Syllabus
The Black Metropolis I: 1890-1950
Autumn, 2001
SOC
394 Section 101
Instructor: Professor Ted Manley, Jr.
Office Hours: Thursday 4:00-5:30pm MW 4:00-5:30pm
Office: # 1113 1st floor Dietzgen Building
990 Fullerton SE corner of Sheffield
Tele: (773) 325-4718
E-mail: tmanley@depaul.edu
Permanent classroom and office: Our
permanent classroom and the Black Metropolis project office is located in the
basement of the Steans Center for Community based Service Learning. The Steans
center is located in Faculty Hall at 2233 North Kenmore Avenue. Our office is
number is Lower Level #104 (LL104). The Black Metropolis project telephone
number is (773) 325-2489. You can
leave a voice mail message at this number 24 hours a day.
Team members:
Adrian
Capehart (773) 325-2489 ascapehart@mymail.net
Lazarus
Rice (773) 325-7842 lrice@depaul.edu
Donald
Matthews (Director—African American Studies University of Missouri Kansas
City)
Lauren
Reed (773) 325-2489 lreed@depaul.edu
Support staff:
David Jabon (Quantitative
Instructor) (773) 325-7286 djabon@depaul.edu
Mireille
Kotoklo (Project Librarian) (773) 325-7772 mkotoklo@depaul.edu
Patrick
McHaffie (ArcView/Geographical mapping consultant)
Lazurus
Rice (Project Photographer) (see above)
Required
Books:
Richard Wright. 1940. Native Son New York: Quality paperback Book Club.
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.
Charles Keil 1970. Urban Blues Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wayne F. Miller 2000. Chicago’s South Side: 1946-1948. California: University of California Press.
Web
page and linkage resources:
The project web page is located
on the internet at www.depaul.edu/~blackmet
The 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 to
a variety of resources for students. These include but are not limited to the
Chicago Public Library and the Branch libraries (Hall, Bee, King); the Woodson
Regional Library; Chicago Historical Society; Chicago Public Schools; Chicago
Housing Authority; The Metro Chicago Information Center; The Richardson library
and DePaul University etc.
The project “hot spot” map
is located on the Internet at www.qrc.depaul.edu/blackmet
The “hot spot” web page is public accessible from the Black Metropolis Web
Page and identifies a spatial relationships between housing, education, economy,
and politics in Bronzeville.
The
Chicago Public Library Carter G. Woodson Regional 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 project tilted The Black
Metropolis: The Last Half-Century. The Black Metropolis Project (BMP) is an
effort to examine changes in the original 'black belt' of Chicago since the
publication of St. Clair Drake and Horace Caytons’ monumental study of the
Black Metropolis (1945). The BMP is part of a yearlong course sequence that
offers a platform of three interrelated chronological time periods: 1890-1945
Black Metropolis I, 1945-1975 Black Metropolis II, and the period 1975- to
present Black Metropolis III.
If
taken as a full year sequence DePaul University students’ can earn credit
toward experiential learning in the first sequence, service learning in the
second sequence, internship in the third sequence and credit toward a minor in
sociology or community based service learning. High school students can earn up
to 12 college credits and up to 40 hours of service learning required for high
school graduation if the course is taken for the full year.
Through
historical and contemporary readings, class discussions, student exercises and
training, field experiences and student cooperative service learning activities
the course will examine key events, circumstances, and situations that changed
in the area since 1950.
In
the first sequence, the period from 1890 to 1950, we will compare, examine and
analyze the relationship between historical and contemporary indicators
associated with change--health, housing, education, economy, politics,
environment, culture, lifestyle and leisure, and safety-in the Black Metropolis.
A variety of data gathering techniques: demographic, survey, unobtrusive
photography, black film research, and qualitative oral history interviews will
be used by faculty, staff and students. This information is vital to examining
historical and contemporary 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.
2.
To assess, support, and assist student development of technological
skills, critical thinking and cooperative group learning through team focused
project based assignments.
3.
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, and 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.
Each student is required to enroll on Blackboard to maintain online
communication and to monitor individual and group performance.
2.
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.
3.
Each student in the class is required to keep a journal (100 points). The
journal must include the following.
·
Your reflections and
assessment of classroom discussions, reading and training assignments, lectures,
and field work assignments. Include in here what you like, don’t like, don’t
understand and help! What are we doing!
·
Your reflections on required
field experiences and assignments.
·
Your assessment of what you
think you know well and are learning.
·
Your assessment of your
reactions to and interpretations of change in the Black Metropolis
·
Your team assignments and
schedules.
The journal is due every Wednesday.
The first journal is due Wednesday September 12th, 2001. All
3.
Fieldwork, service learning, and
research training short essay/multiple choice take-home exam. Handed-out on
Wednesday October 17th 2001 and is due October 22nd, 2001.
