The Black Professional’s Role in Today’s Movement (HIS-AA-201)

Syllabus

HillmanTok University, Summer 2025 HIS-AA-201 - The Black Professional's Role in Today's Movement Instructor: D’Juan Hopewell Email: civilwrongspod@gmail.com Class Times: Wed 7:00 pm - 8:00pm Class Location: BlackJacked YouTube Page LIVE (https://www.youtube.com/@BlackJackedpod) Office Hours: Thursday 3:00 pm eastern Office Location: By appointment Course Description What is the role of the Black professional in today's civil rights struggle? This course takes a critical view of the modern civil rights movement (1954-1968), and asks us to examine how today's Black professional can improve upon it. Learning Outcomes By the end of the course, you will be able to: 1. Examine the civil rights movement from a critical perspective. 2. Identify missed opportunities and strategic flaws in the civil rights movement. 3. Explain the actual gains and consequences of the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968. 4. Identify opportunities for Black professionals to contribute to the movement today. These learning outcomes will be assessed by students’ ability to analyze information carefully and logically from multiple perspectives, and communicate knowledge, ideas and reasoning clearly and effectively in written and oral forms appropriate to the discipline. Required Texts: Students are not required to purchase texts, but will benefit greatly from prescribed readings throughout the course: • Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community (MLK) • And The Walls Came Tumbling Down (Ralph Abernathy) • The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson) • Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 (Taylor Branch) • King: A Life (Johnathan Eig) • Up From Slavery (Booker T. Washington) • The Nation of Islam’s Economic Program, 1934-1975 (Nafeesa Muhammad) https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/the-nation-of-islams-economic-program-1934-1975/ • Operation Breadbasket: An Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, 1966-1971 (Martin Deppe) Course Policies Attendance: Attendance and active participation are essential to successfully complete this course. While attendance isn’t taken, you would surely hurt yourself by not showing up each week prepared to learn. Late Assignments: Assignments are due by midnight on the due date, turned in by you. You must turn in your assignment via email to me at: civilwrongspod@gmail.com. Extension requests will be reviewed and may be approved on a case-by-case basis. Email: Please feel free to email me if you have any questions related to the course. You can expect a response within 24 hours of your original message. Also, please check your email regularly so that you do not miss important notifications regarding the course. Classroom Etiquette: Students are expected to be courteous both to the instructor and to their fellow classmates. This means listening to what others have to say and being respectful when others are speaking. Disrespect of any kind will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, hate speech, racist/sexist/homophobic language, shutting people down, and name-calling. Due to the nature of this course, we may encounter texts and examples that present sensitive/difficult topics, or ideas that you may not agree with. Students are encouraged to employ critical thinking and to rely on data and verifiable sources to interrogate all assigned readings and subject matter in this course as a way of determining whether they agree with their classmates and/or their instructor. No lesson is intended to espouse, promote, advance, inculcate, or compel a particular feeling, perception, viewpoint, or belief. Course Recordings: Our class sessions will live on YouTube to refer back to and for enrolled students who are unable to attend in-person. As in all courses, unauthorized recording and unauthorized sharing of recorded materials is strictly prohibited. Additional Information: Plagiarism: Using the work of others without properly crediting them is plagiarism and is a serious violation of the HillmanTok ethic. Grading and Evaluation Policy Grades are based on: (1) the quality (in terms of proficiency and effort) of the projects produced throughout the course; (2) the degree of improvement in the student’s inquiry process as demonstrated in the final paper by semester’s end; (3) the quality of class participation and contributions, including attendance and promptness, peer critique, writing assignments, activities, and class discussions. Week 1: How Did We Get Here? May 14th: Instructor and student introductions. Introduction to the course (including the foundations of the course, the syllabus, and class expectations). Discussion: Dr. King realized the importance of the Black professional and leaned on them. But what did they accomplish? Week 2: What’s Beef? May 21st Discussion: When Black professionals beef, the movement suffers. Week 3: Gender Wars May 28th Discussion: Black men have struggled for professional advancement, often leaving them to exclude Black women. What are the consequences? Week 4: White Friends June 4th: Discussion: How do white allies push the movement? Are we best served by cultivating white allies? Week 5: Setting Movement Priorities June 11th: Discussion: How do we go about setting movement priorities? Week 6: What’s The Plan ? June 18th Discussion: The movement often lacked a clear economic plan in the past. What’s the plan today, and how does the Black professional feature in it? Week 7: Move To The Back Of The Bus June 25th: Discussion: The Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched by Black professionals, but was it the right movement? Week 8: The Black Dollar & Protest July 2nd: Black economic power is flexed most powerfully by Black professionals. What are the implications of boycott, and can they be effective tools today for social change? Week 9: How Black Commerce Fuels The Movement July 9th: Discussion: Black entrepreneurs effectively fueled the movement but received very little back in return. What can we learn from their experience today? Week 10: White Terror July 16th: Discussion: What does white terror look like today? Terrorism has always evolved, and so we should expect the same today. Week 11: What Should We Ask Government For? July 23rd: Discussion: Dr. King had a big ask for the government, but it may have been the wrong one. What should we be asking for? *Calendar subject to revision.