Session One (10:00 am)

Focus: This is far too much reading, but it is a modest introduction to a vast subject. Aristotle and Montesquieu remind us of how classical and modern philosophy dealt with the issue of race. Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and Addison’s Cato (strongly recommended additional readings) are powerful reminders of how deeply the western tradition had reflected on race and ethnicity long before our multiculturalism. The Declaration and Constitution reflect the heights of western civilization. Consider Christianity as well, here. Is Tocqueville’s pessimism consistent with the Founding documents, Lincoln, and the three black authors we encounter here’Douglass, Washington, and DuBois?

Reading:

• Aristotle, The Politics, Carnes Lord, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), Book 1, Chapter 6, pp. 41-43 (photocopied)
• Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, Anne Cohler, Basis Miller, Harold Stone, eds., (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1989), Part 3, Chapter 5, p. 250 (photocopied)
• Declaration of Independence (Declaration/Constitution booklet enclosed)
• George Washington, Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport (photocopied)
• Article IV of the Constitution (Declaration/Constitution booklet enclosed)
• 5th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution (Declaration/Constitution booklet enclosed)
• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Harvey C. Mansfield, Delba Winthrop, eds. (University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 302-307, 326-348 (book enclosed)
• Excerpts from Lincoln (Declaration/Constitution booklet enclosed)
• Frederick Douglass, "An Address to the Colored People of the United States", September 29, 1848, from Howard Brotz, ed., African-American Social and Political Thought, 1850-1920 (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1992), pp. 208-213 (photocopied).
• Frederick Douglass, "The Nation’s Problem" (excerpted), April 16, 1889, from Howard Brotz, ed., African-American Social and Political Thought, 1850-1920 (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1992), pp. 311-320 (photocopied).
• Frederick Douglass, "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln" from TeachingAmericanHistory.org (photocopied).
• Booker T. Washington, Selected Readings from Three Negro Classics (Mass Market Paperback, 1976), pp. 33-40; 50, 145-157, 181-183 (book enclosed).
• W.E.B. DuBois, Selected Readings from Three Negro Classics (Mass Market Paperback, 1976), pp. 213-222, 268-284, 329, 333-334 (book enclosed).