Transfers ToCSUDescriptionThis African American Studies course offers a survey of the political, economic, and cultural history of people of African descent in the United States from the colonial period to the completion of Reconstruction. Students will review and gain insight into the multiple challenges and contributions that people of African descent in America faced in transforming American society into a more equitable and inclusive nation particularly through their roles in social justice movements that reshaped the U.S. Constitution and federal government. This course approaches these concepts through an Ethnic Studies lens particularly by mapping the challenges that African Americans faced due to the legal and societal uses of social constructs such as race, ethnicity, citizenship and other forms of identity from the colonial period through Reconstruction. Most importantly, students will learn and use a social constructionist approach to understanding how the formulation and use of race as a marker of identity and difference was used to solidify systems of power meant to exclude BIPOC communities at the onset of America's founding. This course will address the multiple methods, movements, community practices, and literature that African Americans constructed and utilized in order to challenge and abolish policies, systems, and societal beliefs that held and promoted anti-Black sentiments and practices. The ultimate objective of the course is to give students an academic foundation that will help them develop critical thinking when considering questions and resolutions on the topics of democracy and inequality in the United States. 