The University defines plagiarism as “intentionally or knowingly representing the words of another, as one’s own in any academic exercise.”[1]  All sources (books, articles, documents, internet sites, etc.) used in any paper or assignment must be properly cited or will be considered plagiarism.  Any instance of plagiarism will receive a zero and will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct for appropriate action, including suspension or expulsion from the University. 

 

Week 1:

            

             01: Monday, January 10: Introduction

 

             02: Wednesday, January 12: Reconstruction

                          Readings:

§      Martha Hodes, “The Sexualization of Reconstruction Politics: White Women and Black Men in the South after the Civil War,” in American Sexual Politics: Sex, Gender, and Race since the Civil War, pp. 59-74 on blackboard

 

Week 2:

 

             03: Monday, January 17: MLK Day: No Class

 

             04: Wednesday, 19: Redemption

                          Readings:

§      C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South (1951), pp. 1-106 on ereserves

 

Week 3:

 

             05: Monday, January 24: Sharecropping

                          Readings:

§      Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (1974), pp. 3-94 on ereserves

 

             06: Wednesday, January 26: Urbanization

                          Readings:

§      Edward Ayers, The Promise of the New South (1992), pp. 55-80 on ereserves

 

Week 4:

 

             07: Monday, January 31: Lynching, Part I

                          Readings:

§      Excerpts from Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors (1892) on ereserves

 

             08: Wednesday, February 2: Lynching, Part II

                          Readings:

§      Leon Litwack, Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow (1998), pp. 284-328 on ereserves

 

Week 5:

 

             09: Monday, February 7: Populism

                          Readings:

§      Edward Ayers, The Promise of the New South (1992), pp. 214-282 on ereserves

 

             10: Wednesday, February 9: The Politics of Fusion

                          Readings:

§      Edward Ayers, The Promise of the New South (1992), pp. 283-309 on ereserves

 

Week 6:

 

             11: Monday, February 14: Riots, Part I

                          Readings:

§      Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901), pp. 1-153

 

             12: Wednesday, February 16: Riots, Part II

                          Readings:

§      Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901), pp. 154-329

 

Week 7:

 

             13: Monday, February 21: Segregation

                          Readings:

§      Excerpts from William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad, eds, Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (2001), pp. TBA on ereserves

 

             14: Wednesday, February 23: Disfranchisement

                          Readings:

§      Michael Perman, Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South 1888-1908 (2001), pp. 1-37 on ereserves

 

Week 8:

 

             15: Monday, February 28: South’s Best Men

                          Readings:

§      Excerpts from W. E. B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folks (1903), pp. TBA on blackboard

§      Booker T. Washington, Atlantic Exposition Speech (1895) on blackboard

 

             16: Wednesday, March 2: South’s Best Women

                          Readings:

§      Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (1996), pp. 147-202 on ereserves

 

Week 9:

 

             17: Monday, March 7: Spring Break: No Class

 

             18: Wednesday, March 9: Spring Break: No Class

 

Week 10:

 

             19: Monday, March 14: Culture, Part I

                          Readings:

§      Grace E. Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 (1998), pp. xi-198

 

             20: Wednesday, March 16: Culture, Part II

                          Readings:

§      Grace E. Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 (1998), pp. 199-296

 

Week 11:

 

             21: Monday, March 21: Religion, Part I

                          Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

             22: Wednesday, March 23: Religion, Part II

                          Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

Week 12:

 

             23: Monday, March 28: Early Industry and Labor, Part I

                          Readings:

§      Edward Ayers, The Promise of the New South (1992), pp. 104-131 on ereserves

 

             24: Wednesday, March 30: Early Industry and Labor, Part II

                          Readings:

§      Tera Hunter, To ’Joy My Freedom (1997), pp. 74-97 on ereserves

 

Week 13:

 

             25: Monday, April 4: Southern Imperialism, Part I

Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

26: Wednesday, April 6: Southern Imperialism, Part II

Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

Week 14:

 

             27: Monday, April 11: Eugenics, Race, and Science, Part I

                          Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

             28: Wednesday, April 13: Race, and Science, Part II

                          Readings:

§      TBA on ereserves

 

Week 15:

 

             29: Monday, April 18: Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan

                          Readings:

§      Nancy McLean, “The Leo Frank Case Reconsidered: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Making of Reactionary Populism,” Journal of American History vol. 78, no. 3 (1991), pp. 917-948 on jstor

 

             30: Wednesday, April 20: Reconciliation

                          No Readings

 

Week 16:

 

             31: Monday, April 25: Great Migration

                          Readings:

§      Excerpts from Eric Arnesen, ed, Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Documents (2003), pp. TBA

 

             32: Wednesday, April 27: The New Negro

                          Readings:

§      Excerpts from Eric Arnesen, ed, Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Documents (2003), pp. TBA

 

Week 17:

 

             33: Monday, May 2: Reading the Southern Past

                          Readings:

§      William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)

 

Final Papers Due on Friday, May 6



[1] 1 http://studentconduct.uncg.edu/policy/academicintegrity/violation/plagiarism/