SYLLABUS

The Black Metropolis I: 1890-1950

Autumn, 2000

SOC 394 Section 101
SOC 290 Section 102
Instructor: Ted Manley, Jr.
MW 4:00-5:30pm

Office Hours: TTH 4:00-5:30pm
Office: 104 1st floor, Dietzen Building
990 Fullerton SE corner of Sheffield
Tele: (773) 325-4718
e-mail: tmanley@wppost.depaul.edu

Permanent classroom and office: Our permanent classroom and the Black Metropolis project office is located in the basement of the Office of Community Based Service Learning (CbSL). CbSL is located in the Vincentian Residence at 2233 North Kenmore Avenue. Our office is number is Lower Level 104). The Black Metropolis project telephone number is (773) 325-2489.

Team members:

Adrian Capehart (773) 325-2418 ascapehart@mymail.net
Michael Bennett (773) 362-6518 mbennett@wppost.depaul.edu
Lazarus Rice (773) 325-7842 lrice@wppost.epaul.edu
Donald Matthews (314) 977-3691 matthews@slu.edu

Support staff:

Lori Murphy (Project librarian) (773) 325-2472 lmurphy@wppost.depaul.edu
Helen Chang (High school student coach) (708) 445-9514 hoopinstitute@aol.com

The Black Metropolis Project telephone number is (773) 325-2489. You can leave a message at this number 24 hours a day.

Required Books:

St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton (1945) The Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life In a Northern City Vol. 1. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Alan H. Spear. 1967. Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dempsey J. Travis 1981. An Autobiography of Black Chicago. Illinois: Urban Research Press.

Richard Wright. 1940. Native Son. New York: Quality Paper Back Book Club.

Web page and linkage resources: The project web page is located on the internet at condor.depaul.edu/~blackmetThe web page contains resources for classroom instruction; Bibliographic instruction; electronic reserves for books and articles required for the course; film file; photography file; Map file; Data base file. The web page is linked at the present time to the following resources for students Digital.com; Bronzeville Historical Society; Chicago Public Schools; Chicago Public Library; Richardson library, the Egan Center and DePaul University.

The Carter G. Woodson Library

All students will have access to the Vivian G. Harsh research collection of Afro-American History and Literature located at the Carter G. Woodson library. The Woodson library is located at 9525 South Halsted. The contact person for the project at the Woodson library is M(s) Mary Williams. M(s) Williams can be reached by phone at (312) 747-6900. The Harsh collection also contains archives of the Chicago Defender; The Chicago Whip; the Chicago Bee; and The Pittsburgh Courier.

I. Introduction.

This course is part of a three-year longitudinal research effort to examine changes in the original 'black belt' of Chicago, Bronzeville, over the last-half century. Through historical and contemporary readings, class discussions, student exercises, training, field experiences and student cooperative learning the course will examine key events, circumstances, and situations that changed in the area since 1950. The period from 1900 to 1950 will be our timeframe to analyze and measure the indicators associated with change--health, housing, education, economy, environment, and safety-in the Black Metropolis. Demographic, survey and qualitative interview data will be collected by teams of students to examine patterns, trends, and changes among a set of variables measuring the quality of life in Bronzeville since the last-half century. These data will provide the project team and students with the means to understand, interpret, and explain the type and kind of changes that occurred in the Black Metropolis over the last-half century.

II. Course objectives.

There are three objectives of The Black Metropolis Project.

1. To teach, train, and prepare students to participate and experience the value of collecting facts and information to understand and interpret change in the Black Metropolis since the last-half century.

  1. To assess, support, and assist student development of technological skills, critical thinking and cooperative group learning through team focused project based assignments.
  2. To teach the application of social science theories and research in service-based and internship training programs relevant to examining and explaining changes in the Black Metropolis since the last-half century.

