Community Read every Wednesday this fall; all are welcome!

What is a Community Read?

Grounded in the principle of Umoja (Unity), a community read allows for academic, cultural, and personal growth that champions the Black intellectual tradition and shares knowledge and understanding.

In short, this Community Read is a conversation about the book that the group will read and discuss in segments each week.

Book that will be discussed:

Du Bois, W.E.B., 1903. The Souls of Black Folk.

Contact the leaders of the BMQFG to receive a free copy of the book!

Join us on Zoom if you can't make it in person

Questions? Please contact the Black Male and QUEENS Focus Group Faculty Advisors:

Dr. Kalvin DaRonne Harvell
Sociology Faculty
kharvell@hfcc.edu
313-317-1533

Dr. Courtney Matthews
English Faculty
cahenderson2@hfcc.edu
313-845-6457

Mr. Chardin Claybourne
Learning Lab Faculty Director
cclaybourne@hfcc.edu
313-845-9818

Community Read Description:

This course (free, participation is optional for every session -- come and go as you wish) introduces students to W.E.B. Du Bois' monumental book written 120 years ago and incredibly relevant today: The Souls of Black Folk.

Although Du Bois' book is central, this discussions extend to an interdisciplinary exploration of the historical and contemporary challenges to Black people in the world today. Education is one response to issues of enslavement, class dynamics, cultural violence, and racism.

Students will learn to engage in critical self-reflection; examine and critically assess the text; enhance their vocabulary; and apply what they have learned.

You may download a Word document containing the syllabus for the community read here or read through the syllabus below.

You are welcome to come and contribute to the discussions, even if you have not read the text!

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Course Description

This seminar introduces students to the scholarship of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. Exploring his monumental work, The Souls of Black Folk, through an interdisciplinary approach, this seminar investigates historic and contemporary challenges of Black people in the so-called United States.

Tentative Schedule

September 27, 2023

• Overview and Discussion (Introduction to Dr. DuBois)
• Chapter 1 (Our Spiritual Strivings)
• Dr. Harvell Reflections on Dr. DuBois

October 4, 2023

• Begin Discussion – Chapter 1 Our Spiritual Strivings
• Chapters 1 & 2
  • Our Spiritual Strivings
  • Of the Dawn of Freedom

October 11, 2023

• Chapters 3 (Of Mr. Booker T. Washington & Others)
• Dr. Harvell – Reflections on Industrial vs. Liberal Arts Education
  • The Importance of Booker T. Washington
  • Why We need to recognize Garvey

October 18, 2023

• Continue discussion of Booker T. Washington & Others
• Final Preparation for Conference Presentations

October 25, 2023

• Chapters 4 & 5
  • Of the Wings of Progress
  • Of the Wings of Atlanta

November 1, 2023

• Chapters 6 & 7
  • Of the Training of Black Men
  • Of the Black Belt

November 8, 2023

• Chapters 8 & 9
  • The Quest of the Silver Fleece
  • Of the Sons of Master and Man

November 15, 2023

• Chapters 10 & 11
  • Of the Faith of the Fathers
  • Of the Passing of the First-Born

November 22, 2023

• Chapters 12 & 13
  • Of Alexander Crummell
  • Of the Coming of John

November 29, 2023

• Chapter 14
  • The Sorrow Songs

Key Words

• Talented Tenth
• The Atlanta Compromise
• Black Bourgeoisie
• Double Consciousness
• NAACP
• Philadelphia Neg@#
• Pan-Africanism
• Vocational vs. Liberal Arts Training
• Anti-Lynching
• The Niagara Movement

10 of the most important Educators of the 20th Century

1. Lucy Craft Laney
2. Mary McCloud Bethune
3. Nannie Helen Burroughs
4. Anna Julia Cooper
5. Septima Clark
6. Jo Ann Robinson
7. Mary Fair Burks
8. Ella Baker
9. Ida B. Wells
10. Queen Mother Moore

Additional Resources (Classic Works)

