Chicagoland In this course we will explore Chicago’s significance by focusing on its physical and spatial character. Moving from the 19th to the 21st century, we will examine the 1871 fire; the 1893 World’s Fair; the settlement house movement; the rise of modern architecture; the emergence of Black Chicago and development of a multi-ethnic, multi-class metropolis spread across various neighborhoods and suburbs; and recent planning efforts to revitalize the city as a space for all Chicagoans. Interdisciplinary in scope, the course will draw on a range of texts and theoretical perspectives to show the generative importance of Chicago’s rich and varied landscape.

The Long Struggle for Civil Rights and Black Freedom The modern civil rights movement is the central focus of this course, but it offers more than a survey of events from Montgomery to Memphis. It explores the pre-World War II roots of the modern black freedom struggle, the complex array of local, regional, and national initiatives in the 1950s and 1960s, the competing strategies for empowerment offered by Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, and developments since the 1970s, including the rise of Black Lives Matter.  This course employs a "race relations" perspective, stressing the linkages among the experiences of African Americans, whites, and other groups.  2. Hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.

Jim Ralph

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The course had a lot of readings and supplemental material to review outside class but often you could avoid doing the readings.  Presentations were fairly frequent and there was a short essay assignment and longer one but everything was graded easily.