HIST 4801 - Black Memphis

Credit Hours: (3)

Description: This course will focus on the social and cultural, political, and economic roles of African Americans in Memphis from the early nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century. The course will place Memphis in the context of state, regional and national events, and will explore issues of race, class and gender both within African American communities and between African Americans and other populations in the city. We will first explore the early migrations of African Americans into Tennessee and into Memphis/Shelby County, the lifestyles of enslaved and free African Americans in the area; the impact of Civil War emancipations and migrations on social, political, and economic life in Memphis; African American communities that developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; the impact of Progressivism on the city’s black communities; the Civil Rights and Black Freedom movements in the city, and racial dynamics in contemporary Memphis.