Bibliography

1. Asante, M. K. (1991). Afrocentric Curriculum. Educational leadership, 49(4), 28-31.
2. Asante, M. K. (1992). Locating a text: Implications of Afrocentric theory. Language and literature in the African American imagination, 9-20.
3. Asante, M. K. (2003). Afrocentricity: The theory of social change (p. 3). Chicago, IL: African American Images.
4. Asante, M. K. (2006). A discourse on black studies: Liberating the study of African people in the Western academy. Journal of Black Studies, 36(5), 646-662.
5. Asante, M. K. (2007). An Afrocentric manifesto: Toward an African renaissance. Polity.
6. Bailey, B. (2016). Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC.
7. Du Bois, W. E. B. (2007). Black Folk Then and Now: An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race: The Oxford WEB Du Bois, Volume 7 (Vol. 7). OUP USA.
8. Du Bois, W. E. B. (2007). Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept: The Oxford WEB Du Bois, Volume 8 (Vol. 8). OUP USA.
9. Du Bois, W. E. B. (2013). The autobiography of WEB DuBois. Diasporic Africa Press.
10. DuBois, W. E. B. (2013). WEB DuBois on sociology and the Black community. University of Chicago Press.
11. Enck, H. S. (1980). Tuskegee Institute and northern white philanthropy: A case study in fund raising, 1900-1915. The Journal of Negro History, 65(4), 336-348.
12. Forth, C. E. (1987). Booker T. Washington and the 1905 Niagara Movement Conference. The Journal of Negro History, 72(3-4), 45-56.
13. Gilliard, D. D. (2010). Political accommodation: The effects of Booker T. Washington's leadership and legacy on Tuskegee University and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (Doctoral dissertation, East Tennessee State University).
14. Grandison, K. I. (1996). From Plantation to Campus: Progress, Community, and the Lay of the Land in Shaping the Early Tuskegee Campus. Landscape Journal, 15(1), 6-22.
15. Hall, R. L. (2013). Booker T. Washington: Separatist in Disguise?. Black Separatism and Social Reality: Rhetoric and Reason, 48.
16. Hansen, J. M. (2005). Creative Conflict in African American Thought: Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Washington, WEB Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey.
17. Howard, C. L. (2014). Black Stars: Learning Movement Making from Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. In Black Theology as Mass Movement (pp. 53-79). New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.
18. Johnson, K. V., & Watson, E. (2004). The WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington Debate. The Journal of Technology Studies, 30(4), 65-70.
19. Jones, B. (2022). The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History (Vol. 2). NYU Press.
20. Lewis, T. (2014). Booker T. Washington’s audacious vocationalist philosophy. Oxford review of education, 40(2), 189-205.
21. M’Baye, B. (2006). Marcus Garvey and African Francophone political leaders of the early twentieth century: Prince Kojo Tovalou Houenou reconsidered. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 1(5), 8.
22. McGuire III, R. G. (1974). Continuity in Black Political Protest: The Thought of Booker T. Washington, WEB DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Joseph Casely Hayford, Joseph B. Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah. Columbia University.
23. Norrell, R. J., & Norrell, R. J. (2011). Up from history: The life of Booker T. Washington. Harvard University Press.
24. Rogers, B. F. (1955). William EB DuBois, Marcus Garvey, and Pan-Africa. The Journal of Negro History, 40(2), 154-165.
25. Seaton, C. (2014). WEB Dubois & Booker T. Washington: Approaches to developing citizenship post-reconstruction in America. Kola, 26(1), 51-60.
26. Thurber, T. N. (2010). Negro With a Hat. The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey. The Historian, 72(2), 430-432.
27. Karenga, M. (2002). Introduction to Black studies. University of Sankore Press.
28. Karenga, M. (2008). Kawaida and questions of life and struggle. University of Sankore Press.
29. Span, C. M. (2009). From cotton field to schoolhouse: African American education in Mississippi, 1862-1875. Univ of North Carolina Press.
30. Wortham, R. A. (2005). The early sociological legacy of WEB Du Bois. In Diverse Histories of American Sociology (pp. 74-95). Brill.