III. Point of view towards the seminar.

The object is not to simply pass along information that might be assembled and comprehended through individual reading. Active team participation in the pursuit of knowledge about the past to explain the present and future should stimulate a synthesis of ideas and comprehension of critical analytic skills impossible to develop through individual effort alone. We (the project team) choose to play neither the role of an all-knowing "dictator" who orders performance, nor, the role of Professor "nice-guy" who runs happy anarchy while the ivy grows. We will do everything in our power to catalyze students into being effective at rendering specific hypotheses, propositions, functions, co-relations, explanations and causes out of the array of materials and resources required for this course.

Team participation is one of the most important enterprises we will engage in to collect data, facts, and information to ferret out specific variables, relationships among variables and sets of variables to understand and interpret changes in the Black Metropolis since the last-half century. Students will be trained how to hold up to scrutiny social science formulations in terms of their potential to resolve and or clarify anomalies, their deductive and inductive elegance, the extent to which they match known data, and their conduciveness to manipulation. All this is done to seek when necessary ancillary formulations, their value and social implications for understanding the Black Metropolis: The Last-Half Century.

This activity requires a willingness to make intellectual risk in a supportive atmosphere that we expect all team members to provide. We are counting on your practical and theoretical skills, your energy, your critical capacity to assist in the difficult task of understanding changes in the Black Metropolis since the last-half century. Insofar as we enjoy success in this endeavor, we will have created and produced project based assignments critical to your own educational development and the needs of the Black Metropolis Project.

IV. Course Requirements.

  1. Required attendance (15 points) and active participation (20 points). More than four absences, the equivalent of two weeks of the class, without a legitimate excuse will result in an automatic FX for undergraduate students and detention and possible dismissal for high school students.
  2. Each student in the class is required to keep a journal (100 points). The journal must include the following.

The journal is due every Wednesday. The first journal is due Wednesday September 13, 2000 (100 points). All Journals' will be read and graded by team instructors.

  1. Field work experience, research training short essay/multiple choice take-home exam handed-out on Wednesday October 18th 2000 and is due October 23rd. The exam will cover the techniques of field note taking, mapping observations, writing-out situational events, bibliographic instruction, photo-solicitation, quantitative training and face-to-face interviewing techniques. In addition the exam will cover technology usage and software sophistication, application of mathematical skills, power point data presentation, and social science data manipulation skills (100 points).
  2. Field note training/exercises and assignments, photographic training/exercises and assignments, GIS laboratory training/exercises and assignments, bibliographic instruction/exercises and assignments, technology training/exercises and assignments (100 points)
  3. Book review of Black Chicago due November 8th, 2000 (100 points). The book review must focus on the causes of the great migration, settlement, adaptation, conflict and change. The review should include your critical thoughts, insights, reflection, and thinking on the field-work experiences you have had and reading, class discussions, lectures, and team conversations.
  4. Project based learning field study portfolio due Saturday November 18, 2000. The field study portfolio starts on the first day of class. It is a group project that is faculty guided and supervised with the assistance of a graduate research assistant, community coordinator and undergraduate research assistants. It consists of ten faculty field observations totaling 3 hours per week in the field site. Every Saturday for four hours is faculty led field observations. On other days student teams will schedule with the graduate research assistant, community coordinator, and undergraduate research assistant field visits of no less than 3 hours (200 points). (See Project Based field study portfolio hand-out). Copies of old project based field study portfolio’s are available for review. Please ask instructor (s).

V. Schedule of weekly seminar lectures, discussions, reading assignments and requirements.

Week One: September 6th. Lecture and discussion topic: The Black Metropolis project, early black settlement in Chicago and, the American legacy of segregation.

Reading assignments: In Black Chicago Preface and Introduction Pp. vii-8. In Black Metropolis Introduction and Introduction to the Torchbook Edition. Pp. xvii-x1.

Classroom instruction: On the first day of class students will meet the research team and we will review the syllabus and all of the requirements for the course. Each student will introduce themselves and the reason (s) for taking the course. Undergraduate and high school students will be assigned to teams and given instructions for their first field-visit to the project site. Students will receive field notebooks, journal notebooks, pens and pencils in preparation for field note recording and journal writing.

