Summer 2015 : African American Studies 139 Black Panther Party and Popular Culture

AAS   139   001 LEC   MTuWTh 10-12P   140 BARROWS   Selected Topics of African American Social Organizations:  Black Panther Party and Popular Culture  

VINCENT, F   05/26-07/02/15

This course will explore the rise of the Oakland, California based Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and the role of the Organization in rearticulating the urban narrative of resistance to power in American in the 1960s and 1970s. The course will begin with an analysis of theories of black revolutionary politics, and the works of important leaders such as Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton; then explor the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party as it impacted the popular consicousness in the US; interspersed by a discussion of the music, film, and popular culture that resulted from it. Through this process, students will gain an understanding of the significance of symbols and ideas in the representations of African Americas in the context of movements for social change in the US.