Autobiography and Black Freedom Struggles
FYSEMR 32R
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This seminar introduces the main traditions of African American political thought and the history of the black fight for justice through the genre of autobiography. Students will read some classic autobiographies by African Americans (for example, those by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X), along with some lesser-known works (for instance, autobiographies by Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisholm, and Amiri Baraka).
Students will discover how an influential set of black individuals, both men and women, came to political consciousness and participated in the collective struggle for justice in America. Students will reflect on these figures’ personal struggles to find meaning and solace under unjust conditions and to forge dignified modes of resistance.
The seminar provides an opportunity to see how these personalities interpreted key events and periods in U.S. history—slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, the two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and the post-industrial urban crisis—as social actors who participated and lived through them.
Close attention will be paid to their engagement with and contributions to the political traditions of liberalism, conservatism, socialism, black nationalism, and feminism. And students will critically examine how these influential thinkers and activists understood ideals like freedom, equality, democracy, fairness, and tolerance.
Class Notes
First-Year Seminars are available only to first-year students. You may apply to both Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 First-Year Seminars via the FYS lottery between July 6 and August 6, 2026 at 11:59PM-midnight.
You may apply to as many seminars each term as you would like, but we recommend you apply to at least six in fall and three in spring.
As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
Not Available for Cross Registration