Homework assignment: Supervised field-visit to the Black Metropolis/Bronzeville. All student teams will meet at DePaul on Saturday September 9, 2000 at 11:30am in the project classroom. We will take a bus to the project site and, depending on the weather, be led on a walking field-site of some selected areas of the project site by team member Adrian Capehart. We will review the remaining portions of the project site by bus.

Reminder: You should begin recording your thoughts in your journal about the course, the project and your role (how do you feel). Also, you should begin describing in your field note notebook what you saw (observed) and were exposed to on our first supervised field-site visit. We will collect field notes describing your observations on Monday September 11th.

Week Two: September 11th and 13th. Lecture and discussion topic: The historical, physical and social construction of the Black Metropolis.

Reading assignments: In Black Chicago Chapters 1-2 Pp. 11-50. In Black Metropolis Introduction: Midwest Metropolis and Chapters 1-2 Pp. 3-57.

Classroom instruction: This week we will discuss the reason (s) associated with the physical and social construction of the original "black belt" in Chicago. Students should come to class prepared to discuss the challenges of dejure (by law) Jim Crow segregation in the south and defacto (by custom) segregation in the north.

Homework assignment: Please keep up with the readings. It helps for understanding the lecture and class discussion. Today we will begin qualitative training on how to observe and take notes on your observations from the field. You will be asked to map the physical, social, economic, and political spaces in the project area. Some of the mapping exercise may not be easy but you shouldn't get frustrated because the team of supervisors will provide you with continual feedback on your mapping assignments. The qualitative training will begin to prepare you for our second field site visit on Saturday September 16. This time you will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own with you team member. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site. You will be given instructions this week on making physical, social, economic, and political maps of the neighborhood.

Reminder: Journals are due Wednesday September 13th in class. Journals will be returned to you on Saturday September 16th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Your second field note recordings of the designated field sites on Saturday September 16th are due Monday September 18th in class.

Week Three: September 18th and 20th. Lecture and discussion topic: The Rise of the Black Ghetto.

Reading assignments: In Black Chicago Chapters 3-4 Pp. 51-90. In An Autobiography of Black Chicago Chapters 1-7 Pp. 1-58.

Classroom instruction: This week we will discuss ideological differences in the black experience and the conditions under which these differences took shape and matured into a vision for Black Chicago. Students will come to understand how slavery, emancipation, and Jim Crow (separate but equal) were the foundations for building a racial hierarchy in America where white was supreme and all the "other" people could do was dream and hope for a promise land.

Homework assignments: The readings for this week are meant to be much lighter although more complex and descriptive. This week we begin bibliographic instruction with our mind to beginning to research key issues in health, housing, education, economy, environment and safety. The training you will receive this week in bibliographic instruction and research is meant to prepare you and your team member for the assigned project you will be given on Wednesday to work on for the remainder of the course with your team member and the project team. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site. You will continue to record physical, social, economic, and political maps of the neighborhood as well as observe and record non-verbal communication of everyday life on the streets in Bronzville.

Reminder: Journals are due on Wednesday September 20th and will be returned to you on Saturday September 23rd at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our third supervised field observations are due on Monday September 25th.

Week Four: September 25thand 27th. Lecture and discussion topic: The Institutionalization of the Black Ghetto.

Reading assignments: In Black Chicago Chapters 5-6 Pp. 91-128. In Black Metropolis Chapters 3-5 Pp. 58-98.

Classroom instruction: The great migration was the largest population distribution of a single racial/ethnic group in the history of the United States. African Americans changed from a rural southern based population to a Northern urban based population during the first (WWI) and second (WWII) great migrations. Also, we will discuss the diversity of leadership in the emerging black belt and the quest for self-sufficiency. What role did the great migration play in challenging, supporting, and changing the diversity of black leadership in black Chicago? What was the white reaction and why? What was the role of government institutions and private business institutions?