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).
4.
Field note training/exercises and assignments (due every Monday),
photographic training/exercises and assignments, bibliographic
instruction/exercises and assignments, technology training/exercises and
assignments (100 points)
5.
Reflective book review of Blues
Chicago due November 12th, 2001 (100 points). The book review
must focus on the historical and contemporary role of African American music
(Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop, and Rap) in Bronzeville, the relationship between rural
blues and urban blues (the Trans-spatial relationship), and how the blues
signified and testified to the trails and tribulations of the great migration,
settlement, adaptation, conflict and change in Bronzeville. The review should
include your critical thoughts, insights, reflection, and thinking on the
fieldwork experiences you have had and reading, class discussions, lectures, and
team conversations.
6.
The multi-cultural cooperative group project based service learning field
study portfolio due Monday November 19, 2001. The multicultural project based
service learning 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 faculty supervised field observations totaling 4
hours per week in the field site. Every week students’ will conduct four hours
of faculty led field observations to designated sites in the project area. On
other days student teams will schedule with the instructor, graduate research
assistant, community coordinator, and undergraduate research assistants’ field
visits to one of five service learning sites accumulating no less than 4 hours
per week at each site (200 points). (See Multicultural Project Based Service
learning field study portfolio handout). Copies of old project based field study
portfolio’s are available for review. Please ask instructor.
V.
Schedule of weekly seminar lectures, discussions, reading assignments and
requirements.
Week
One: 1st day of class (1/2 week): September 5th. Lecture and
discussion topic: The Black Metropolis project, early black settlement in
Chicago and, the American legacy of segregation and its consequences.
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.
Reminder: You
should begin recording your thoughts in your journal about the course, the
project and your role (how do you feel). We will collect journals on Wednesday
September 12th.
Week
Two: September 10th and 12th. 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 Part III
Chapter 14 Bronzeville Pp.379-397 and Chapter 15 The Power of the Press and the
Pulpit Pp. 398-429.
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. Also, we will begin to discuss class distinctions in
Bronzeville. What is the origin of class distinctions in the Black/African
American community?
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, religious, 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 your
second field site visit.
A supervised field-visit to the Black Metropolis/Bronzeville
is scheduled for September 15th. All student teams will meet at DePaul on
Saturday September 15th, 2001 at 2:00pm in the project classroom. We
will take a bus to the project site and, depending on the weather, be led on a
walking tour 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:
Journals are due Wednesday September 12th in class. Journals will be
returned to you on the following Monday. Your field note recordings of walking
tour of Bronzeville is due Monday September 17th in class.
Week
Three: September 17th and 19th. Lecture and
discussion topic: The Rise of the Black Ghetto.
Reading assignments:
In Black Chicago Chapters 3-4 Pp.
51-90. In Black Metropolis Chapter 16
Negro Business: Myth and Fact Pp. 430-469 and Chapter 17 Business under a Cloud
Pp. 470-494.
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. In
addition, we will take a deep look into the economic vitality, initiative, and
resiliency of the Negro in Chicago.
Homework assignments:
The readings for this week are more complex and descriptively thick. This week
we begin bibliographic instruction with our mind to beginning to research key
issues in religion, health, politics, 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 second
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--instructor, 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 19th. Field notes from our
second supervised field observations are due on Monday September 24th.
Week Four:
September 24th and 26th.
Lecture and discussion topic: The Institutionalization of the
Black Ghetto.
Reading assignments:
In Black Chicago Chapters 5-6 Pp.
91-128. In Black Metropolis Chapter
18 The Measure of the Man Pp. 495-525 and Chapter 19 Style of Living—Upper
Class Pp. 526-563. In Chicago’s South
Side Forward, Essays and Photographs.
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? What is the Measure of the Man?
What factors created the Upper Class?
Extra Credit:
Choose a photo from the Chicago’ South
Side book and attempt to draw a correlation (how one event, situation, scene
etc. is related to another) of a picture and the migration experience of Blacks
in Chicago.
Homework assignments:
Please keep-up with the reading. Photo-solicitation instruction will begin this
week. All teams will be trained on using cameras'. You will be trained to
conduct unobtrusive measures where you capture reality by not bringing attention
to yourself or the person you are filming unless asked to do so. This year we
will focus on children and parents as we attempt to capture on film their hopes,
desires, pain, and despair.
Teams will meet at designated areas in the project site
this week 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-- instructor, community coordinator, and other team
members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder:
Journals are due on Wednesday September 26th. Field notes from our
third supervised field observations are due on Monday October 1st.
Week
Five: October 1st and 3rd.
Lecture and discussion: Across the lines: From the South to the South
side.
Reading assignments:
In Black Chicago Chapters 7-8 Pp.
