37 The Black Experience from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education
Ashley A. Baxter
HUM 300 The Black Experience
from Plessy v. Ferguson
to Brown v. Board of Education
Ashley A. Baxter is associated with the City University of New York-John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Course Description
This course foregrounds the Black struggle for justice by closely analyzing the landmark cases Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which found that racial segregation did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which found that it did. They will examine the legal logic of these decisions and the political, social, and cultural contexts in which they emerged. To contextualize the importance of the role law in society, students will retrace how African Americans struggled within and against social practices denying their human worth, while also creating cultural spaces that allowed for resistance and independence. In addition to the court cases of Plessy and Brown, readings and other source materials will include the critical theoretical and pragmatic debates occurring among African Americans as they figure out how to move forward in “up-lifting” the race during the era of Jim Crow segregation as well as artistic works developed within Black communities during this period of segregation. Students will critically analyze the sociopolitical and cultural contexts of what it means to be “separate but equal” by contextualizing the African American experience through texts, films, and music: the pain, anger, and pleasure as spoken through their poetry and fiction; their determination as expressed in popular and documentary films of the period; and their creativity as articulated through gospel, blues, and jazz music—all of which reveal their protests against and yearnings beyond the era of Jim Crow segregation.
Access Syllabus: The Black Experience from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education