Homework assignments: Please keep-up with the reading. Photo-solicitation instruction will begin this week. All teams will be trained on using cameras' to document changes in the key areas that each team has been assigned. Teams will meet at designated areas in the project site this Saturday September 30th to conduct supervised field observations. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Journals are due on Wednesday September 27th and will be returned to you on Saturday September 30th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our fourth supervised field observations are due on Monday October 2nd.

Week Five: October 2nd and 4th. Lecture and discussion topic: Across the lines: From the South to the South side.

Reading assignments: In Black Metropolis Chapters 6-7 Pp. 99-173. In Black Chicago Chapters 7-8 Pp. 129-166.

Classroom instruction: We will discuss the social construction of whiteness in America within the context of the color line and its impact on Black settlement in Chicago. Our task is to understand what white social forces, political, economic, historical, and social shaped and influenced the geographical settlement and experiences of blacks in Chicago? We will devote time this week to mapping the racial change and segregation of blacks in Chicago.

Homework assignments: Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will be trained to collect quantitative data and import this data into our mapping files for manipulation and interpretation. Students will have ongoing access to the Quantitative Skills Center and the Geographical Information Systems Laboratory. Both are located on the second floor of the Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) in room 268 (Quantitative Reasoning Center) and 224 (Geographical Information Systems Laboratory). Teams will be given assigned designated areas for supervised field observations on Saturday October 7th. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Journals are due on Wednesday October 4th and will be returned to you on Saturday October 7th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our fifth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 9th.

Week Six: October 9th and 11th. Lecture and discussion topic : Northern "Jim Crow" and the paradox of "the Promised Land."

Reading assignments: In An Autobiography of Black Chicago Chapters 8-10 PP. 59-92. In Black Metropolis Chapter 8 174-213.

Classroom instruction: What factors shaped Black delusion about the "Promise Land"? How did Chicago mirror the racial hierarchy of the South? Earlier we spoke about the historical, physical and social construction of Black Chicago, this week we investigate some of the actions taken by whites to solidify the boundaries of Black settlement and to defend white boundaries from Black advancement. What did northern whites fear and how did industries of the North perpetuate those fears? Did the Great Migration of World War I become the scapegoat for the Northern capitalist/industrialist and their possessive investment in whiteness?

Homework assignments: Please keep-up with the readings. On Monday interview training will begin. Also, preparation for the mid-term will begin. All teams will be given designated locations on Wednesday for their supervised field observations on Saturday October 14th. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Journals are due on Wednesday October 11th and will be returned to you on Saturday October 14th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our sixth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 16th.

Week Seven: October 16th and 18th. Lecture and discussion topic: Revisiting the impact of the migration experience: Black life, economy, politics, and the white response.

Required readings: In Black Chicago Chapters 9-11 Pp. 167-222. In Black Metropolis Chapter 9 Pp. 214-262.

Classroom instruction: How did the old and the new Black elite cope with the diversity of lifestyles and experiences in Black Chicago? What social forces restricted Black economic and political life chances? Questions of self-sufficiency became more prominent as Blacks were forced into a racialized division of labor that segmented them into low-wage unprotected jobs. The desire to integrate into institutions of the mainstream economy of Chicago were blocked by the viscous violence and raw emotions of white Chicago, many of whom had come from war torn, political and economically oppressed conditions and environments in their European countries of origin. Why did whites fail to recognize a common experience with black laborers? Did European ethnics become white and lost there past to an ethnic vacuum?

Homework assignments: Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will receive technology training in power point, micro-soft word, web page design and construction, and excel on Monday October 16th at the Quantitative Skill Center. Many of you may already have these technology skills so consider your training a refresher course to learn the latest upgrades. The mid-term will be handed out on Wednesday October 18th with instructions. The mid-term will be take home and due on the following Monday October 23rd before class begins. All teams will be given designated locations on Wednesday October 18th for their supervised field observations on Saturday October 21st. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Midterms are due on Monday October 23rd. Journals are due on Wednesday October 18th and will be returned to you on Saturday October 21st at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our seventh supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 23rd. Begin reading and attempt to finish this weekend Native Son for discussion during classes next week.