129-166. Urban Blues Introduction Pp.
1-29 and Chapter One African American Music Pp. 30-49.
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. Also, we will
begin to interpret, define and analyze the role of music in the life of African
Americans.
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. The Quantitative Skills Center is located on the second floor of the
Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) in room 268 (Quantitative Reasoning Center). Teams
will be given the fourth 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--instructor, community
coordinator, and other team members-- will meet your team at the designated
project site.
Reminder:
Journals are due on Wednesday October 3rd. Field notes from our
fourth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 8th.
Week
Six: October 8th and 10th. Lecture and discussion:
Northern "Jim Crow" and the paradox of "the Promised Land":
Up from slavery or post-Slavery?
Reading assignments:
In Black Metropolis Chapter 20 Lower
Class: Sex and Family Pp. 564-599 and Chapter 21 The World of the Lower Class
Pp. 600-657. In Urban Blues Chapter
Two Blues Styles: An Historical Sketch Pp. 50-68.
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? What consequences did this have for the Upper and Lower
class? What role did music play in mediating a strategy or coping mechanism to
deal with despair and a dream deferred?
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 the fifth
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--instructor, community coordinator, and other team
members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder:
Journals are due on Wednesday October 10th. Field notes from your
fifth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October 15th.
Week
Seven: October 15th and 17th. Lecture and
discussion: 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
22 The Middle-class Way of Life Pp. 658-715.
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. But there were class divisions
that distinguished “good” Blacks from “bad” or “Shady” Blacks. How
did this happen? Why was the desire to integrate into the mainstream economy
achieved by some Blacks and not others? What did they do? What did they gain?
What did they lose? Why did whites fail to recognize a common experience with
black laborers? Did European immigrants become white and lose their 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 15th 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 17th with instructions. The mid-term will be take
home and due on the following Monday October 22nd before class
begins. All teams will be given the sixth 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--instructor, community coordinator, and other team members-- will
meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder:
Midterms are due on Monday October 22nd. Journals are due on
Wednesday October 17th. Field
notes from your sixth supervised field observations are due on Monday, October
22nd. Begin reading and attempt to finish this weekend Native
Son for discussion during class next week.
Week
Eight: October 22nd and 24th. Lecture and
discussion: 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 disjunctive (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
the seventh 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--instructor, community coordinator, and
other team members-- will meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder:
Midterms are due on Monday October 22nd. Journals are due on
Wednesday October 24th. Field
notes from our seventh supervised field observations are due on Monday, October
30th.
Week
Nine: October 29th and 31st. Lecture and discussion:
Advancing the race
Reading assignments:
In Black Metropolis Chapter 23 Pp.
716-754. In Black Chicago Conclusion
Pp. 223-230. In Urban Blues Chapter
Three Fattening Frogs for Snakes? Pp. 69-95.
Classroom
instruction: Today in class lecture and discussion is on advancing the Race
and what folks “back then did” to fight for their freedom and what must
people in Bronzeville do now? 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? Should they keep “fattening frogs for snakes”?
Homework assignment:
Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will be given the eight 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--instructor, community coordinator, and other team members-- will
meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder:
Progress reports will be returned on Monday October 29th. Journals
are due on Wednesday October 31st. Field notes from your eight
supervised field observations are due on Monday November 5th.
Week
Ten: November 5th and 7th. Lecture and discussion:
What is to come? What do we see?
Reading assignments:
In Black Metropolis Part IV Chapter
24 Of Things to Come Pp. 755-767. In Urban
Blues Chapter Seven Soul and Solidarity Pp. 164-190.
Classroom
instruction: The lecture and discussion is on what is to come and what’s
going on? Can we, the class, do anything to stop the seemingly inevitable change
that may leave Bronzeville “non-Black”? We will engaged in discussion on the
souls of Black folks and attempt to unveil the dilemma we all can see to those
who are unable to see.
Homework assignment:
Please keep-up with the readings. All teams will be given ninth 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--instructor, community coordinator, and other team members-- will
meet your team at the designated project site.
Reminder: Book review of Charles Keil Urban Blues is due November 12th. Journals are due on Wednesday November 7th. Field notes from our ninth supervised field observations are due on Monday November 12th.
Last
Day of Class (make-up 1/2 week): November 12th Making
Sense of What we have learned, seen, and come to know.
Reading assignment:
None.
Finals
Week: November 14th, and 19th. Lecture and discussion:
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. Final presentations are on November 19th at 4pm (Location
to be Determined
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.
Journal
100
Field work
experience
100
Training (Field
work, bibliographic, photography, etc.)
100
Book review
100
Field study
200
Total points
600
Grade scale: A= 540;
B+= 530; B= 480; C+= 470; C=420; D+= 410; D=360