August 26: Introductions, Expectations
IN-CLASS: Syllabus; Johnson, “Ancient African Religion Finds Roots in America“
“FOUNDATIONS”?
August 28: Presentations of African American Religious Experiences
READING: Long, “African American Religion in the United States of America”
IN-CLASS: The Green Pastures (1936)
September 2: Film Discussion
READING: HARVEY, “Introduction”
The “INVISIBLE” INSTITUTION
September 4: The Middle Passage
READING: HARVEY, ch. 1
READING: RABOTEAU, ch. 1-2
READING: Prothero, “Yoruba Religion”
September 9: The Invisible Institution, I
READING: HARVEY, ch. 2-3
DUE: “Personality” paper topic
September 11: Academic Paper Writing (No new reading)
September 16 – September 18: The Invisible Institution, II
READING: RABOTEAU, ch. 3-6
PERSONALITIES: Baumfree; Vesey; Wheatley
September 23: NO CLASS (Rosh Hashanah)
The BLACK CHURCH
September 25: The Black Church, I
READING: HARVEY, chapter 4
PERSONALITIES: Allen; Lee
DUE: Response #1 (on RABOTEAU)
PROMPT: Using specific examples from Raboteau, identify the most important factors in the development of the “Invisible Institution,” and discuss how they functioned in the enslaved African American community.
September 25: PUBLIC PRESENTATION (12:00-12:50 pm, Brock Commons)
“Is Where You Live Making You Sick?: How Racist Policies Poison Communities in Coastal Virginia”
Johnny Finn
September 30: The Black Church, II
PERSONALITIES: Garnet; Marrant; Stewart
October 2: NO CLASS (Yom Kippur)
October 7: The Black Church, III
READING: FRAZIER (entire)
October 9: NO CLASS (Fall Break)
VARIATIONS on a THEME
October 14: Marcus Garvey & Rastafarianism
READING: Price, “Production of a Black Messiah”
PERSONALITY: Howell
DUE: Response #2 (on FRAZIER)
PROMPT: Using specific examples from Frazier, identify the most important factors in the development of (what he calls) “the Negro Church,” and discuss how they functioned.
October 16: The Father Divine Peace Mission Movement
READING: Erickson, “Black Messiah”
PERSONALITY: da Graça
October 21: The Rise of “Black Ethnics”
READING: Johnson, “The Rise of Black Ethnics”
PERSONALITY: Divine
October 23: Hebrew Israelites
READING: Gold, “The Black Jews of Harlem”
PERSONALITY: Crowdy
October 28: Moorish Science Temple
READING: The Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America
PERSONALITY: Drew
October 30 – November 4: African American Islam
READING: Berg, “Mythmaking in the African American Muslim Context”
PERSONALITY: Muhammad
DUE (by October 30): Response #3 (on ERICKSON, JOHNSON, and GOLD)
PROMPT: Using specific examples, identify the forms of non-traditional African American religions described in the Erickson, Johnson, and Gold readings and discuss how they differed from the traditional religions we have discussed as well as the role they played in the African American community.
October 30: PUBLIC PRESENTATION (12:00-12:50 pm, Brock Commons)
“Swamp Survival, Slavery, a Unique Economy, and the Great Dismal Swamp”
Marcus Nevius
The BLACK CHURCH, REVISITED
November 6 – November 11: The Black Church, Revisited
READING: LINCOLN, The Black Church Since Frazier (entire, by November 6)
READING: HARVEY, chapter 5
PERSONALITIES: Healy; Seymour; Tolton
November 13: Black Theology
READING: CONE (entire, by November 13)
PERSONALITIES: Abernathy; Hall
DUE: Response #4 (on Lincoln, in FRAZIER)
PROMPT: Using specific examples, identify the ways Lincoln’s work in The Black Church Since Frazier is a continuation of Frazier’s work, as well as the ways it differs from Frazier.
November 13: PUBLIC PRESENTATION (12:00-12:50 pm, Blocker Auditorium)
“Black Freedom, the Burning of Norfolk, and the Birth of American Independence”
Andrew Lawler
November 18: Mechanics of research / paper writing
November 20: After King
READING: Gilkes, “Plenty Good Room”
PERSONALITY: Murray
DUE (by 5:00 pm): Draft, “Personality” paper
December 2: MOVE
READING: Gurson, “The Philadelphia Siege” (from New York Times)
READING: HARVEY, chapter 6 & “Epilogue”
PERSONALITY: Leaphart
DUE: Response #5 (on CONE)
PROMPT: Using specific examples, identify the most important aspects of Cone’s “Black theology,” and discuss how they respond to aspects of the African American religious experience.
December 4: The Current State of the African American Religious Experience
READING: Pew Research Center, “A Religious Portrait of African Americans“
December 8 (Monday, 9:30 am, in regular classroom): “Personality” conversations
DUE (by 5:00 pm): Final Paper
PROMPT: Using specific examples from the sources you have found (by quoting specific data / text and providing specific page references), discuss how / why the “Personality” you chose had such an impact on the African American religious experience. Consider the following structure: 1) introduction (general identification of the persona and overview of the rest of the paper); 2) biographical data; 3) specific significant event / aspect / element in your subject’s life / thinking that has made him / her significant in the study of the African American religious experience; 4) conclusion (vague restatement of introduction, but this time including elements of parts 2 and 3); 5) list of sources used (and actually cited – if you didn’t identify specific data / text in the body of your paper, then you can’t identify that source as a “work cited”).