Week Eight: October 23rd and 25th. Lecture and discussion topic : A critical and conscious literary discussion of Native Son.

Reading assignment: Native Son (entire).

Classroom instruction: The central focus of classroom discussion on Native Son is the murder, the media, racism and Bigger Thomas' modernist characteristics looking at the artistic and literary legacy of Chicago's renaissance--affirming racial identity, rejecting minstrel stereotypes, identifying with Blackness, and celebrating African American culture. Also, when looking at Bigger Thomas' as a modernist character we will focus on the personal, familial and social dysfunction and historic disjuncture (man "out of time")--with the rejection of social values, morals, traditions, and assumptions.

Homework assignments: Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will develop written progress reports documenting work on their assigned projects. We expect to see written field observations, summary statistics on data collected this far (Bar Graphs, Line Charts, Pie Charts etc.), a list describing the photos' you have taken and your best sample of photos' and finally, preliminary interpretations of the information and materials collected towards the project. All teams will be given designated locations on Wednesday October 25th for their supervised field observations on Saturday October 28th. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Mid-terms are due on Monday October 23rd. Journals are due on Wednesday October 25th and will be returned to you on Saturday October 28th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our eighth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 30th.

Week Nine: October 30th and November 1st. Lecture and discussion topic: Revisiting the Job Ceiling: Democracy and Economic Necessity

Reading assignments: In Black Metropolis Chapters 9-10 Pp. 214-311. In Black Chicago Conclusion Pp. 223-230.

Classroom instruction: Today class lecture and discussion is on what Blacks meant by "educating the white folks"? You should think about what is a democracy when the only people able to take advantage of freedom are those people who call themselves white? If whites are the perpetrators of Black disadvantage, isolation, and discrimination then what must blacks do?

Homework assignment: Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will be given designated locations on Wednesday November 1st for their supervised field observations on Saturday November 4th. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Progress reports will be returned on Monday October 30th. Journals are due on Wednesday November 1st and will be returned to you on Saturday November 4th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick your journal up before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our ninth supervised field observations are due on Monday November 6th.

Week Ten: Novermer 6th and 8th. Lecture and discussion topic: Economic Necessity and Political expediency.

Reading assignments: In Black Metropolis Chapters 12-13 Pp. 312-377. In An Autobiography of Black Chicago Chapters 11-12 Pp. 93-118.

Classroom instruction: The lecture and discussion is on the organization of black workers and the new unions. We will frame our discussion around the historical evolution of political organizations in the black community focusing on the role of machine politics in shaping the city within the city.

Homework assignment: Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will be given designated locations on Wednesday November 8thfor their supervised field observations on Saturday November 11th. You will be given the third supervised field observation site to conduct your field research on Wednesday. You and your team member will be responsible for showing up at the field-site on your own. A supervisor-- myself, community coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.

Reminder: Book review of Allan Spears book Black Chicago is due November 8th. Journals are due on Wednesday November 8th and will be returned to you on Saturday November 11th at the designated team field site. If you wish to pick-up your journal before Saturday please contact the project office. Field notes from our tenth supervised field observations are due on Monday November 13th.

Finals Week: November 13th 15th, and 18th. Lecture and discussion topic: Review materials and information collected for project.

Classroom instruction: We will meet at our normal class time during finals week. Our goal is to discuss and assist all project teams in completing their assigned projects.

Classroom evaluations: The project team will conduct evaluations of the class during this week. All teams are encouraged to be candid and honest in evaluating the class.

VI Grade evaluation.

Points:

Journal 100

Field work experience 100

Training (Field work, bibliographic, photography, etc.) 100

Book review 100

Field study 100

Total points 500

Grade scale: A=450; B+=445; B=400; C+=395 C=350; D+=345; D=300