HIST 115 - African American History

    Recent Professors
    Rachel M. Petrocelli
    Recent Semesters
    Fall 2026
    Class Size
    45 students
    Credits
    3
    Fall 2026 Sections
    View Fall 2026 sections of HIST 115
    Transfers To
    UC and CSUCal-GETC Area 3B · Cal-GETC Area 4 · IGETC Area 3B · IGETC Area 4 · CSU GE Area C2 · CSU GE Area D
    Description
    This course surveys African-American history from the 1500s to the present day. It addresses the history of African societies on the eve of the Atlantic slave trade, the Atlantic slave trade, the emergence of racism and the notion of race in colonial America, slavery in the colonies and the U.S., abolitionist movements, African Americans in the Civil War, Reconstruction and its end, the era of Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, the persistence of systems of inequality into the present day. The course explores in detail the history of systemic racism while paying particular attention to the actions of African Americans to arrest and overcome it. It emphasizes the history of African American impact on the social, economic, political, and cultural development of the United States.